I learned this lesson in the autumn of 1991 during my first semester at Peace College. Each weekday I drove from our North Raleigh home in relatively recent suburbia to a school begun in 1857. Along my route I passed by Mordecai House, built in 1785 with an addition from 1826.

Each day, it wasn't the stately neoclassical columns that compelled me, rather it was the home's simple side porch. On the way north one afternoon that fall, I found myself ringing the front door bell.

First as a volunteer and later as a staff member, I gave tours of the home and the other buildings on the grounds. History had been one of my favorite subjects since I was a child. But when I was 18, Raleigh was like a well loved and oft-used kitchen table, just part of the woodwork that shaped my life.

I learned that history is as much about human nature as it is about facts and figures. Times change, but we are connected to those who came before us by more than words upon dusty pages.

While the history in our own backyard may not be exotic, it is the story of our city and a part of who we are.

One area of local history that has particularly compelled me is street names. Raleigh, as a planned Capitol city, began in 1792 with a grid of streets that needed titles. What were the representatives to do but name some of these after themselves and their districts? I suppose this could be the first example of naming rights in Raleigh history.

Raleigh filled its first 1,000 acres by 1857 and stretched by a quarter of a mile in each direction. It formally grew again in 1907, Mordecai House within these new limits -- the "North Raleigh" of that era.

Living in present-day North Raleigh I've contemplated expanding boundaries and the origins of its main thoroughfares. Millbrook and Leesville Roads once led to communities so named. Of course, Wake Forest Road is also easily explained.

But Wake Forest Road becomes Falls of Neuse Road. In previous research, I'd seen photographs of the falls. A local call to the Army Corps of Engineers informed me that these falls in the Neuse River were actually man's creation. The water cascaded over the remains of an old dam, which is now eclipsed by the newer dam.

Next I got stuck, mentally at least, on Six Forks Road. I ended up at North Regional Library clutching William S. Powell's 1968 book, "The North Carolina Gazetteer: A Dictionary of Tar Heel Places."

On page 456, I found Six Forks, described as a community in northern Wake County where six roads met, once known as Tippers Crossroads. I began to contemplate North Raleigh with a Tippers Road.

On a whim, I looked up the Neuse River in this book. I learned that the river was named in 1584 by Arthur Barlowe, who was exploring along the North Carolina coast. He titled this journeying water after the Neusiok Indians. If he had chosen to name it after himself, we might be driving along the "Falls of Barlowe."

A couple of weeks ago, work drew me downtown. On the way home, as I often do, I smiled at Mordecai House. It is being repainted and the boards were now nearly scraped to bare wood.

A few years have passed since this home was second nature to me. But history and my own memories caught me. Before I knew it, my palm was pressed against the side of the house, its pulse spreading through my fingers.

This energy of yesterday and today lingered with me as I drove north on Wake Forest Road.

North Raleigh is one section of a whole heart that is a city. Whether 1792 or 2008, whether traveled by horses or automobiles, roads are arteries towards the homes we treasure and the people we love.

And two of those roads just might have been Tippers Road and Falls of Barlowe.