Get your hands off our state capital, Greensboro.
Who says Greensboro has lacked bold leadership?
Had the city fathers succeeded in 1909, the Governor would have his Capitol here and the legislature would be convening for long sessions one year and short sessions (that often get long).
Greensboro tried to wrest the state capital from Raleigh.
The attempt came during the 1890s and the first three decades of the 20th century, when city fathers thought big and aggressively pursued new ventures.
Everything seemed possible for the city after the early 1890s, when leaders managed to land not one, but two state colleges here. Both have grown into major universities - N.C. A&T State and UNCG.
No other North Carolina city can claim two large state universities. Winston-Salem has Winston-Salem State University and N.C. School of the Arts, but the latter is small and didn't open until the 1960s.
After Greensboro snared the two state schools against competition from other cities, local political leaders started thinking even bigger.
In February 1909, a special train of local political and civic leaders, led by State Sen. John A. Barringer of Guilford, went to Raleigh to propose a referendum on moving the capital.
The newspaper story announcing the special train noted that Guilford County was almost the exact geographical center of the state and that "more than the one-half of the white population of the state resides west and south of Greensboro."
The article went on to bash Raleigh, declaring, "Not only are the state buildings inadequate for the present pressing needs of the state, but the hotel facilties in Raleigh make pleasant life of the state representative impossible."
The story implied the state was planning to spend $7.5 million on state government improvements in Raleigh.
The Greensboro contingent argued the move to Greensboro would be cheaper. Carolina Real Estate Investment Co., which was developing the Glenwood neighborhood in southwest Greensboro, offered the state 25 free acres there for the capitol and other government buildings.
Local political leaders boasted the capital relocation idea had the support of Salisbury, Charlotte, Statesville, Burlington and other towns.
The big hitters who took the special train included President Julius Foust of what's now UNCG, County School Supt. Thomas Foust (Julius's brother), developer Garland Daniel (Lake Daniel), businessman C.D. Benbow, the mayor of High Point and honchos from Gibsonville.
They returned without the capital.
The news article was correct about the state's population shifting westward, but the state's political power remained in the east. In those days, all 100 counties were guaranteed at least one state seat in the House of Representatives.
Because the east had more counties than the west, the east dominated the legislature.
Lawmakers from from eastern North Carolina weren't about to let the capital move 75 miles westward down the rail line to Greensboro.
But it was a good try by Greensboro.
The city did make a steal from Raleigh three years later. In 1912, the Golds brothers, Charles and P.D., decided to move to Greensboro from Raleigh Jefferson Standard Life Insurance Co. The Golds had founded the company in 1907.
Jefferson prospered here and merged with Pilot Life Insurance Co. to become Jefferson-Pilot. Jeff-Pilot has long been of the city's landmark companies - until a few weeks ago.
It appears Jeff-Pilot has now been snatched from Greensboro. If shareholders approve, J-P will merge with Lincoln National Life Insurance Co. of Philadelphia. Greensboro will be the headquarters of the company's insurance division, but the executives offices will move to Philadelphia and the J-P name will disappear.
At least Greensboro remains the capital of Guilford County, thanks to another bold move in the early 1800s. A group of "centrists" were successful in relocating the county seat from the now vanished northwest community of Martinville to the center of the county and create the new town of Greensboro. Voters approved the move in a referendum.
But watch out Greensboro. Rumblings arise from time to time from the High Point area (which twice tried to secede from Guilford) to move the county seat to a place between the two cities, such as the old and long vacant Pilot Life campus at Sedgefield.
