Deitrick, William Henley (1895-1974)

William Henley Deitrick (1895-1974) was a distinguished and prolific Raleigh architect for half a century, whose firm grew into one of the largest in the state, with projects from the coast to the mountains. Although he began his career in the Beaux Arts tradition and designed many buildings in revivalist styles over the years, he was an early leader in modernist design from the 1930s onward, and in the post-World War II period his firm employed such notable modernist architects as G. Milton Small, Jr., who designed key modernist works. The firm’s best-known projects range from Deitrick’s reputation-defining Needham Broughton High School in an Italian-inspired mode to the modernist landmark J. S. Dorton Arena, designed by consulting architect Matthew Nowicki and completed by Deitrick’s firm.

The following account comes primarily from Elizabeth Culbertson Waugh, “Firm in an Ivied Tower,” which was based on her conversations with Deitrick and others and published in a special issue of North Carolina Architect honoring Deitrick (January-February, 1971); and from M. Ruth Little, “The Architecture of William Henley Deitrick and Associates from 1926-1960” (1997). This account outlines his career and highlights some of his firm’s best-known buildings. Deitrick’s large oeuvre is represented in the North Carolina State Archives and at the NCSU Libraries Special Collections Research Center. These sources can form the basis for a fuller treatment of his work.

William Henley Deitrick was born in Danville, Virginia, the son of a building contractor. After graduating with honors from Wake Forest College in 1916, he served in World War I as a second lieutenant in the United States Army. After the war, he worked for a time as a building contractor and in 1920 married Elizabeth Hunter of Raleigh. Setting his sights on becoming an architect, from 1922 to 1924 he undertook graduate work in architecture at Columbia University and at Hiron’s Atelier in New York City, and he also worked in the office of prominent architect Raymond Hood, best known for the American Radiator Building in New York and the prize-winning Chicago Tribune Building.

In 1924 William and Elizabeth Deitrick moved to Raleigh, where he took a position as construction supervisor with architect James A. Salter, a specialist in school planning, and completed supervision of Salter’s Franklinton High School in Franklinton. But Salter’s firm was in financial difficulties, and in 1925 Deitrick left the office to work for the Raleigh School Board as construction supervisor for the city’s public schools. During a flurry of major school building in the city, Deitrick supervised construction of schools planned by other architects: Frank Simpson’s Boylan Heights Elementary School; James A. Salter’s Fred A. Olds Elementary School; an addition to Murphey School by James Matthew Kennedy; and the imposing Hugh Morson High School designed by Christopher Gadsden Sayre. He subsequently took a contract to supervise a school construction program for Wake County. His experience in public school work stood him in good stead for the rest of his long career.

Deitrick was licensed to practice architecture in Virginia in 1926 and in North Carolina in 1927. In the latter year he opened a one-man office as “Wm. Henley Deitrick, Architect,” in the Lawyers Building on Salisbury Street in Raleigh. Among his first projects were the modest Carpenter-Green Level-Upchurch Elementary School near Morrisville in Wake County and substantial Georgian Revival style residences in Raleigh, including the James F. Johnson House and the Frank Daniels House.

In 1927 he entered a competition to design the prestigious new Raleigh High School, a contest managed by the school board. About a dozen architects from North Carolina and elsewhere, including some distinguished and established figures, submitted designs. According to Elizabeth Waugh’s account, probably from Deitrick, there was a tie between Deitrick and Frank Simpson, which was broken by the mayor of Raleigh, who liked Deitrick’s beautifully rendered drawing. His towered, Italianate edifice was unlike any other North Carolina schools of the day. Waugh also recounted that some architects complained about the selection of a young “newcomer” architect. Nevertheless, Deitrick’s high school won a North Carolina AIA award of merit for 1930, and it established the architect’s reputation and led to many other commissions.

With the onset of the Great Depression, Deitrick like many other architects had to hustle to find work. He proved especially proficient in the art of gaining clients and keeping them, including small school boards and private individuals as well as major state and federal government officials. Some say that his nickname “Polly” originated with his being such a good “poli-tician.” After the crash halted a project for a new state prison, Deitrick got the contract to plan state prison camps throughout the state. A key opportunity came when he was awarded the commission for the Johnson Memorial Medical Building at Wake Forest College—after the donor family insisted on having a Wake Forest alumnus as architect; it was the first of several projects for his alma mater. He also won the commission to renovate the United States Post Office and Courthouse in Raleigh in the 1930s.

Much of the firm’s bread-and-butter work came in the form of educational projects. Federally funded school construction and other public works enabled Deitrick’s firm not only to survive but to thrive during the Depression. In the 1930s, as Waugh told the story, Deitrick canvassed the state for projects, and despite health problems including an ulcer, he “drove his small Ford toward such coastal counties as Beaufort and Carteret, to various places in the Piedmont, and into some mountain counties.” He “came back to Raleigh with one million dollars worth of architectural contracts in his pocket” for schools and other government-funded buildings. With the help of a few draftsmen, Deitrick planned so many public schools and other government-sponsored buildings that as Waugh put it, “for the Deitrick office instead of depression, these years became boom seasons.” The firm’s projects included public schools in Wake, Brunswick, Hertford, Bertie, Harnett, Hyde, Cumberland, Perquimans, Moore, Gates, Beaufort, and Currituck Counties. They ranged from such imposing structures as Wake Forest High School in Wake Forest to more modest schools in rural areas. The firm’s depression era work also encompassed several residences, the Pender County Courthouse, buildings at Wake Forest College and Campbell Colleges, and the Nehi Bottling Plant in Raleigh. To meet demand, Deitrick continued to hire draftsmen and architects including in the 1930s Edwin Key Hodgkins, H. W. Moser, Jesse M. Page, Harry J. Harles, Hal Grier, Allen J. Maxwell, J. J. Pankuch, R. W. Noble, J. J. Lovac, and Albert L. Haskins, Jr., several of whom became notable architects themselves.

During the late 1930s Deitrick accomplished two important personal projects. In 1936 he designed his own William Deitrick House I in Raleigh, a red brick Georgian Revival style house that showed his inventiveness and grace with this traditional style, executed with the finest materials and workmanship. In 1938, when the city of Raleigh proposed to raze the old Raleigh Water Tower of brick and stone that had previously supported a municipal water tank, Deitrick bought the property to rescue the building and converted it to his offices in an early gesture of historic preservation and what became known later as “adaptive use.” This project was part of his long-term involvement in the early historic preservation movement in Raleigh. Through the 1920s and 1930s he continued to design residences, chiefly in skillfully rendered versions of the Georgian Revival and other traditional styles, and chiefly in Raleigh’s prestigious northwest suburb of Hayes Barton and nearby.

By the late 1930s, with the economy showing erratic signs of improvement, private as well as public projects picked up. Deitrick’s firm took contracts for a number of trend-setting projects, which presented Raleigh with some of the city’s first essays in modernist styles. Deitrick, unlike the next generation of modernists, took a flexible approach to style, using modernist themes in some buildings and traditional Georgian Revival modes in others. As Waugh notes, “coming out of the firm by this time were signals of a departure from all kinds of traditionally orthodox designs.” Among the first modernist projects was the design for the Crosby-Garfield Elementary School in Raleigh (1938), an elementary school for black students that captured attention in the local newspaper as “the most modern and up-to-date elementary school in North Carolina.” The impetus for the firm’s movement into modernism in the late 1930s has not been identified, but it may simply have been Deitrick’s realization that modernist design was the up and coming trend. Deitrick also incorporated modernist themes of “stripped classicism” into Jones Hall to blend with the red brick classical style of Meredith College, and a few other buildings of this period.

Through his excellent connections, Deitrick continued to garner state and local contracts for many different types of buildings, including health facilities and schools, from the mountains to the coast. Some continued his traditional revivalist vocabulary, while many embodied tenets of modernism. He donated a preliminary design for the Raleigh Little Theatre, built with W. P. A. Funds, but it was essentially redesigned by building committee member Thad Hurd, who produced the composition of unadorned rectilinear masses. Especially important in the 1930s was the firm’s contract to plan some of the state’s first federally funded public housing complexes. Promptly after Congress authorized the federal housing authority, Raleigh and Wilmington obtained grants to replace slum housing, and employed noted architects to plan the developments according to the most current national models. For Raleigh, Deitrick designed Chavis Heights Public Housing and Halifax Court Public Housing, for blacks and whites, respectively. Both complexes followed the current “superblock” model, with solidly built brick units exemplifying simple “contemporary” architectural ideals in economical fashion. (Deitrick is also described as having taken commissions for public housing projects in Wilmington and High Point; however, the best-known projects in those cities are credited to local architects Leslie N. Boney and Tyson Ferree, respectively, and Deitrick’s work in those towns has not been identified.) Another modernist project came on the eve of World War II: the Rex Hospital Nurses Residence, which was built “along the latest functional architectural lines.”

During the wartime hiatus in civilian construction, Deitrick like other architects took on military contracts, including a facility at Cherry Point Marine Air Station in collaboration with engineer William C. Olsen, architect George Watts Carr of Durham, and others. He collaborated with Olsen on other wartime projects as well, producing work valued in the millions of dollars.

The firm entered quickly and fully into the post-war building boom. Projects in the late 1940s included numerous renovations and expansions of existing Deitrick buildings plus scores of new schools, health facilities, residences, and more. In 1946 the firm was incorporated as “Wm. Henley Deitrick, Inc.,” with a staff of about thirty-five employees. Commissions poured in from across the state. Deitrick continued his architectural work but was increasingly busy with community activities and professional organizations. He was one of the state architectural leaders who pushed successfully for the 1948 establishment of the modern School of Design at present North Carolina State University as an important component of the modernizing state. Some accounts indicate that he was instrumental in getting the passionate modernist Henry Kamphoefner to come to the school as founding dean.

With a growing commitment to modernism though still producing traditional designs, Deitrick employed in his firm many talented young architects including leading proponents of modernism whose interests and innovations he encouraged. Prominent among these was G. Milton Small, Jr., a student of modernist leader Mies van der Rohe; a native of Oklahoma, Small came from Chicago to Raleigh on Kamphoefner’s recommendation to work for Deitrick and introduced Miesian modernism to Raleigh. Small, a devoted modernist, wrote to a friend in 1948 about Deitrick: “I have my fingers crossed on the architecture, but he seemed sincere in his stated desire to improve the quality and that he would really try to sell the clients. He was also quite frank that he would not turn down a commission just because the client insisted on a Georgian edifice.” During his two years with Deitrick before forming his own firm, Small designed notable modernist works including the Carolina Country Club (1948-1949), a stone and brick building with broad expanses of glass overlooking the grounds and golf course. The interior decoration was designed by Matthew and Stanislava Nowicki—Matthew Nowicki being the brilliant young Polish architect who had come to Raleigh as acting head of the architecture department of the School of Design.

Deitrick formed a strong working relationship with Nowicki, in which Nowicki served as consulting architect and premier designer while Deitrick, who unlike Nowicki was licensed to practice in the state, was architect of record. For the world-famous structure now known as the J. S. Dorton Arena, the commission went to Deitrick’s firm, but the daring and original design was Nowicki’s. Deitrick later wrote in a School of Design student publication, “The clients wanted a fair facility to advertise North Carolina as a progressive state and they wanted no copy of anything done before.” Nowicki’s death in an air crash in 1950 left Deitrick’s firm with only the preliminary drawings—and the extraordinary challenge of completing the plans and specifications and supervising construction. With consulting engineers Severud, Elstad and Kreuger of New York, and contractor William Muirhead of Durham, Deitrick and his firm accomplished to goal. Because of the dedication and skills of this team and the support of J. S. Dorton, the progressive manager of the state fair, Nowicki’s brilliant concept did not die with him but was brought to reality. The Dorton Arena gained international acclaim and won numerous awards including the Engineering Gold Medal of the Architectural League of New York and in 1953 the state’s first Honor Award of the American Institute of Architects.

Other Raleigh projects of ca. 1950 illustrate how Deitrick’s firm accommodated both functional and stylistic aspects of a design to the locale and the needs and preferences of the client. Two innovatively modernist downtown Raleigh buildings, News and Observer-Raleigh Times Building and the Wake County Office Building, incorporated features suited to the sunny clime: the newspaper building incorporated vertical aluminum louvers for sun control, and the county building featured a system for adjustable shading of windows plus a movable scaffolding for washing the many windows. For North Carolina State University’s Erdahl-Cloyd Student Union Building (1950-1951), as Waugh reports, the client wanted a “particularly Southern architectural feeling.” As sketched originally by Matthew Nowicki and completed by Deitrick’s firm with Small as chief designer, the building harmonizes modernist tenets and traditional themes in the building’s clean rectilinear forms and its deep, welcoming “Southern” portico of tall, lean columns facing Hillsborough Street, thus forming a symbolic as well as functional link between the campus and the larger community, the present and the past. (See Nowicki’s sketch in Bruce Harold Schafer, The Writings and Sketches of Matthew Nowicki (1973).

During the 1950s, while faculty members at the School of Design such as Eduardo Catalano, James W. Fitzgibbon, George Matsumoto, and others created a number of stunning ventures in modernism, Deitrick’s firm led in putting the tenets of modernism into more practical and widespread form. As Waugh reported, “Mr. Deitrick, whenever owners permitted, has been designing within the clean and functional planes of the ‘new’ architecture since the ‘thirties,” not until the 1950s were “school boards and others. . . generally accepting the design departures without voicing too many reservations.” When the School of Design put forward innovative ideas on modern school planning, Deitrick’s firm executed these precepts in such schools as Raleigh’s Sherwood-Bates Elementary School and the neighboring Daniels Junior High School. Dozens of commissions too numerous to mention here kept the firm busy, including medical facilities, banks, churches, residences, and, always, school and college buildings in many towns and counties.

By and large in 1950s, Deitrick left the actual design work to his architectural staff, while supervising the office and working with clients and potential clients. G. Milton Small designed five buildings while in the firm—the Wake County Office Building, Sir Walter Chevrolet Building, the Carolina Country Club, Sherwood-Bates Elementary School, and the Erdahl-Cloyd Student Union—while John Knight is credited with the News and Observer Building and Daniels Junior High School. Throughout the 1950s, Deitrick made his office a mecca and springboard for young architects. In addition to Small and Knight, the firm’s architects who later gained prominence in the profession included Thomas T. Hayes, Arthur McKimmon, Kenneth Scott, Frank Branan, Guy Crampton, and J. Norman Pease, Jr.

Throughout his career, Deitrick took leadership roles in both civic and professional organizations. He served as president of the Raleigh Civic Music Association, chairman of the board of the North Carolina Art Society, president of the North Carolina Chapter of the American Institute of Architects, president of the North Carolina Design Foundation, and, as part of his early leadership in historic preservation, chairman of the Raleigh Historic Sites Commission. In 1956 Deitrick was made a Fellow of the American Institute of Architects. In 1959 Deitrick sold his firm to Guy Crampton, but he continued for several years on a consulting basis. Guy E. Crampton and Associates became the successor firm to William Henley Deitrick, Inc., and continued until 1976. Deitrick died at the age of 79 and was buried in Raleigh’s historic Oakwood Cemetery; his wife, Elizabeth, predeceased him. The William Henley Deitrick Award, established by the North Carolina Chapter of the American Institute of Architects to recognize outstanding service to the profession, is awarded annually.

  • Catherine W. Bishir and Michael T. Southern, A Guide to the Historic Architecture of Eastern North Carolina (1996).
  • Catherine W. Bishir and Michael T. Southern, A Guide to the Historic Architecture of Piedmont North Carolina (2003).
  • “William Henley Deitrick,” Raleigh Hall of Fame, 2006 Inductees, from 2006 Induction Ceremony Program, http://raleighhallofame.org/2006.html.
  • Linda L. Harris and Mary Ann Lee, An Architectural and Historical Inventory of Raleigh, North Carolina (1978).
  • C. David Jackson and Charlotte V. Brown, History of the North Carolina Chapter of the American Institute of Architects, 1913-1998 (1998).
  • Kelly A. Lally, The Historic Architecture of Wake County, North Carolina (1994).
  • M. Ruth Little, “The Architecture of William Henley Deitrick and Associates from 1926-1960,” draft of Multiple Property Documentation Form for the National Register of Historic Places, 1997; copy in files of State Historic Preservation Office, Raleigh, North Carolina.
  • Elizabeth C. Waugh, “Firm in an Ivied Tower,” North Carolina Architect (Jan.-Feb. 1971).
Sort Building List by:
  • Alumnae Building

    Contributors:
    William Henley Deitrick, architect; Penrose Stout, architect
    Variant Name(s):

    Alumni Center

    Dates:

    1935

    Location:
    Greensboro, Guilford County
    Street Address:

    University of North Carolina at Greensboro Campus, Greensboro, NC

    Status:

    Standing

    Type:

    Educational

    Images Published In:

    Elizabeth C. Waugh, “Firm in an Ivied Tower,” North Carolina Architect (Jan.-Feb. 1971).

    Note:

    According to Elizabeth C. Waugh, “Firm in an Ivory Tower,” North Carolina Architect (January-February, 1971), Deitrick took over the project after the death of the original architect, Penrose Stout.


  • Apex High School

    Contributors:
    Dates:

    1938

    Location:
    Apex, Wake County
    Street Address:

    Apex, NC

    Status:

    No longer standing

    Type:

    Educational


  • C. C. Hazell House

    Contributors:
    Dates:

    1930

    Location:
    Raleigh, Wake County
    Street Address:

    1005 Harvey St., Raleigh, NC

    Status:

    Standing

    Type:

    Residential


  • Carolina Country Club

    Contributors:
    William Henley Deitrick, architect; Matthew Nowicki, interior designer; Stanislawa Nowicki, interior designer; G. Milton Small Jr., architect
    Dates:

    1948-1949

    Location:
    Raleigh, Wake County
    Street Address:

    2500 Glenwood Ave., Raleigh, NC

    Status:

    No longer standing

    Type:

    Recreational

    Images Published In:

    Elizabeth C. Waugh, “Firm in an Ivied Tower,” North Carolina Architect (Jan.-Feb. 1971).

    Note:

    Deitrick’s firm designed the modernist country club building, and Matthew and Stanislava Nowicki contributed to the design of the interior decor. At its completion, according to Elizabeth C. Waugh, “one of the leading architectural magazines indicated that it was the first country club to be treated in a contemporary manner.” The building was remodeled over the years and razed in the 20th century (soon after the death of longtime club member and devoted modernist Henry L. Kamphoefner) to make way for a large, columned facility. Several of Deitrick’s drawings for the project are in the Guy E. Crampton-William Henley Deitrick Papers and Drawings at Special Collections Research Center, NCSU Libraries, Raleigh, North Carolina.


  • Carpenter-Green Level-Upchurch Elementary School

    Contributors:
    Dates:

    1927

    Location:
    Wake County
    Street Address:

    SR 1621, Carpenter vicinity, NC

    Status:

    No longer standing

    Type:

    Educational

    Note:

    The elementary school was cited as one of Deitrick’s first projects in North Carolina by Elizabeth C. Waugh in “Firm in an Ivory Tower,” North Carolina Architect (January-February, 1971). As noted in Kelly A. Lally, The Historic Architecture of Wake County, North Carolina (1994), the school was known as the Green Hope School after the two communities it served. It is said to have been the first accredited rural high school in Wake County. The main school burned in 1963, though some secondary buildings survived.


  • Cary High School

    Contributors:
    Dates:

    1938

    Location:
    Cary, Wake County
    Street Address:

    S. Academy St., Cary, NC

    Status:

    Standing

    Type:

    Educational

    Images Published In:

    Kelly A. Lally, The Historic Architecture of Wake County, North Carolina (1994).


  • Chavis Heights Public Housing

    Contributors:
    Dates:

    1939-1941

    Location:
    Raleigh, Wake County
    Street Address:

    Chavis Way, Raleigh, NC

    Status:

    No longer standing

    Type:

    Residential

    Note:

    Chavis Heights (for black residents) and Halifax Court (for white residents) were built as some of the state’s first New Deal public housing projects, shortly after establishment of the U. S. Housing Authority in 1938. Deitrick’s design to provide “modern healthy homes” followed advanced current practice and was featured in Architectural Record in 1941. Chavis Heights included twelve 2-story brick units in a “superblock plan.” Deitrick’s plans for both complexes are in the Guy E. Crampton-William Henley Deitrick collection at Special Collections Research Center, NCSU Libraries, Raleigh, North Carolina


  • Crosby-Garfield Elementary School

    Contributors:
    Dates:

    1938

    Location:
    Raleigh, Wake County
    Street Address:

    568 E. Lenoir St., Raleigh, NC

    Status:

    Standing

    Type:

    Educational

    Note:

    One of the first modernist public schools in the state, the school with its simple, rectilinear forms was planned by Deitrick as part of a publicly funded ensemble for black citizens, which included Chavis Park (1937) and Chavis Heights Public Housing (1939-1941). The Raleigh Times of December 31, 1938, lauded its design as “the most modern and up-to-date elementary school in North Carolina.”


  • Daniels Junior High School

    Contributors:
    William Henley Deitrick, architect; John Knight, architect
    Dates:

    1951

    Location:
    Raleigh, Wake County
    Street Address:

    2816 Oberlin Rd., Raleigh, NC

    Status:

    Altered

    Type:

    Educational


  • Dr. W. B. Dewar House

    Contributors:
    Dates:

    ca. 1935

    Location:
    Raleigh, Wake County
    Street Address:

    1540 Carr St., Raleigh, NC

    Status:

    Standing

    Type:

    Residential

    Note:

    The red brick house is a classic example of Deitrick’s skillful handling of the proportions, details, and craftsmanship of the Georgian Revival popular in Raleigh and frequently built in the Hayes Barton suburb.


  • Earl Johnson House

    Contributors:
    Coffey Family, contractors; John N. Coffey, contractor; John W. Coffey, contractor; John W. Coffey and Son, contractors; William Henley Deitrick, architect
    Dates:

    1937

    Location:
    Raleigh, Wake County
    Street Address:

    1128 Harvey St., Raleigh, NC

    Status:

    Standing

    Type:

    Residential


  • Erdahl-Cloyd Student Union Building

    Contributors:
    William Henley Deitrick, architect; Matthew Nowicki, consulting architect
    Variant Name(s):

    NCSU Student Union; D. H. Hill Library

    Dates:

    1950-1951

    Location:
    Raleigh, Wake County
    Street Address:

    Hillsborough St., Raleigh, NC

    Status:

    Standing

    Type:

    Educational

    Images Published In:

    Elizabeth C. Waugh, “Firm in an Ivied Tower,” North Carolina Architect (Jan.-Feb. 1971).

    Note:

    The design as executed followed a concept, including the high portico, sketched by Matthew Nowicki, who died in 1950. (See Bruce Harold Shafter, The Writings and Sketches of Matthew Nowicki (1973), p. 53). Elizabeth Waugh credits the building to William Deitrick. It has also been credited to G. Milton Small, who was in Deitrick’s office for a time. It took several years from initial concept to completion. The building won a 1955 award from the North Carolina chapter of the AIA (the first year the awards were presented after a hiatus begun during the Great Depression), and the award went to William H. Deitrick and John C. Knight. More research is needed to discern the roles of the various architects in the building, which stands at the interface of “town and gown” on Hillsborough St. For an in-depth discussion of the building see http://goodnightraleigh.com/2011/09/nowicki%E2%80%99s-other-masterpiece-the-erdahl-cloyd-wing-at-nc-state/.


  • Frank A. Daniels House

    Contributors:
    Coffey Family, contractors; John N. Coffey, contractor; John W. Coffey, contractor; John W. Coffey and Son, contractors; William Henley Deitrick, architect
    Dates:

    1927

    Location:
    Raleigh, Wake County
    Street Address:

    1515 Glenwood Ave., Raleigh, NC

    Status:

    Standing

    Type:

    Residential

    Note:

    The large, brick Georgian Revival house is one of a group of Daniels family houses that stand near one another in Hayes Barton.


  • Halifax Court Public Housing

    Contributors:
    Dates:

    1939-1941

    Location:
    Raleigh, Wake County
    Street Address:

    N. Halifax St., Raleigh, NC

    Status:

    No longer standing

    Type:

    Residential

    Note:

    Chavis Heights (for black residents) and Halifax Court (for white residents) were built as some of the state’s first New Deal public housing projects, shortly after establishment of the U. S. Housing Authority in 1938. Deitrick’s design to provide “modern healthy homes” followed advanced current practice and was featued in Architectural Record in 1941. Deitrick’s plans for both complexes are in the Guy E. Crampton-William Henley Deitrick collection at Special Collections Research Center, NCSU Libraries, Raleigh, North Carolina.


  • Howard Elementary School

    Contributors:
    Variant Name(s):

    Camden Road Elementary School; Howard Health and Life Sciences High School

    Dates:

    1950; 1953

    Location:
    Fayetteville, Cumberland County
    Street Address:

    Camden Rd., Fayetteville, NC

    Status:

    Standing

    Type:

    Educational

    Note:

    The best preserved of the Deitrick firm’s modernist schools in Cumberland County, the one-story school follows the influential model of the Crow Island School in Illinois. It was built in a rural area that has subsequently become more urbanized. See MdM, “Fayetteville Modern Architecture Survey” (2009), http://www.trianglemodernisthomes.com/FINAL%20Fayetteville%20Modern%20Architectural%20Survey%20Report.pdf.


  • Hudson-Belk Department Store

    Contributors:
    Dates:

    1938

    Location:
    Raleigh, Wake County
    Street Address:

    319-325 Fayetteville St., Raleigh, NC

    Status:

    Altered

    Type:

    Commercial


  • J. S. Dorton Arena

    Contributors:
    William Henley Deitrick, architect; Matthew Nowicki, architect; Severud, Elstad & Krueger, engineers; Fred Severud, engineer; William Muirhead Construction Co., contractors
    Variant Name(s):

    Livestock Judging Pavilion

    Dates:

    1950-1952

    Location:
    Raleigh, Wake County
    Street Address:

    North Carolina State Fairgrounds, Hillsborough St. at Blue Ridge Rd., Raleigh, NC

    Status:

    Standing

    Type:

    Public

    Images Published In:

    Architectural Record, June 1954; July 1954; Aug. 1954; Sept. 1954.
    Catherine W. Bishir and Michael T. Southern, A Guide to the Historic Architecture of Piedmont North Carolina (2003).
    Robert P. Burns, Matthew Nowicki: Sketches and Visions (1993).
    Lewis Mumford, The Life, The Teaching and the Architecture of Matthew Nowicki (1954).
    Bruce Shafer, The Writings and Sketches of Matthew Nowicki (1973).

    Note:

    Several of the working drawings for the project are in the Guy E. Crampton-William Henley Deitrick Papers and Drawings at Special Collections Research Center, NCSU Libraries, Raleigh, NC.


  • James E. Briggs House

    Contributors:
    Dates:

    1938

    Location:
    Raleigh, Wake County
    Street Address:

    1602 St. Mary’s St., Raleigh, NC

    Status:

    Standing

    Type:

    Residential


  • James F. Johnson House

    Contributors:
    Dates:

    1927

    Location:
    Raleigh, Wake County
    Street Address:

    2427 Country Club Dr., Raleigh, NC

    Status:

    Standing

    Type:

    Residential

    Images Published In:

    Elizabeth C. Waugh, “Firm in an Ivied Tower,” North Carolina Architect (Jan.-Feb. 1971).


  • Job P. Wyatt and Son Store

    Contributors:
    Dates:

    1945

    Location:
    Raleigh, Wake County
    Street Address:

    323-331 S. Wilmington St., Raleigh, NC

    Status:

    No longer standing

    Type:

    Commercial


  • Johnson Memorial Medical Building

    Contributors:
    Dates:

    1931-1932

    Location:
    Wake Forest, Wake County
    Street Address:

    Campus of Southeastern Theological Seminary (formerly Wake Forest College Campus), Wake Forest, NC

    Status:

    Unknown

    Type:

    Health Care

    Note:

    Deitrick won the commission to design this building at the original Wake Forest College campus because the donors wanted a Wake Forest alumnus; he designed other buildings for the college, which later moved to Winston-Salem.


  • Jones Hall

    Contributors:
    Dates:

    1938; 1941

    Location:
    Raleigh, Wake County
    Street Address:

    Meredith College Campus, 3800 Hillsborough St., Raleigh, NC

    Status:

    Standing

    Type:

    Educational

    Images Published In:

    Elizabeth C. Waugh, “Firm in an Ivied Tower,” North Carolina Architect (Jan.-Feb. 1971).

    Note:

    Deitrick adapted the campus’s red brick Georgian Revival mode to modernist tenets.


  • Mackie House

    Contributors:
    William Henley Deitrick, architect; George Kane, contractor
    Dates:

    1934

    Location:
    Wake Forest, Wake County
    Street Address:

    N. Main St., Wake Forest, NC

    Status:

    Standing

    Type:

    Residential

    Images Published In:

    Kelly A. Lally, The Historic Architecture of Wake County, North Carolina (1994).

    Note:

    The Georgian Revival brick house was planned by Deitrick for Dr. and Mrs. George C. Mackie.


  • Montlieu Avenue Elementary School

    Contributors:
    Dates:

    1957

    Location:
    High Point, Guilford County
    Street Address:

    1105 Montlieu Ave., High Point, NC

    Status:

    Standing

    Type:

    Educational

    Images Published In:

    Benjamin Briggs, The Architecture of High Point, North Carolina: A History and Guide to the City’s Houses, Churches and Public Buildings (2008).

    Note:

    The representative modernist school has large windows, an asymmetrical plan, and breezeways linking the shared spaces to classroom wings.


  • Music Building

    Contributors:
    Dates:

    1938

    Location:
    Raleigh, Wake County
    Street Address:

    St. Mary’s School Campus, Raleigh, NC

    Status:

    Standing

    Type:

    Educational


  • NCSU Student Union

    Contributors:
    Dates:

    1949

    Location:
    Raleigh, Wake County
    Street Address:

    700 block Hillsborough St., Raleigh, NC

    Status:

    Unbuilt

    Type:

    Educational

    Images Published In:

    John Morris, “Nowicki’s Other Masterpiece: The Erdahl-Cloyd Wing at NC State,” Goodnight Raleigh, http://goodnightraleigh.com/2011/09/nowicki%E2%80%99s-other-masterpiece-the-erdahl-cloyd-wing-at-nc-state/.

    Note:

    According to research by John Morris for “Nowicki’s Other Masterpiece,” when William Deitrick was commissioned in 1949 to design a Student Union for present North Carolina State University, both G. Milton Small and Matthew Nowicki were associated with Deitrick’s office. Small provided a drawing for a straightforward but for Raleigh unfamiliar modernist design. Chairman of the building committee David Clark strenuously objected to the design, saying “I definitely do not favor a modernistic building.” He compared the design to “cheap and flashy stores” he had seen in Florida. That design was shelved. Evidently Deitrick turned to Nowicki for another concept, and Nowicki came up with a drawing for a building with a dignified and clearly modernist portico facing Hillsborough Street, which evidently won approval and is the basis for the present building. That drawing survives. Nowicki was killed in a plane crash in 1950 and the completion of the building by Deitrick’s firm took a few more years. Relevant drawings exist in the Deitrick and Nowicki papers at Special Collections, North Carolina State University Libraries. See images and John Morris’s an account of events at http://goodnightraleigh.com/2011/09/nowicki%E2%80%99s-other-masterpiece-the-erdahl-cloyd-wing-at-nc-state/.


  • Needham Broughton High School

    Contributors:
    Variant Name(s):

    Broughton High School; Raleigh High School

    Dates:

    1927-1929

    Location:
    Raleigh, Wake County
    Street Address:

    Peace St. at St. Mary’s St., Raleigh, NC

    Status:

    Standing

    Type:

    Educational

    Images Published In:

    Catherine W. Bishir and Michael T. Southern, A Guide to the Historic Architecture of Piedmont North Carolina (2003).
    Elizabeth C. Waugh, North Carolina’s Capital, Raleigh (1967).
    Elizabeth C. Waugh, “Firm in an Ivied Tower,” North Carolina Architect (Jan.-Feb. 1971).

    Note:

    William Deitrick’s “Lombard Gothic Style” design for the prestigious Raleigh High School won in a competition that included several established architects. Built of local warm-colored stone, the towered edifice received a design award in 1930 from the NCAIA and established Deitrick’s reputation. Deitrick and other members of his firm designed multiple additions to the rear which have generally complemented the original building. Several of Deitrick’s drawings for the “Raleigh High School” (Broughton High School) are in the Guy E. Crampton-William Henley Deitrick Papers and Drawings at Special Collections Research Center, NCSU Libraries, Raleigh, North Carolina.


  • Nehi Bottling Plant

    Contributors:
    Dates:

    1937

    Location:
    Raleigh, Wake County
    Street Address:

    3210 Hillsborough St., Raleigh, NC

    Status:

    Altered

    Type:

    Commercial


  • News and Observer-Raleigh Times Building

    Contributors:
    William Henley Deitrick, architect; John Knight, architect
    Dates:

    1954

    Location:
    Raleigh, Wake County
    Street Address:

    S. McDowell St., Raleigh, NC

    Status:

    Standing

    Type:

    Commercial

    Images Published In:

    Elizabeth C. Waugh, “Firm in an Ivied Tower,” North Carolina Architect (Jan.-Feb. 1971).

    Note:

    Deitrick’s firm won an honor award for the newspaper building from the North Carolina chapter of the American Institute of Architects in 1957. It is a striking modern design that maintains its public presence despite expansions of the newspaper plant.


  • Pender County Courthouse

    Contributors:
    Dates:

    1935-1936

    Location:
    Burgaw, Pender County
    Street Address:

    Courthouse Sq., Burgaw, NC

    Status:

    Standing

    Type:

    Public


  • Raleigh Fire Station No. 6

    Contributors:
    William Henley Deitrick, architect; William Henley Deitrick, Inc., architects
    Dates:

    1949

    Location:
    Raleigh, Wake County
    Street Address:

    Fairview Rd. at Oberlin Rd., Raleigh, NC

    Status:

    No longer standing

    Type:

    Public

    Note:

    The clean-lined modernist fire station was an early postwar project and serves the early 20th century suburbs where Deitrick designed several traditional revival style residences.


  • Raleigh Little Theatre

    Contributors:
    William Henley Deitrick, architect (1937); Thad Hurd, architect (1937-1940); Brian Shawcroft, architect (1988-1989)
    Dates:

    1937-1940; 1988-1989

    Location:
    Raleigh, Wake County
    Street Address:

    301 Pogue St., Raleigh, NC

    Status:

    Standing

    Type:

    Public

    Images Published In:

    Elizabeth C. Waugh, North Carolina’s Capital, Raleigh (1967).
    Elizabeth C. Waugh, “Firm in an Ivied Tower,” North Carolina Architect (Jan.-Feb. 1971).

    Note:

    One of the first modernist buildings in Raleigh to exemplify the clean, rectilinear forms of the International Style, the white-painted brick building was constructed with WPA funds for the newly founded local theatre group. Deitrick donated initial designs, which were redefined in the final design by Thad Hurd of the building committee. Raleigh architect Brian Shawcroft planned additions in keeping with the original design.


  • Raleigh Nehi Bottling Co. Building

    Contributors:
    Coffey Family, contractors; John N. Coffey, contractor; John W. Coffey, contractor; John W. Coffey and Son, contractors; William Henley Deitrick, architect
    Dates:

    1937

    Location:
    Raleigh, Wake County
    Street Address:

    3210 Hillsborough St., Raleigh, NC

    Status:

    Altered

    Type:

    Commercial

    Note:

    An unusually early local example of modernism, the brick building featured a restrained, sleek entrance.


  • Raleigh Water Tower

    Contributors:
    Variant Name(s):

    AIA Tower

    Dates:

    1887; 1938

    Location:
    Raleigh, Wake County
    Street Address:

    115 W. Morgan St., Raleigh, NC

    Status:

    Standing

    Type:

    Commercial

    Images Published In:

    Elizabeth C. Waugh, North Carolina’s Capital, Raleigh (1967).

    Note:

    In a pioneering effort at historic preservation in Raleigh, in 1938 Deitrick rescued the abandoned stone and brick water tower of 1887 and renovated it as his offices. In 1963 he transferred it to the North Carolina chapter of the American Institute of Architects as their headquarters.


  • Rex Hospital Nurses Residence

    Contributors:
    Dates:

    1939-1940

    Location:
    Raleigh, Wake County
    Street Address:

    1101 St. Mary’s St., Raleigh, NC

    Status:

    Standing

    Type:

    Health Care

    Images Published In:

    Linda L. Harris and Mary Ann Lee, An Architectural and Historical Inventory of Raleigh, North Carolina (1978).
    Elizabeth C. Waugh, “Firm in an Ivied Tower,” North Carolina Architect (Jan.-Feb. 1971).

    Note:

    The simply detailed brick and stone building is considered one of Raleigh’s first modernist designs.


  • Richard Mason House

    Contributors:
    Dates:

    1940

    Location:
    Raleigh, Wake County
    Street Address:

    110 King William Rd., Raleigh, NC

    Status:

    Standing

    Type:

    Residential


  • Shaw University Gymnasium

    Contributors:
    Dates:

    1945

    Location:
    Raleigh, Wake County
    Street Address:

    Shaw University Campus, 118 E. South St., Raleigh, NC

    Status:

    Unknown

    Type:

    Educational


  • Sherwood-Bates Elementary School

    Contributors:
    Variant Name(s):

    Daniels Middle School

    Dates:

    1950

    Location:
    Raleigh, Wake County
    Street Address:

    1816 Oberlin Rd., Raleigh, NC

    Status:

    Standing

    Type:

    Educational

    Note:

    Designed during Small’s period in Deitrick’s office, this was one of the first grade schools in the state to demonstrate modern school ideas from the NCSU School of Design. It is now linked to and functions as part of the neighboring Daniels Junior High School, but despite some changes, it maintains its essential character including its flexible plan, large windows, and clean simplicity of design.


  • Shore Laboratory of Hygiene

    Contributors:
    Dates:

    1938

    Location:
    Raleigh, Wake County
    Street Address:

    214 W. Jones St., Raleigh, NC

    Status:

    Standing

    Type:

    Health Care


  • Sir Walter Chevrolet Building

    Contributors:
    Dates:

    1949; 1966

    Location:
    Raleigh, Wake County
    Street Address:

    530 and 532 S. McDowell St., Raleigh, NC

    Status:

    No longer standing

    Type:

    Commercial

    Note:

    The original dealership structure had a concrete clear span barrel vault. It expanded in the 1960s. The entire building was razed to make room for a civic development including a city amphitheater completed in 2010.


  • State Capital Life Insurance Building

    Contributors:
    Coffey Family, contractors; John N. Coffey, contractor; John W. Coffey, contractor; John W. Coffey and Son, contractors; William Henley Deitrick, architect; Joe Kovak, architect
    Dates:

    1949

    Location:
    Raleigh, Wake County
    Street Address:

    2620 Hillsborough St., Raleigh, NC

    Status:

    Standing

    Type:

    Commercial

    Note:

    The red brick building now houses facilities of North Carolina State University.


  • State Employees Credit Union

    Contributors:
    Dates:

    1955

    Location:
    Raleigh, Wake County
    Street Address:

    119 N. Salisbury St., Raleigh, NC

    Status:

    No longer standing

    Type:

    Commercial


  • State Museum of Art, Science and History (Unexecuted Project)

    Contributors:
    William Henley Deitrick, architect; Matthew Nowicki, architect
    Dates:

    1950

    Location:
    Raleigh, Wake County
    Street Address:

    Raleigh, NC

    Status:

    Unbuilt

    Type:

    Public


  • Stealey Hall

    Contributors:
    Variant Name(s):

    Wait Hall; Wake Forest College Administration Building

    Dates:

    1933-1934; 1935

    Location:
    Wake Forest, Wake County
    Street Address:

    Southeastern Baptist Theological Seminary Campus, Wake Forest, NC

    Status:

    Standing

    Type:

    Educational

    Images Published In:

    Kelly A. Lally, The Historic Architecture of Wake County, North Carolina (1994).
    Elizabeth C. Waugh, “Firm in an Ivied Tower,” North Carolina Architect (Jan.-Feb. 1971).

    Note:

    The red brick, Georgian Revival structure follows the Palladian format of its predecessor (see John Berry) which had burned. It is the architectural centerpiece of the campus that was Wake Forest College until the college (now university) moved to Winston-Salem in 1956.


  • Stedman School

    Contributors:
    Dates:

    1949

    Location:
    Stedman, Cumberland County
    Street Address:

    Stedman, Stedman, NC

    Status:

    Standing

    Type:

    Educational

    Images Published In:

    Elizabeth C. Waugh, “Firm in an Ivied Tower,” North Carolina Architect (Jan.-Feb. 1971).

    Note:

    Among the Deitrick firm’s many public school projects, as Waugh states, the office designed “practically all of the Cumberland County County public schools” from the mid-1930s to the mid-1950s. The Stedman School, pictured by Waugh, “represents the change-over from traditional to . . . contemporary.”


  • Tomlinson Elementary School

    Contributors:
    Dates:

    1952-1953

    Location:
    High Point, Guilford County
    Street Address:

    700 Chestnut St., High Point, NC

    Status:

    Standing

    Type:

    Educational

    Images Published In:

    Benjamin Briggs, The Architecture of High Point, North Carolina: A History and Guide to the City’s Houses, Churches and Public Buildings (2008).

    Note:

    The elementary school was added to a large educational campus that also includes High Point High School by Harry Barton and was landscaped by noted landscape architect Earl Sumner Draper. Deitrick also designed in 1958 a shared brick athletic facility.


  • United States Post Office and Courthouse

    Contributors:
    William Henley Deitrick, architect (1938); Patrick Linehan, contractor (1870s); Alfred B. Mullett, supervising architect of the Treasury (1874-1879); Frank B. Simpson, architect (1912-1913)
    Variant Name(s):

    Century Post Office; Federal Building

    Dates:

    1874-1879; 1912-1913 [remodeled]; 1938 [expanded]

    Location:
    Raleigh, Wake County
    Street Address:

    314 Fayetteville St., Raleigh, NC

    Status:

    Standing

    Type:

    Public

    Images Published In:

    Catherine W. Bishir, Charlotte V. Brown, Carl R. Lounsbury, and Ernest H. Wood III, Architects and Builders in North Carolina: A History of the Practice of Building (1990).
    Linda L. Harris and Mary Ann Lee, An Architectural and Historical Inventory of Raleigh, North Carolina (1978).
    Elizabeth Reid Murray, “Wake County’s Courthouses Through Two Centuries (1771-1970), “ unpublished typescript, copy in State Library, Raleigh, North Carolina, copy courtesy of Elizabeth Reid Murray.
    Lawrence Wodehouse, “Alfred B. Mullett’s Court Room and Post Office at Raleigh, North Carolina, “ Journal of the Society of Architectural Historians, 26.4 (Dec. 1967).

    Note:

    A landmark on Raleigh’s Fayetteville Street, the Second Empire style edifice retains its essential character despite the alterations of the 20th century that toned down its ebullient design by removing its chimneys, changing the dormers, and installing a columned entrance, and adding a large rear extension.


  • Wake County Office Building

    Contributors:
    William Henley Deitrick, architect; William Henley Deitrick, Inc., architects; G. Milton Small Jr., architect
    Dates:

    1949

    Location:
    Raleigh, Wake County
    Street Address:

    201 W. Davie St., Raleigh, NC

    Status:

    No longer standing

    Type:

    Public

    Images Published In:

    Elizabeth C. Waugh, “Firm in an Ivied Tower,” North Carolina Architect (Jan.-Feb. 1971).

    Note:

    Designed by G. Milton Small, Jr., while he was in Deitrick’s office, the innovative modernist building was razed in 1998 despite efforts to save it.


  • Wake County Social Services Building

    Contributors:
    Dates:

    1949-1950

    Location:
    Raleigh, Wake County
    Street Address:

    201 W. Davie St., Raleigh, NC

    Status:

    No longer standing

    Type:

    Public

    Note:

    The brick building was planned by Small while he was with Deitrick but completed after he formed his own firm. It was featured in Architectural Record, which described its functional, low-maintenance design including a special window-washing trolley that moved about the building on tracks. Preservationists sought in vain to save the building from demolition in the late 1990s, but county decision makers did not regard it as architecturally significant, and it was razed.


  • Wake Forest High School

    Contributors:
    Variant Name(s):

    Wake Forest Elementary School

    Dates:

    1935

    Location:
    Wake Forest, Wake County
    Street Address:

    S. Main St., Wake Forest, NC

    Status:

    Standing

    Type:

    Educational

    Images Published In:

    Kelly A. Lally, The Historic Architecture of Wake County, North Carolina (1994).

    Note:

    Originally built as an additional classroom building for Wake Forest High School, the red brick, Colonial Revival structure was later adapted as part of the Wake Forest Elementary School Campus.


  • Walnut Terrace Housing Project

    Contributors:
    Dates:

    1957

    Location:
    Raleigh, Wake County
    Street Address:

    111 W. Lee St., Raleigh, NC

    Status:

    Standing

    Type:

    Residential


  • Western Lanes Commercial Building

    Contributors:
    Dates:

    1957

    Location:
    Raleigh, Wake County
    Street Address:

    2512 Hillsborough St., Raleigh, NC

    Status:

    Standing

    Type:

    Commercial


  • Western North Carolina Sanitorium

    Contributors:
    Variant Name(s):

    Black Mountain Neuro-Medical Treatment Center

    Dates:

    Ca. 1939

    Location:
    Black Mountain, Buncombe County
    Street Address:

    932 Old US 70, Oteen, NC

    Status:

    Standing

    Type:

    Health Care

    Images Published In:

    Elizabeth C. Waugh, “Firm in an Ivied Tower,” North Carolina Architect (Jan.-Feb. 1971).


  • Will A. Hudson House

    Contributors:
    Dates:

    1939

    Location:
    Raleigh, Wake County
    Street Address:

    2413 Anderson Dr., Raleigh, NC

    Status:

    Standing

    Type:

    Residential


  • William Deitrick House I

    Contributors:
    Dates:

    1936

    Location:
    Raleigh, Wake County
    Street Address:

    2501 Glenwood Ave., Raleigh, NC

    Status:

    Standing

    Type:

    Residential

    Images Published In:

    Elizabeth C. Waugh, North Carolina’s Capital, Raleigh (1967).
    Elizabeth C. Waugh, “Firm in an Ivied Tower,” North Carolina Architect (Jan.-Feb. 1971).

    Note:

    The beautifully detailed Georgian Revival house designed by Deitrick for himself is among the finest of many revival style residences built in the suburban expansion northwest of Hayes Barton.


  • William Deitrick House II

    Contributors:
    Dates:

    1959

    Location:
    Raleigh, Wake County
    Street Address:

    1900 McDonald Ln., Raleigh, NC

    Status:

    Standing

    Type:

    Residential

    Note:

    For his retirement years, Deitrick with William W. Dodge, Jr., designed the clean-lined 1-story residence with features emphasizing convenience and low maintenance.


  • WPTF Transmitter Building

    Contributors:
    Dates:

    1940

    Location:
    Cary, Wake County
    Street Address:

    N side NC 54 E of Maynard Rd., Cary vicinity, NC

    Status:

    Standing

    Type:

    Commercial

    Images Published In:

    Kelly A. Lally, The Historic Architecture of Wake County, North Carolina (1994).

    Note:

    The modern building features a streamlined form suited to its purpose. WPTF’s initials stand for “We Protect The Family,” the motto of the station’s owner, the Durham Life Insurance Company (see Northup and O’Brien).


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