Articles

Invented Before It Existed

The Numbered Graves: Dorothea Dix Cemetery

Between 1859 and 1970, over 900 patients died at Dorothea Dix Hospital in Raleigh. Most were buried in the hospital cemetery with no name — just a numbered metal tag, a cross, and silence. The stigma of mental illness meant families abandoned them even in death. For over a century, they were anonymous. Now volunteers are uncovering their names and restoring their markers, one grave at a time.

The Lost Speedway: NASCAR's Forgotten Raleigh Track

In the 1950s, Raleigh had a NASCAR superspeedway — a one-mile oval where legends like Lee Petty and Fireball Roberts competed under the first nighttime lights in racing history. Bill France Sr. built it to rival Daytona. Then the city complained about noise, banned Sunday racing, and killed it. The track closed in 1958. Today, only a fragment of the backstretch survives, hidden in the woods near an industrial park.

Punk Rock in a Bomb Shelter: The Village Underground

From 1971 to 1984, a Cold War bomb shelter beneath Raleigh's Village District hosted The Ramones, Iggy Pop, The Police, Sonic Youth, and David Sedaris's high school imagination. The entrance was designed to look like a NYC subway station. Now it's sealed beneath a grocery store. Your organic kale sits directly above where punk happened.