Don’t demolish Wakestone

Raleigh just failed miserably as a city that cares about its historic buildings.

Wakestone, the 1920 home of Josephus Daniels, is now slated for demolition, ostensibly because of his role in the 1898 Wilmington Massacre as publisher of the News & Ob-server.

Actually, in a cynical exploitation of the nation’s discussion about racial justice, a developer will now destroy the house and four acres of historic landscape and build 14 expensive new houses.

Gobs of money will be made behind the pretense of caring about racial justice. Don’t expect any affordable houses here.

Since 1976, Wakestone has been one of Raleigh’s three National Historic Landmarks, denoting national significance. It’s been a Raleigh landmark since 1990 and in a National Register historic district since 2002. Its landscape was determined to have statewide significance in 2013 to prevent its destruction.

No National Historic Landmark has ever been demolished in North Carolina.

You’d think that all those designations would matter. They didn’t.

The application to delist the property as a Raleigh landmark was written by the land planner for the developer, not a historian nor preservation expert. It painted an ugly picture of Daniels, implying that anyone seeking to preserve the house was racist.

But it really wasn’t about history. It was about lifting the restrictions on developing the site. It was about making money.

Josephus Daniels was the most prominent individual ever to call Raleigh home. Yes, he was a segregationist and fanned the flames for the Democratic Party in Wilmington in 1898. We shouldn’t honor Daniels with a statue in a public square or a school named for him.

But there is much more to learn from this house. Preserving buildings is not about honoring individuals; it’s about recognizing where history happened.

Historic preservation tangibly tells history’s complex stories, but only if the buildings survive.

Myrick Howard

President, Preservation

North Carolina