Bloomsbury Historic District

Bloomsbury is a residential neighborhood northwest of downtown Raleigh, one of five historic neighborhoods around the Five Points intersection. Development began around 1914, accelerated in the early 1920s along Fairview Road and Glenwood Avenue, slowed during the Depression, and was largely complete by about 1950. The district contains 531 resources, of which 439 contribute to its character, including houses, garages, a church and a cluster of commercial buildings at Five Points. Its architecture is notable for variety: Craftsman bungalows, Foursquares, simple frame Colonial Revival houses, Tudor Revival and Spanish Colonial Revival designs, several built of local granite from a nearby quarry. Custom-built houses stand beside mail-order designs, such as a Sears, Roebuck house on White Oak Road. Duplexes were more common than in neighboring Hayes Barton and housed a wider range of incomes. The neighborhood keeps a high degree of integrity, with few modern intrusions.