Collectable card set released for Raleigh's historic buildings, restaurants

Downtown Raleigh will soon have its own set of limited-edition collectable cards featuring historic buildings and popular sites.

The first four 'baseball-style' history cards were released on Sunday, and will only be available until next weekend – or until supplies run out.

The release is part of a larger downtown Raleigh scavenger hunt. Goodie bags of other RHDC prizes can be found at four restaurants or coffee shops in and around downtown. The twist: Each restaurant or coffee shop is inside a popular historic building.

"The scavenger hunt is meant to help highlight locally-owned businesses," said head of the commission's Community Outreach Committee. "So many people visit these incredibly old and historic buildings every day, and don't realize all of the interesting stories that took place there!"

Lucky Tree coffee shop, for example, is inside the Royal Baking Company.

If you've lived in Raleigh long enough, you may remember when the aroma of freshly-baked bread filled Hillsborough Street. The Royal Baking Company was the first bakery in Raleigh to offer pre-sliced bread – and many locals remember it for its renowned "Bamby" bread – Best American Made Bread Yet.

One limited-edition collector's cards feature an archival photos of the Raleigh Times – a reminder of when this popular bar and restaurant was one of the city's major newspapers. Empire Properties took great care to restore the building, basing its appearance on archival images to help capture its historic architecture.

The card's photo reveals one small detail that was unable to be restored: The iconic brick and stone pediment that once held the "TIMES" sign.

The trendy downtown Italian restaurant Caffé Luna now sits in the corner of the Montague Building. The building's Neoclassical Revival and emerging Commercial style architecture makes it an ideal spot for a local restaurant. However, long before Caffé Luna, the Raleigh Post Office rented a spot in the century-old structure.

If you've ever had brunch at Sitti, you've been inside one of the few intact commercial buildings from the 1800s remaining in Raleigh.

Known as the Early Store Building, or Heilig-Levine, it was built in 1872. Over the decades, it's held a hotel, furniture store, grocery store and restaurant.

Simply visit each business involved in the hunt, and pick up your goodie bag – which will include the limited-edition card.

Each card has an archival photo, as well as a brief history of the building – and each card is numbered.

Four restaurants or coffee shops are taking part: Raleigh Times, Sitti, Lucky Tree and Caffé Luna. These are the first four cards in the series. The Raleigh Historic Development Commission plans to release more historic collector's cards throughout the year.