Some 43 miles southeast of Raleigh, N.C., lies Goldsboro, the seat of Wayne County and home of Seymour Johnson Air Force Base, the country’s only Air Force base name for a Naval officer.
The military base is what drew me to Goldsboro on Thursday, but I did not spend any time there. Instead, I spent a couple hours doing a photo-documentation of the city’s downtown area. Confused? I understand.
Lee Ann, a widow of a U.S. serviceman, needed to visit a military base to renew her military identification card. So she ended up at Seymour Johnson after dropping me off downtown.
The drop off point was the Wayne County Courthouse, a buff-colored brick and concrete structure dating to 1912 and restored in 1999 (see photo leading off the post). Three sides of the building have porticos, each with four large support columns, giving it a familiar courthouse veneer. An atrium connects the main courthouse to a four-story annex added in 1952 and renovated in the early 1990s.
During my walk-through downtown Goldsboro, I found that photographing the majority of landmarks — and the courthouse was no exception — was compromised by voluminous low-hanging utility cables and wires and/or foliage from large, old trees. A good example of that is shown in the photo above, a view of the west side of the courthouse (far left), the annex (center) and the Sheriff's Department (right).
In some cases, the number of cables and wires dangling or intersecting in just one location or one angle of a picture was extraordinary. I couldn’t help but wonder the difficulty a severe wind or snow/ice storm would present if downed wires resulted in power outages here. Usually if a solitary wire/cable or two cross a picture that I take, I can often remove the wires in post-processing. But there were so many to work around in Goldsboro that in most cases, if I couldn’t compose around the wires, I left them alone in the pictures. I mean … this is what the place actually looks like, you know?
While William Street between Walnut and Chestnut streets is where the county courthouse and sheriff’s department and Veterans Memorial Park (the latter illustrated in the photo below) are located, it was obvious that Center Street, a merchants district a few blocks west of William, is where the city had devoted recent beautification efforts.
Center Street features several blocks of businesses, several roundabouts, nicely landscaped medians and even some striking outdoor installation art as well as the local police and fire departments anchoring the strip at the south end.
At a roundabout at Center and Walnut streets, in the heart of the strip, one can enjoy an artsy fountain called Cityscape, built in 2015 (see two photos below). The fountain, designed by landscape architect and urban planner Alison Platt, features multiple granite slabs of different heights and color arranged to represent a compact city skyline.
To view a full gallery of images from this shoot, follow the link in this sentence.
Two more views of the courthouse (above and below) and the atrium that connects the courthouse with the annex (second photo below). Above: More cables and wires cross over this view of the Sheriff's Department from Chestnut Street, south of the courthouse.
Another Center Street roundabout with installation art (above) and a closeup of the balancing figure on the art (below). A look north down Center Street from another roundabout where this installation art (below) appears. Above and below: At Chestnut and Center streets, this city park, referred to as The Hub, is located. Above: The Well Traveled Beer bar and bottle shop at 201 S. Center St. Above: The Paramount, Goldsboro's venue for performing arts, public events and revival films, has had a long history. The building dates to its beginning as a three-story armory in the 1800s before an eventual transformation to a vaudville house, closure in the 1980s, a renovation in the 1990s and its destruction by fire in 2005. It was rebuilt and reopened Feb. 15, 2008. Above and below: A clock sits along Center Street in the redeveloped merchants district. Another slice of Center Street (above and below). The Laughing Owl restaurant (below) features a mural on the side of its building facing East Walnut Street (second photo below). A sign hanging above the now-shuttered Family Shoe Store (above) at John and Walnut streets. The store, which closed in 2024, had been operated by members of the Bedford family since 1963. Below, a view of the front facade of the Independent Order of Oddfellows' Neuse Lodge No. 6 at 113 N. John St.
The Betterment Center (above) at 206 E. Mulberry St. and two views of the Wayne County Musuem (below and second photo below) at 116 N. William St.
Above: The main office of Goldsboro's U.S. Post Office at 200 N. William St. Above: A statue of a World War I doughboy stands on the north lawn of the Wayne County Courthouse. Above: The front facade of First Baptist Church, 125 S. John St.
Above: The front of the law office of Nina Fields Jackson, 111 N. William St. Above: A sign along the side of a building on North William Street featuring a quote from the late American tennis star Arthur Ashe. Above and below: Different compositions integrating the front facade of the Wayne County Chamber of Commerce building, 308 N. William St. Above and below: Different angles of the Fordham Home, 412 N. William St., a faith-based shelter and resource assistance facility for people struggling with substance abuse and other personal issues. Above: The front of The Word church, 300 N. William St. More utility cables and wires along North William Street, juxposing with the city water tower (above) and a few train cars (below) along a railroad (second photo below). Above: A chute spanning North William Street connecting separate plants of the former Borden Manufacturing Co. textile mill.
Above: Still more utility cables and wires, this time overlaying St. Paul Methodist Church, 204 E. Chestnut St.
Above: The Salvation Army center at 610 N. William St.
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