Historic Oakwood

Historic Oakwood, a Victorian-era residential neighbourhood northeast of the Capitol, is listed on the National Register of Historic Places and contains some of the finest late nineteenth-century domestic architecture in North Carolina. The tree-lined streets are dotted with ornate Queen Anne cottages, Italianate townhouses, and Folk Victorian homes, many of them meticulously maintained. Walking the neighbourhood, particularly on East Jones Street and Polk Street, takes about an hour and is rewarding even if you have no particular interest in architectural history.

The neighbourhood borders Oakwood Cemetery, established in 1869, which is itself worth a walk for its monuments, old-growth trees, and the extraordinary concentration of Raleigh history buried within it. The cemetery is open to visitors and has a self-guided walking tour.

things to do neighbourhood sight
A story
The Oakwood Cemetery at the edge of the district contains the graves of more than 2,800 Confederate soldiers, making it one of the largest Confederate burial grounds in the South. But it also holds the graves of prominent Black Raleigh citizens and free Black residents who lived in the city before the Civil War — a complicated proximity that reflects the history of the neighbourhood and city more honestly than most commemorative sites manage.