02/20/2025
The Pope House, built in 1901 by Dr. Manassa Thomas Pope, is found in southeast Raleigh on South Wilmington Street.
The Pope House has since been turned into a museum and is the only African-American house museum in North Carolina. In the museum you will find original furnishings and artifacts that give insight into a remarkable man and his family.
Dr. Manassa Thomas Pope was born in Northampton County, NC in 1858. He attended Shaw University for his undergraduate degree and continued his graduate studies at the Leonard School of Medicine at Shaw, completing his degree in 1886. Upon graduation, Dr. Pope opened his own medical practice right in Raleigh. In 1888, he moved to Henderson, NC and then to Charlotte, NC in 1892. In Charlotte he worked with a former classmate, Dr. J. T. Williams, to establish Queen City Drug Company; eventually incorporating their drugstore. In 1897, Dr. Pope traveled some more as he enlisted in the U.S. Army, serving as an assistant surgeon during the Spanish American War. After serving in the Army, Dr. Pope moved back to Raleigh, where he ran for mayor, ultimately losing the election. Though he holds the title of the only Black man to run for mayor of a Southern capital in the midst of the Jim Crow Era. In 1934, Dr. Manassa Thomas Pope passed away.
