Look up at the Greek Revival dome anchoring Union Square. This Greek Revival building was raised after the destruction by fire of the first North Carolina State House in 1831, and its cornerstone was laid with Masonic honors by Grand Master Simmons Jones Baker on July 4, 1833. Construction was completed in 1840.
For many years the Capitol served as the seat of the legislature and housed all of the state’s government until 1888, when the Supreme Court and State Library moved into a separate building; the General Assembly later moved into the State Legislative Building in 1963. The building you face was designed primarily by the architectural firm of Ithiel Town and Alexander Jackson Davis, though the design emerged through a sequence of work by William Nichols Sr. and William Nichols Jr., Town and Davis, and then David Paton. Today the governor and his immediate staff work in offices on the Capitol’s first floor, so this is both a monument to the past and a working seat of state leadership.
Union Square opens onto One East Edenton Street, framing this working seat of state government.