DejaViews.org

North Carolina State University: Then and Now

We'll never see the world exactly as our predecessors did, but thanks to photography, a few glimpses have been preserved. So what do the locations in those photographs look like today? To find out, I've started with my own backyard, the campus of N.C. State University in Raleigh, North Carolina. There are plenty of historic photos to choose from, and many of the buildings still exist. If nothing in the photo stands today, there are surveyor's maps and aerial shots to work from.

N.C. State is a moderately old school(for America, at least), opening in 1889. Over the years the campus has expanded to 30,000 students over a sprawling 2,100 acre main campus, a newly created 1,120 acre "Centennial Campus" and an additional 100,000 acres of farms and research facilities.

That kind of expansion has enveloped plenty of other historic sites, like the ruins of the Catholic Orhpanage at Nazareth, currently sitting directly adjacent to a main entrance to Centennial campus, waiting to be paved over for additional parking. Thousands drive past it each day without the slightest clue that a massive campus of buildings once stood there.