How Dix Park evolved into Raleigh's favorite "third place"
Add Axios as your preferred source to
see more of our stories on Google.
Flowers Field at Dix Park. Photo: Zachery Eanes/Axios
Ten years ago, Hayes Permar, the owner of the Rialto Theatre in Raleigh, would use Dix Park as his personal driving range, lobbing golf balls across Flowers Field toward the Raleigh skyline.
- Permar, who visits Dix's dog park nearly every day, says that if he did that today, he would be run off with expletives for putting someone in danger of a head injury.
Why it matters: The Dix Park of today is woven into the fabric of Raleigh. It's more crowded than ever, attracting people across generations, from children playing to adults finding a moment of zen to curious teens admiring local art.
What they're saying: "It's now an everyday park," Permar said, adding that it wasn't the case when the city bought the former home of Dorothea Dix Hospital from the state in 2015.
State of play: When we look back on this period in Raleigh, we might think of the previous 12 months as the time when Dix Park, a 300-acre park on the edge of downtown, cemented itself as one of Raleigh's favorite gathering spots.
By the numbers: Dix Park welcomed 1.7 million visitors in the past year, a record for the park, according to Nancy McFarlane, a former Raleigh mayor and vice chair of the Dix Park Conservancy.
- That included 600,000 visitors from June through August, according to ABC 11, making it the second most visited destination in North Carolina this summer, trailing only Wrightsville Beach.
What happened: The two biggest drivers of that increased traffic were the opening of the Gipson Play Plaza, one of the largest adventure playgrounds in the South, and the unveiling of five troll statues by the Danish artist Thomas Dambo.
- The response to those two projects, funded by a mix of public funds and donations, has been beyond expectations. For the first time, there's a huge concentration of children in the park every day, McFarlane noted, and the trolls have become a huge magnet for new visitors.
But it's not just those two investments that have elevated the park in the past year.
- Dreamville Festival once again brought tens of thousands of people to the park last spring, showing it can host large events.
- The House of Many Porches created a space to buy food and beverages for the first time.
- Employees of the N.C. Department of Health and Human Services fully moved out of the park — freeing up space and resources for amenities like parking.
- Sublime days can happen at any moment — like the recent snow day that brought hundreds of sledders to the park.
- And, perhaps most importantly for its future, hundreds of apartments and new restaurants began opening on the edges of the park, bringing more people within walking distance and creating new connections between downtown and the park.
What they're saying: McFarlane, who helped the city acquire the land a decade ago, said Dix Park has significant momentum at the moment, and that 2026 is about capitalizing on that.
- "You know, hardly any cities have a 300-acre new park in their downtown. It just doesn't happen," she said. "We all recognize this is an incredible opportunity. [But] it always comes down to raising the money."
What's next: How exactly Dix Park evolves in the coming years remains to be seen, as many of the former hospital buildings will need to be demolished or repurposed.
- McFarlane said the Dix Park Conservancy board is considering many near-term improvement projects, including a revamped dog park, but it still needs to vote on priorities.
- In the coming months, though, a new coffee shop and bar will open inside the Flowers Cottage, and improvements to Lake Wheeler Road should begin.
- And Raleigh is still waiting to hear what might replace the popular Dreamville Festival. A spokesperson for the city said it is discussing with organizers on picking a date.