The Research Triangle Park

History of RTP

Have you ever wondered who founded RTP? Who owns RTP?  And how was it funded?

If you are not a Triangle area native like me, I’m sure you have.  When I moved to the Triangle area last summer, I knew of the famous Research Triangle Park.  But, I didn’t know the history, the innovations that have risen out of companies located in RTP, or the fact that what made it unique at the time of conception was that it was a public-private partnership.

The UNC-TV documentary, North Carolina’s Research Triangle Park: An Investment in the Future, was produced to commemorate RTP’s 40th anniversary in 1999 and does a wonderful job of detailing the history of RTP.  It was produced by Chapel Hill based documentary filmmaker  John Wilson and narrated by Carl Kasell of NPR News.

The documentary does a great job telling the story of RTP and we would encourage anyone interested to watch, but for those of you that don’t have the time to watch the entire hour long video, I’ve broken it down so you can watch the sections you are interested in or skip to the areas where you have questions.

Introduction/Creation of the Park (0-6:33)

• Post World War II, North Carolina was one of the poorest states due to struggling farming, textile, tobacco industries – low paying jobs that weren’t sufficient to keep the young people at home.
• Leaders realized that this area had a wealth of brain power – people who could think for a living, had a vision of what the future could be. 
• Governor Jim Hunt on RTP’s secret to success: “The secret is not a piece of land, it’s relationships between those people who teach, those people who do research, and those of us in government who need to support them.”
• Today, RTP is:
  • The largest planned research park in the world.
  • Birthplace of a range of discoveries & products with global impact.  From AZT to Zantac, astro-turf to the bar code scanner.
  • Home to 3 Nobel prize winning scientists. (To date, RTP is home to 4 Nobel prize winners: Oliver Smithies won the Nobel prize in 2007)
  • The Research Triangle Park transformed NC’s economic landscape: RTP is “the most important single thing that has taken place in the state this century.”

A Grand Dream (6:34-18:21)

• 1954: Romeo Guest coins the term Research Triangle, begins to drum up support for the Research Triangle. 
• Guest presented the concept to Governor Luther Hodges in late 1954. 
• Hodges brought in Robert Hanes (President of Wachovia at the time)  to head up the Research Triangle Development Council and endorsed Guest’s idea.
• 1956: UNC Sociology Professor George Simpson becomes Executive Secretary for the Research Triangle Development Council.  Proposed cooperative research centers that could combine the strengths of the region’s universities. “If Governor Hodges was the heart of the Triangle, Simpson became the brain.”
• Simpson then created a sales team of local professors to pitch the idea of the Research Triangle to companies across the country.
• “The Research Triangle Park effort could not have been better timed.”
  • Sunbelt phenomenom – influx of business & industry into Southern states
  • Intensification of Cold War increased demand for scientific man power

Scrub Pine & Possums (8:21-25:36)

• Carl Robbins, a retired NC textiles magnet, agreed to invest $1M for land near RDU. He purposefully kept a low profile so as not to drive up the prices on worn out farm land that one local described as, “nothing but scrub pine & possums.”
• Governor Hodges announced plans for Research Triangle on September 10, 1957
• By early 1958, 4000 acres crossing two counties had been purchased at an average price of $175/acre.
• Without investors, the Research Triangle Park almost failed in the summer of 1958. 
• Archie Davis, Chairman of Wachovia Bank, took the charge to sell land and changed the Park to a non-profit designation. “It was the pivotal day, everyone was on the team then.”
• In September 1958, Davis began meetings with potential contributors.  A very persuasive businessman, he exceeded his fundraising goal by Christmas.  Many of the donors were friends of Robert Haynes, who had been diagnosed with terminal cancer.  Archie Raised $1,481,000.
  • Money used for 3 purposes: (1)Pass control of the land to the new, non-profit, Research Triangle Foundation; (2) Establish the Research Triangle Institute; and (3) Construct a building to house the Research Triangle Institute.  The Hanes family raised  $300,000 to name the building in honor of Robert Hanes, who subsequently passed away 2 months later.

Two Anchors (25:36-29:58)

• In December 1958, Gertude Cox, Founder of the Joint UNC/NC State Institute of Statistics agreed to bring her organization to Research Triangle Institute.  Durham banker George Watts-Hill was named Chairman of RTI, and he named George Herbert as the President.  Mr. Herbert had RTI operating profitably within 2 years.
• Chemstrand opened a large research facility in 1960. “The coming of Chemstrand gave credibility to Research Triangle Park, as did the startup and success of Research Triangle Institute.”  These were the two anchors for a long time. 
• However, the momentum came to a halt in the early 1960s as RTP struggled to gain tenants.

Black Ink (29:59-34:21)

• In January 1965, it was announced that RTP had been selected for the US Environmental Health Center (known today as NIEHS)
• 3 months after the NIEHS announcement, IBM announced the opening of a research facility on 400 acres in RTP
• IBM’s land purchase allowed the Research Triangle Foundation to pay off its mortgage. 
• “The arrivals of NIEHS and IBM confirmed RTP’s success.”

A Different World (34:22-42:50)

• 1970: Burroughs Wellcome relocated their company headquarters to North Carolina due to the competitive advantages of lower priced land, building & labor.
• 1971: US Environmental Protection Agency established a presence in the Research Triangle.
• 1973: Becton Dickinson, a manufacturer of medical instrumentation and healthcare products dedicated a major research center
• Early 1980s: Rhone Poulenc, Novartis, and BASF came to the Park
• 1983: Glaxo opened one of the largest pharmaceutical centers in the nation in RTP
• 1981: NC Biotech Center became the first state supported initiative in biotech in the nation

A Permanent Home (42:50 –48:37)

• Research Triangle Institute continues to be a symbol of the unique cooperation between the three universities and has become one of the world’s premier research institutes.
• In order to give the three universities a permanent home in RTP, the Research Triangle Foundation donated 120 acres in 1975 to the Triangle University Center for Advanced Studies Incorporated (TUCASI). 
• Cisco Systems came to RTP in 1995

Staying at Home (48:38-52:06)

• Today, RTP companies spend billions of dollars annually on manufacturing, services, and payroll.
• “The Research Triangle Park deserves most of the credit for changing the North Carolina economic mix.”
• Young people who might have migrated north or to California looking for jobs are now able to stay home and make a contribution to North Carolina.
• Park Research Center and First Flight Venture Center make RTP more accessible to young companies.
• Since 1970, the Triangle has given birth to over 300 technology companies, creating more than 20,000 new jobs.
• “There’s nothing better you can do than develop a very close, working relationship with the brightest minds on college and university campuses. That’s the key to the university research park and we learned it all from the Research Triangle Park.”

Back to Work (52:07-end)

• We need to now plan a pattern of growth for the Park with a focus on transportation, education, and healthcare.
• Since much of the appeal of locating in North Carolina is the quality of life, RTP companies have vigorously supported measures to improve public education, healthcare, the arts, and transportation. 
• “The Triangle is just now in a position in its maturation to do what it was conceived of.  It’s a glorious tribute to the spirit of people who banded together and it made our state different, and that’s why it has enjoyed all of these wonderful years of economic growth.”

For more information on Research Triangle Park since the time this video was produced, visit http://rtp.org/about-rtp. 

For information on the future of RTP & the Master Plan, visit: http://rtp.org/about-rtp/planning-and-progress