Location: 820 Clay Street, Raleigh, NC 27605 Capacity: Up to 300 (amphitheater); 150 (Borden Building) Type: Historic City Park Website: raleighnc.gov
Fred Fletcher Park is a 21.4-acre city park off Glenwood Avenue, built around a single brick building and the amphitheater beside it. The City of Raleigh bought the land in 1982 from the Methodist Home for Children, which had cared for children on the site since 1898. The Borden Building, built in 1900 to a design by architect Charles A. Pearson, is one of two structures that survive from that campus. It served first as the superintendent's house, then as a boys' dormitory, before the city converted it into a rental venue.
A wedding here uses two connected pieces of the park: the brick building for getting ready and for the reception, and the amphitheater a short walk away for the ceremony, set among the park's gardens and mature trees.
The Borden Building
The building is 2 stories of brick with a covered porch, a working kitchen, 2 upstairs dressing rooms, and 2 single-stall restrooms. The first floor is reached by ramp. Folding tables and chairs are provided for use inside and on the porch; anything set up beyond the porch, the renter brings in. Indoor dancing is confined to the first floor and requires a dance floor brought in for the purpose. The building holds 100 people downstairs and 50 upstairs, 150 total, and is available to rent every day from 10 a.m. to 11 p.m., excluding holidays. It is a non-staffed facility, so a couple runs their own day inside it.
The Amphitheater and Gardens
The Fred Fletcher Amphitheater sits near the Borden Building, with a stone circle and a wedding aisle laid out among the trees nearby. It holds up to 300 people and is available from sunrise to sunset, with no interior lighting or climate control to schedule around, just the hours of the day. The gardens around it are planted and maintained by the city, and a separate water garden nearby has four deep pools that filter stormwater and support butterflies, dragonflies, frogs, and ducks. Walking paths connect the amphitheater, the gardens, and the building, so a ceremony outside and a reception inside share the same short stretch of ground.
What We Design Here
The Borden Building's red brick warms everything placed against it, so indoor work reads best in ivory and cream, deep greens, and dusty, burnished tones. Scale can go up here. The ceilings and porch give room for taller arrangements without crowding the tables, and with the kitchen on hand, a florist can finish pieces right in the building.
Outside, the stone circle is the architecture, so floral work there does less lifting: an arch or arbor at the front, low arrangements along the aisle, a simple treatment that lets the trees and the circle carry the rest. The garden setting means the palette should read well against green in daylight, since the amphitheater has no artificial light of its own once the sun goes down.
Practical
Fred Fletcher Park is a short drive north of downtown Raleigh, with entrances off both St. Mary's Street and Glenwood Avenue. On-site parking is available at 820 Clay Street, with a second lot on Washington Street. The city's parks department manages the Borden Building and the amphitheater as separate rentals, each booked through the city's online special-occasion rental request form; staff approval is required before a reservation is confirmed.
Hidden Door Floral Studio is a Raleigh wedding florist designing for weddings across Raleigh, the Triangle and North Carolina, and happy to travel beyond. To talk about your wedding at Fred Fletcher Park, schedule a consultation.
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