CityView Magazine

The first Fayetteville High School was on Burgess Street across from the F.I.L.I. Armory. The playground in back of the school was behind the Hay Street Methodist Church. The school was in this location from 1913 until 1924 when it was moved to a new building on McGilvary Street. The old building became Central Elementary School. The first yearbook, known as The LaFamac, was published in 1922 while the school was still in the Central School building on Burgess Street. There were only eleven grades in Fayetteville High School until 1940 when it moved to a beautiful new building on Robeson Street on the present site of Highsmith-Rainey Hospital. This lovely house at 430 Hay Street was demolished to make room for the construction of the Prince Charles Hotel in 1924. There were many similar houses on both sides of Hay Street from the 1800's through the early 1900's. Dr. Raymond L. Pittman, who came to Fayetteville in 1913, founded Pittman Hospital in 1919. This hospital was located on the south side of Hay Street to the right of Huske Hardware House and almost directly across the street from the Prince Charles Hotel. Pittman Hospital closed in 1954 and the building was later occupied by the J. C. Penny Company for many years. Note the street car tracks in front of the hospital. Prior to the 1600's the Cape Fear River was first called "Sapona" by the native American Indians who settled on its banks. Running parallel to the river in Fayetteville was Sapona Road which is still called that today. The river was later called the "Charles River" and then the "Clarendon River." In the early 1800's there were many large steamboats that carried passengers and mail from Fayetteville to Wilmington. The first steamboat to run on the Cape Fear River was called "The Henrietta." This boat was built in 1818 by James Seawell. The last passenger boat to run on the Cape Fear River was the "A. P. Hurt" which foundered during a gale at the wharf in Wilmington, North Carolina on March 7, 1923. Among the many steamboats on the Cape Fear River was one called "The City of Fayetteville". In this 1948 picture, the Silsby "Steam Pumper" is on parade for the Sixty-first North Carolina State Fireman's Association convention in Fayetteville, North Carolina. The "Steam Pumper" was housed under the Market House for many years and the horses were kept in Bevel's Stables where the stone court house was later built on Gillespie Street. CityViewNC.com | 51

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