Raleigh
— — a capital built among oaks.
Not only on a wall.
“A capital city in the rolling Piedmont, laid out on a grid in 1792 around what is now the State Capitol. The streets carry oaks old enough to vault them in summer, which is why the locals call it the City of Oaks. Spring comes early here; the dogwoods bloom while the rest of the country is still cold.
Raleigh, on ceramic.
Each tile is finished by hand in our Knoxville studio. Artwork is slowly infused into the ceramic surface under high heat and pressure, and rests beneath a thin glossy finish. The colour lives in the surface, not on top of it.
Pick any four 4-inch tiles — National Parks you've been to, a Smokies set, the four seasons of one place. $ for a set of , cork-backed, ready to live on the table.
The place, in three passes.
Raleigh is the capital of North Carolina, set in the Piedmont between the Appalachian foothills to the west and the coastal plain to the east. Wake County chose the site in 1792 specifically to host the new capital, making it one of the few American cities planned from the ground up to be a seat of government. The city now holds about 470,000 people and anchors the Research Triangle alongside Durham and Chapel Hill. Elevation is roughly 96 metres above sea level.
The North Carolina State Capitol, finished in 1840, is a Greek Revival building of gneiss quarried four miles south of downtown and hauled in on the state's first railroad. It still houses the governor's office. A few blocks away the 1888 Executive Mansion sits in its own block of Queen Anne brick. The capitol grounds carry monuments and oaks planted in the nineteenth century, and the original 1792 city grid still organises everything within Boundary, North, South, and East Streets.
Spring runs long and gentle in the Piedmont. The dogwoods and redbuds open in late March, and the willow oaks the city is named for leaf out by mid-April. Summer is hot and humid, with thunderstorms moving through most afternoons in July. Autumn holds colour into early November because the hardwoods here are mixed: red maple, hickory, sweetgum, and the oaks turning last. Winter is mild, with snow once or twice a year and the magnolias keeping their green.