Battery Heights Historic District

Battery Heights is a small neighborhood of about eleven acres roughly half a mile southeast of downtown Raleigh. Its houses, built between 1956 and 1964, are mostly brick Ranch homes, along with three Split-Level houses. Seventeen houses and one outbuilding contribute to the district, while four houses, six outbuildings and one structure date from later years. Streets are wide with granite curbing and no sidewalks, and many lots are mature and landscaped. The neighborhood was laid out on land once owned by Bartholomew Gatling and named for Civil War earthworks that stood nearby. During the segregation era it was one of only a few Raleigh subdivisions intended for black families. Early residents included dentists, physicians, teachers, a school counselor and a future county sheriff. Beyond this social history, the district preserves a highly intact set of mid-century modern house types, some possibly drawn from Standard Homes Company plans, which reflect national and local housing trends of the period.