City of Oaks, capital of big ideas
Raleigh was built on purpose. The state bought 1,000 acres in 1792 specifically to create a capital where no city existed, laid it out on a grid around Union Square, and named it for a man who never set foot in North America. The nickname City of Oaks comes from a 19th-century planting ordinance that turned nearly every street into a canopy, still visible in neighborhoods like Oakwood. It anchors one corner of the Research Triangle, the university-and-tech corridor formed with Durham and Chapel Hill that quietly made the region one of the fastest-growing in the country. Krispy Kreme was founded here in 1937. Beyond the downtown warehouse district, the Neuse River greenway gives the city a quieter side than its capital bustle suggests.
