I Took My Friend’s Dog to an Orphanage

I found another cool Raleigh park this weekend. It’s called Fred Fletcher Park, and I caught it out of the corner of my eye while driving downtown on Glenwood Avenue.

I spent the last few days dog sitting my co-worker’s Golden Retriever, so I took him to check it out with me. The park sits on the former campus of the Methodist Home for Children, according to the city of Raleigh’s Web site.

The park features the Borden Building, which was built in 1900 and provided quarters to the orphanage’s superintendent before later housing hundreds of children. The city bought the house and park in 1982, according to its Web site, and renovated the building in 1992. Apparently it’s now offered to the public for weddings, conferences and other meetings.

We didn’t know all that while we were running through the park, though it did seem to sit on a campus-like setting. Are their any parks in your neighborhood worth checking out?

Appreciating the Charms of a Neighborhood Park

I’ve been exploring my neighborhood during lunch breaks because it’s the only free time daylight time during the week. Today I found this charming playground sandwiched in the middle of my Five Points neighborhood at a place called Roanoke Park.

What I love best about the park are the random toys scattered about the basketball court.

It looks like a bunch of 5-and 6-year olds were playing and then got called inside for lunch by their parents. The toys were left littering the basketball court, the only testament to the tots that were just there.

Apparently, the Roanoke Park neighborhood dates back to the early 20th century and its streets are named after people and places from the Tar Heel state’s history.

It’s an easy neighborhood to get twisted around in because the streets are laid out in a curvilinear pattern because of the area’s topography, according to a local real estate agent who has a Web site highlighting the neighborhood.