Dix Park

Dorothea Dix Park

Dorothea Dix Park ("Dix Park") is a public park located southwest of downtown Raleigh, North Carolina. The park occupies approximately 308 acres of land formerly used as the Dorothea Dix Hospital campus and is one of the largest public parks in the City of Raleigh and the southeast. The park has extensive views of the downtown skyline and is a major open-space and civic amenity.

The park is owned and managed by the City of Raleigh and has been developed through a multi-phase planning and public engagement process following the closure of the hospital and transfer of the property from the State of North Carolina to the city.

Site history

Dorothea Dix Hospital

The land that now comprises Dorothea Dix Park was established in the mid-nineteenth century as the site of the North Carolina Insane Asylum, later known as Dorothea Dix Hospital. The hospital opened in 1856 and was named for Dorothea Dix, a mental health reformer whose advocacy contributed to the creation of public institutions for the care of people with mental illness.

Over more than a century, the campus expanded to include numerous buildings, roadways, and utility systems and functioned as a major state psychiatric facility. The hospital played a significant role in North Carolina’s mental health system but was also associated with changing approaches to institutional care over time.

Closure and transfer to the City

In the late twentieth and early twenty-first centuries, North Carolina shifted away from large institutional psychiatric hospitals toward community-based mental health care. As part of this transition, Dorothea Dix Hospital gradually reduced operations and officially closed in 2012.

In 2015, the State of North Carolina and the City of Raleigh reached an agreement transferring ownership of the Dorothea Dix campus to the city. The transfer was structured as a purchase by the city for approximately $52 million, with the sale proceeds going towards state mental health programs. The full terms of the sale were:

• Raleigh would pay the state $2 million of the $52 million total on the date the contract is executed.
• The city would do site examinations before closing on the deal to get an idea of maintenance and environmental remediation costs.
• As part of the site examinations, the city would test for asbestos and lead-based paint. It would not do "invasive testing," including soil boring.
• The city would notify the state of any environmental hazard identified.
• The city and state would close on the deal no more than 60 days after the city's receipt of funding, and no later than Feb. 29, 2016.
• The city would take over a 1999 lease agreement with The Healing Place of Wake County, a nonprofit recovery program for homeless people struggling with alcohol and drug addiction.
• If the General Assembly passed a law that would restrict the city's use of the property for more than one year, the city could terminate the contract.
• The city would not take over the state's liabilities regarding the landfill site on the property.
• If the city decided to sell or lease any part of the property, the state and city would share equally in the proceeds for no longer than 17 years.
• The state would be responsible for maintaining landscaping and vegetation in its leased area.
• The state and city would work together to maintain and repair access roads, including fixing potholes and removing snow and ice.

A group of Republican State legislators attempted to block the direct sale to the City, and instead auction off the park for a minimum of $52 million. The bill did not leave the Committee on Health Care.

Park planning and Master Plan

On April 19, 2016, the City signed an MOU with the Dorothea Dix Park Conservancy to guide the development of a master plan. As part of MOU, the Conservancy contributed up to $3 million for the master plan process ($2 million for planning, and $1 million for other activities and support). In April 2019, the Raleigh City Council adopted the Dorothea Dix Park Master Plan, a long-range framework intended to guide the park’s design, development, and programming over multiple decades.

Main article: Dorothea Dix Park Master Plan

Governance and advisory structure

On May 19, 2020, the city council approved a new MOA with the Conservancy to guide implementation of the master plan. As part of the new MOA, the Master Plan Executive Committee established in the 2016 MOU was replaced by the Dix Park Leadership Committee, with representatives from both the City and the Conservancy. A Dix Park Community Committee was also created to provide input from a broader group of community stakeholders. The 2020 MOA also allowed the City recognize donors and provide naming opportunities within the park as a way for the Conservancy to more effectively secure donations.

Additionally, the 2020 MOA replaced the Master Plan Advisory Committee (MPAC) with the Dix Park Community Committee, with 21 of the 45 members rolling over from the MPAC. Ultimate authority over land use and capital decisions remains with the City and the Raleigh City Council.

2025 milestones from January 2026 meeting

• Opening of Gipson Play Plaza
• DHHS transition off campus
• Completion of initial $75 million fundraising campaign
• Multiple public art projects, including the Dambo trolls
• Buildings become the top priority to address
• Visitation nearly doubled

2026 MOA update

On January 20, 2026, council authorized the Raleigh City Manager to execute a new MOA with the Conservancy, as the implementation needs of the park have changed since the 2020 MOA. The new MOA would replace the Dix Park Leadership Committee with a more formal group called the "Dix Park Commission". The makeup of the Commission would include appointments from the Mayor and Council, three from the Conservancy, one from the Wake County Board of Commissioners, NCSU, Department of Agriculture, Parks Advisory Board, and newly combined Community committee. Like other boards and commissions, no elected officials would serve on the Commission.

The Commission would oversee and approve Dix Park policies, make recommendations to the council around naming rights, and prioritize projects for funding to Council. The Commission would also approve public art projects with input from the Raleigh Arts staff and Public Art Design Board. The new MOA would also give the Conservancy more flexibility and decision-making authority around donor recognition and naming rights, and designate the Conservancy as the primary partner for all new and adaptive reuse of buildings and development.

Dorothea Dix Park is referenced in the City’s long-range planning documents, including the Raleigh Comprehensive Plan, as a key civic and recreational asset.

Gipson Play Plaza

The Play Plaza consists of a 18.5 +/- acre area located within Dorothea Dix Park, adjacent to Lake Wheeler Road between Goode Street and Umstead Drive.

On December 7, 2021, a public hearing was brought before the City Council to name the Play Plaza the "Gipson Play Park", after Raleigh residents Pat and Tom Gipson. Under the naming policies adopted by the City in July 2021, the Gipsons contributed $10 million towards the construction of the Play Plaza. Dix Park Conservancy leadership and former Raleigh Mayor Nancy McFarlane spoke in favor of the proposal. The Council voted 8-0 in approval.

Demolition of historic structures

The Dorothea Dix Park Master Plan recommends the removal of 53 buildings (nearly half a million square feet), most of which were leased back by the State for operations of the Department of Health and Human Resources.

On January 20, 2026, Council awarded a $3 million contract to Webb-Harrell Construction Service Corp. for the demolition of four buildings on the west campus at Dix Park. The four buildings - Ashby, Adams, Kirby, and Williams - total nearly 290,000 square feet.

See also

• City of Raleigh
• Dorothea Dix Park Master Plan