Here at NCSHR, our goal is to reveal the stories of previous generations through research. Hailing from Raleigh, we’re a rag-tag bunch working in unrelated industries, who volunteer our tools and know-how to help citizens and even museums uncover the past.

For a group based out of Raleigh, it’s somewhat fitting to start with a post about the site that started the city: Isaac Hunter’s Tavern.

It’s been in the news a lot lately. People say they have ‘seen it in the woods’ and led some journalists from the News & Observer out to see it’s foundation.

This is really great, or would be really great, except it’s not accurate.

Mystery Solved: 50 Years Ago

The tavern was once lost.

The Wake County Historical Society sent Archaeologist Stanley South out into the field to find the lost tavern.  They gave him the stage coach map at the top. He found the Tavern, which had been moved and was being used as a barn. He photographed it. When he later returned, it has been razed. The whole story is in his book “An Archaeological Evolution”, here’s the text and page.

There are many aerial photos from 1938 up through the 1970s showing the tavern exactly where Stanley South said it was located.

Above, you can see the location, A, where it originally stood, and B, where it was relocated in 1936, and later bulldozed in 1970.

The original foundation is under the Hilton Hotel parking lot, not out in the woods.