“Birthplace of North Carolina’s Capital” built in 1769. Visit the Joel Lane Museum House to learn about North Carolina's rich colonial history. Birthplace of North Carolina's capital city, Raleigh. Joel Lane Museum House, Inc., founded in 1972, exists to foster education about the State of North Carolina's past. The Joel Lane Museum House, the oldest house in Wake Co, built in 1769, was the site of many important 18th-century events in the state's history. Most famously, commissioners appointed by the legislature to find a permanent site for the state capital met here in 1792 and decided to buy 1,000 acres of Joel Lane's land for the new capital. Col. Lane's home was restored to its 1790 appearance and opened to the public in 1976. It is accredited as a museum house by the National Society of Colonial Dames of America.