Hotel Carolina — Raleigh, N.C.
This week we present our first Flashback Friday follow-up. In last week’s Raleigh bus station post we posed the question to identify the tall building seen looming in the background. Several readers correctly identified it as the Hotel Carolina.
Unfortunatly this postcard was never mailed, and there is no personal message on the back, but the printed description notes that:
The Hotel Carolina is located on the corner of S. McDowell and W. Hargett Streeets. It is a modern hotel and has 250 rooms.
It certainlty was a “modern hotel” when this Curt Teich “Art Colortone” linen postcard was printed in the early 1930s, but the publisher got the address wrong — the hotel was actually located at the corner of W. Hargett and S. Dawson.
The Hotel Carolina was built in in 1927 in the renaissance revival “commercial” style, and its enormous red neon sign on the roof was a familiar Raleigh landmark for more than a half century. It was demolished in 1980 and the Avery B. Upchurch Municipal Building now occupies the site. (The bus station on W. Morgan was also demolished, and a city parking deck stands there today.)
Seen below is a ‘real photo’ of the Hotel Carolina taken during its demolition 30 years ago. The view is from the bus station parking lot.
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05/07/2011
As a small child I like to visit the small soda fountain on the ground floor of the hotel.
08/22/2011
When cleaning out an old house in the Fisher Park neighborhood of Greensboro this spring, volunteers found a sturdy old brown key fob with a key to Hotel Carolina, Raleigh, NC. The fob is imprinted with “Hotel Carolina Raleigh NC”, room number 401 and the familiar old guarantee “If carried away, return. Unsealed. We guarantee postage.”
I’d return it if the hotel were still standing, but alas I read in this article that the hotel is gone. I may send it to a Raleigh historical museum instead. Quite a coincidence that the hotel’s postcard and a key fob surfaced the same spring!
07/06/2012
I have just come into possession of four electric brass chandeliers from the Sphinx Club at the Carolina Hotel, complete with glass lanterns and green globes. Anyone interested? Call me in New Bern.
07/10/2012
That hotel, like so many other buildings in Raleigh, was demolished by Wadsworth Wrecking. L. T. Wadsworth was quite a character.
I believe one of his workers was killed during the demolition when he stuck his head inside the elevator shaft to see if the elevator was coming. Alas – it was.
12/11/2012
I remember singing in the ballroom with the Raleigh High Glee Club in the early 1940s.
06/10/2013
anyone know of any links to information or articles about the history of the hotel carolina? I lived there for a year as an nc state student due to lack of dorm space in the 1970s. it was quite an experience and I would like to find out more about it. however google searches are proving inadequate. any suggestions or help would be appreciated.
11/03/2013
My father worked at the hotel carolina in what must have been the late 50’s or 60’s.it was a prominent place to stay in Raleigh. Ask Rick Flair or many of the other wrestlers who stayed there when they wrestled at dorton arena or Chanel five studios,
06/16/2014
I actually lived in the Carolina Hotel for 2yrs 1968-70 while I was a student at Shaw University. I had a one bedroom efficiency apartment there. I really enjoyed living there.
07/21/2014
My grandfather, Orin Honeycutt, was a clerk (night clerk) at the hotel in the late 1920’s :)
05/09/2015
I lived in room 929 (top floor) from May ’69 to Jan ’70 after graduating from college and moving to Raleigh to work at the [then] adolescent RTP. My room overlooked the long demolished Trailways bus station. The monthly rental was $70 which was a bargain considering the many “Mom and Pop” eateries which existed downtown then. The hotel even had maid service and full-time bellhops with a soda shop on the ground floor. A relic of a by-gone era.
06/07/2015
When I was 5 years old my father was the hotel assistant manager. ( 1958-1959 ) We lived in an apartment on the 9th floor. The grand piano, the stairs, the lobby all seamed massive in my ancient memories. I disliked the barber shop but the drug store and restaurant is a different subject. My fondest memory is sometimes being allowed to operate the old elevators. I think I got pretty good at it. Was not there a park across the street?
11/23/2015
I stayed at the Hotel Carolina on Nov 23, 1972. I remember that everything seem so immense. The next morning I was taken to the airport and flew to Lackland AFB to begin my 20 years in the AF.
03/24/2019
My father was the Barber there located i. The basement. His name was Willard Lowery
12/01/2019
I spent three months in the Hotel Carolina in the summer of 1970 while working as a student at Dorothea Dix. My room was basic but adequate. Most memorable were the elevator and the spacious, marbled lobby with large fans and comfortable couches. Happy memories.
05/25/2020
My father worked at the Carolina Hotel not long after mother and dad were married. I just found a newspaper article telling about my Aunt and Uncle being guests of my parents there, en route from Florida to Chicago. The social article is dated May 1, 1934 – 2 years before I was born. I never heard what he did there. I have pictures somewhere taken there of the four of them.
10/23/2021
I am an author writing my third historical fiction novel. The current one I am writing is set in 1954 and early sixties. I need a focal point for an extended stay for two sisters in Raleigh. The Carolina Hotel seems a great setting. Your memories have really helped me visualize this place. Thank you!
02/09/2023
I just picked up a key and fob same as the one described found some time ago… Room 351… Pretty neat to own a piece of history…
02/09/2023
Here’s the key and fob I found at a local antique shop near Inman, SC…
02/09/2023
https://ibb.co/bz5KK6d
02/09/2023
https://ibb.co/9rvMGk1
05/09/2023
My Great Aunt Sallie & Great Uncle Charlie were married there in 1931. Aunt Sallie’s brother, my Great Uncle Tom worked in the barber shop from the late 20s to at least the 60s. I’m glad that I got to now all of them, but they were gone by the time I was 14. Oh, the questions that I would love to ask them!!!