511 South Wilmington Street
Raleigh, NC, USA

National Register of Historic Places - Dr. M.T. Pope House

Statement of Significance:

The 1900 M. T. Pope House is significant to the city of Raleigh as the last surviving structure from a once-thriving middle and professional class African American neighborhood, created in the capital city at the beginning of racial segregation at the turn of the twentieth century. For much of this century Raleigh had several such viable and active African American communities (now largely gone), which contained important educational and religious institutions and thriving commercial areas. Built by Dr. M. T. Pope, an African American physician and entrepreneur, this house is associated with an important period of history in Raleigh, and is significant to the area's social history and ethnic heritage. The Pope House stands today as a stalwart sentinel to both the worst and best of American society: it represents racial intolerance and segregation, but also the strength and dignity of those who refused to be subjugated by bigotry.