Moore Square Historic District
Why it's listed
Moore Square Historic District is a section of downtown Raleigh, North Carolina, arranged around the green space of Moore Square and the surrounding blocks of Wilmington, Hargett, Martin, Blount and Davie streets. Most of its buildings are two and three story brick commercial blocks, many with altered ground floors but intact upper stories showing Italianate details such as bracketed cornices and arched windows. Notable buildings include the ca. 1875 Heilig-Levine Building, the 1912 Montague Building, the 1913 Gothic Revival bank by Atlanta architect P.T. Mayre, the 1914 Mission Style City Market, and Tabernacle Baptist Church. The area grew as commercial activity spread from Fayetteville Street into formerly residential blocks, serving farmers, grocers, merchants and small shopkeepers. It also held an ethnically mixed population and a Black Main Street. The district is valued for showing the scale and quality of commercial development in a mid-sized southern town before 1920, and for the surviving granite curbs and mature trees of the square.
Significance in brief: The nomination argues the district documents the meeting of a traditional residential neighborhood with commercial growth in a moderate-sized southern town before 1920. Its small-scale brick shops, market and trade buildings show the era of the small businessman. It also contains a historically Black commercial street and institutions, with its present character formed between about 1900 and 1930.
Machine-generated summary. This summary was generated by a language model from the official nomination document and has not been reviewed line by line by an editor. It may contain errors. Check the source document before relying on any detail. Source: nomination document (PDF) · National Archives catalog entry. NRHP reference 83001924, listed August 3, 1983. Summary generated October 2026 (model claude-sonnet-5-5, prompt v1.0-2026-10-29, confidence medium).
Key facts
| Address | Roughly bounded by Person, Morgan, Wilmington, and Davie Sts., Raleigh |
|---|---|
| County | Wake County |
| Listed | August 3, 1983 |
| Reference number | 83001924 |
| Resource type | District |
| Architect / builder | P.T. Mayre (First Citizens Bank, 1913); Adolphus G. Bauer and James Matthew Kennedy (Tabernacle Baptist Church alterations) |
| Architectural style | Late 19th and early 20th century commercial architecture with Italianate, Renaissance Revival, Gothic Revival, Mission Style and Art Moderne examples |
| Areas of significance | Community Planning and Development, Landscape Architecture, Commerce, Black, Religion, Agriculture |
| Level of significance | Local |
| Status (as stated in the nomination) | Condition is marked excellent, good, fair and deteriorated, with buildings altered and unaltered. Some sites are vacant, and the form notes more destruction than modernization. |
| Acreage | 29.1 |
| Coordinates | 35.77755, -78.63687 (NPS GIS) |
What listing means for this property
This is a historic district. Buildings within its boundary are either contributing (they add to the district's significance) or non-contributing. Owners of contributing income-producing buildings can claim the 20% federal rehabilitation tax credit; homeowners should look at state credits. National Register districts impose no design review by themselves; a local historic district ordinance, if one exists, does (the difference explained).
General information, not legal or tax advice. Rules change; confirm with your State Historic Preservation Office or a qualified adviser.
Sources and further reading
- National Park Service, National Register of Historic Places database (snapshot May 2026), reference 83001924.
- Nomination form (PDF, National Archives) — catalog entry
- Wikipedia article (used for cross-checking only; text not reproduced here)
- Wikidata Q6908231
- This listing as JSON
Last updated October 2026. Found an error? See the editorial policy for how to report it.