The Bland Hotel, Raleigh, N.C.
Our Flashback Friday postcard this week features — ta-dah! — The Bland Hotel. The name alone compels you to check right in, doesn’t it? Or maybe not. More than that, this postcard poses many more questions, as well.
Oct. 21 / 38
Dear Mr. Bedney:
Many thanks for for the package of match covers. They were fine. I’m sorry the postmarks were not cut properly but may have some more for you later.
Yours very truly.[signed] L.B.
#379
Now, here’s the puzzle. How did a Raleigh postcard depicting the Bland Hotel end up being sent from ‘L.B.’ in Canada to ‘Mr. Bedney’ in Minnesota? And what’s the deal with ‘match covers’ and ‘improperly cut postmarks’? And who’s the seller here? Mr. Bedney apparently sent the ‘package of match covers’ to L.B., but L.B. apologizes about the ‘improperly cut postmarks’ and will have ‘more’ to send to Mr. Bedney ‘later.’ Go figure.
The Bland Hotel was built in 1912, and was located at the corner of Salisbury and Martin streets, prominently situated on the streetcar line, and just two blocks from Raleigh’s Union Depot. An ad in the 1915 Raleigh City Directory states:
THE BLAND HOTEL
T.L. Bland, Proprietor
New — Fireproof — Modern
European Plan
125 Rooms, $1.00 and $1.50 per day
Large Sample Rooms Free
‘Large sample rooms’ — Hmm, maybe The Bland catered to a traveling salesman clientele.
By 1942 the hotel had been renamed The Andrew Johnson — “The Hotel Everybody Likes.” (1942 city directory)
With the gradual decline of downtown Raleigh in the 1960s, the Andrew Johnson entered into a steady decline as well. By the 1970s the building had been stripped of its distinctive medallion-crowned parapet and its balconies and marquee; its street level had been ‘modernized’ with plate glass windows, and a porn shop operated out of one of its storefronts. By then it had essentially morphed into a cheap ‘residential hotel,’ or flophouse. An elderly resident died there as a result of a fire in 1971.
In the early 1980s, the N&O acquired the derelict structure and demolished it to accommodate the expansion of its printing plant.
This week’s ‘art colored’ post card was published by Raleigh stationer James E. Thiem, and was printed in Chicago by the Curt Teich Co. (C.T. American Art Colored’)
Curt Teich Co.  1893-1974
Chicago, ILA major publisher and printer. Their U.S. factories turned out more cards in quantity than any other printer. They published a wide range of national view-cards of America and Canada. Many consider them one of the finest producers of White Border Cards. The Linen Type postcard came about through their innovations as they pioneered the use of offset lithography. They were purchased by Regensteiner Publishers in 1974 which continued to print cards at the Chicago plant until 1978.
“Flashback Friday†is a weekly feature of Goodnight, Raleigh! in which we showcase vintage postcards depicting our historic capital city. We hope you enjoy this week-end treat!
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05/18/2012
Summer of 1972 I was a reporter intern at the Raleigh Times. As low girl on the totem pole I got all the jobs the regular staff detested, #1 detested job being man-on-the-street interviews: I would go out onto the downtown Raleigh streets with a photographer, walk up to a pedestrian, ask the question of the week (“do you think the mayor should…”), the citizen, caught by surprise, would answer, the photographer would snap the picture, and we would be off to the next victim. My goal was to make the task as painless as possible for myself, to be in and out of the office within a half hour, and early on I figured out I could go down the street to the Andrew Johnson and get a couple winos sunning on the stoop to answer my question. I always looks for the most photogenic subject: long, ragged facial scar, missing teeth, missing eyeball. One day it was drizzling rain and none of my buddies sat out on the stoop, so I decided to go in and interview a couple guys in the lobby. The photographer stopped me, telling me I really didn’t want to go in there. I stuck my head in the open front door. Photographer was right. Not good. Didn’t smell fresh. Eventually my boss told me not to include so many Andrew Johnson residents in my mission, that wasn’t the image of downtown we wanted to portray. The upside was I got word the FBI found someone they were looking for in one of the snapshots.
05/18/2012
That’s I always looked for the most photogenic subject. “S” is next to “D” on the keyboard. That’s why copy editors were born.
05/18/2012
Interesting post, Raleigh Boy. I wonder if the flag in the postcard was artistic license.
Here are two Flickr photos and one from a Triangle Business Journal Slideshow last month that show the hotel in decline (but not to the point where hollywoodgirl found it):
http://www.flickr.com/photos/64515477@N03/5905327968/in/photostream/
http://www.flickr.com/photos/64515477@N03/5905333114/in/photostream/
http://assets.bizjournals.com/triangle/news/Raleigh_AndrewJohnson.jpg?v=1
05/18/2012
Another great article, Raleigh Boy! Thank you
05/21/2012
Hollywoodgirl — Thanks for sharing your recollections of the Andrew Johnson Hotel with our readers. That’s pretty much how I remember it in the ’70s, as well.
Curt — Awesome pics! Thanks for the links!
And THANK YOU, Mr. Brown! Glad you enjoy my ramblings.
05/23/2012
LOL that message typed on the post card sounds like an international drug deal!
05/23/2012
A lunchtime internet search for Ed V. Bedney resulted in the fact that he was a collector of matchbooks and of maritime postal cancellation stamps. He apparently died in 1996 and is credited for some items bought at varous post card, maritime stamp and matchbook collector sites/shows.
05/23/2012
I was thinking about the downtown hotels and how their purposes had changed over the decades, and how wonderful it is that we are still talking about them…
I had done a story at the Carolina, down the road from the Andrew Johnson. At the time it was housing guys overnight on their way into the military (Vietnam); they were put up there overnight, the next morning they got on the bus for basic training. The hotel was the antithesis of the AJ: clean, bright, maintained, nothing fancy, middle of the road. Big plants in the lobby. I think they also had residents; I saw young, professional-looking people coming and going, probably an affordable pit stop on the road to something better.
I also had some experience at the Park Central, a place I could have haunted for days. A friend of my father, c.1965, owned a small sign shop in the downstairs corner storefront, and he hired me now and then to help with orders. The Park Central was somewhere between the other two in atmosphere, tattered, dated, but well enough maintained, and because it had a tower, just fine by me. It also at that time catered to residents; I saw mainly elderly, and some single moms with little kids, coming and going. I wonder if various agencies were subsidizing the residencies at these three hotels, as shelters weren’t as prevalent those days, and there was still a need for lo-income, or emergency, housing.
Years later I visited the once-grand Chelsea Hotel in Greenwich Village, and I thought of the Raleigh downtown hotels, in particular the Sir Walter. The Chelsea was built to cater to well-heeled clientele, and over the decades had become frayed and leaky, but was lovingly maintained by management and residents. It was crawling with artistic types, and resident art, and was wonderful. What would the Raleigh hotels be like had they been allowed the same fate, rather than demolition and simplification.
Of course, last I heard, the Chelsea was being remodeled as expensive condos, and long-time residents were being forced out.
05/24/2012
Hollywoodgirl,
I remember buying some signs for my employer at that sign shop! They were custom made to order, with plastic letters, as I recall. That was in about 1973.
05/25/2012
Yes, jayare, that little shop was a downtown Raleigh institution for many years, to the bitter end, I don’t know. By the time you went there Mr. Mansfield may have sold it, he was elderly, retired from Exide, and his wife died I’m thinking late 60’s, maybe in the 70’s. Every time I drove by for years the shop was still there. They must have sold zillions of those signs; I know after 8 or 10 hours of assembling signs, for several nights alphabets danced thru my dreams. At least I found out what I didn’t want my career to be.
05/26/2012
If only we still had this, and not the N&O plant (that will likely ultimately go the way of the dodo).
06/03/2012
“and a porn shop operated out of one of its storefronts”
The porn shop gathered a bit of noterity in 1973 when the N&O reported that it had a ‘topless girl’ running the register. My friend Kim and I went down one Saturfday morning and saw the young woman without a shirt or bra sitting behind the counter. The powers-that-be in Raleigh soon put a stop to that promotion.
The thing I remember most about that hotel ( I think it was the Andrew Johnson) was the gay bar in the basement with the fifty year-old men in business suits dancing together. We used to grab a beer and watch the action. We were maybe 20 or 21 at that time and I remember thinking how they looked like traveling peddlers (salesmen) of which my father was member of the ranks.
Also an upstairs bar / soda fountain ( may be a different hotel) used to serve the best milk shakes in Raleigh. Again Kim and I would stop in on a Saturday afternoon and order a chocolate shake each. One time in October when the fair was in town, I saw the James E. Strates showman who had taken my $5 the night before having a mid-afternoon drink with my money. Those were the very early 70’s days in downtown Raleigh.
Hi to Raleighboy.
11/01/2012
I have a hand painted metal sign from the Bland. It is in rather rough shape but it is original. Rooms are 1.50 and 2.50. The sign says “fireproof” so I sad to hear a woman died in a fire there.
I would not mind selling it to the right person. I wish I could remember how I came in possession of it.
03/30/2015
It was actually the basement of the Sir Walter Raleigh hotel that had the gay bar. I went there in the early 70’s. It was an unmarked “speak easy”, with a narrow door (saloon style split down the middle to swing open as you pushed) leading down some rather steep steps to a windowless (as I recall) basement. It was a total fire trap with no second exit, but the guests certainly seemed to enjoy this one place where they could be themselves. When I went, the entertainment was a lesbian sitting on the bar playing an acoustic guitar. This was before the MouseTrap opened and most of the business moved there…the first above-ground gay bar in Raleigh. History.
03/31/2015
I love reading posts about pre-gentrification Raleigh. While an 18 year old, driving a Raleigh Yellow Cab in the mid-70’s, graveyard shift, I frequently picked up passengers of ill repute from the Park Central Hotel’s TEDDY BEAR LOUNGE. The hotel had deteriorated to such a low ebb that I wondered at how its denizens could be permitted to so imbibe and fornicate, cheek-by-jowl with the News and Observer building. Lost souls and porn arcades abounded without consideration to “Proper Folks.” What a panoply of Southern Gothic Characters and Ruined Architectural Gems downtown was in those years before renewal. To this young man, its’ seediness was intoxicating. SO glad I was fortunate to have known it intimately !
03/19/2021
I have fond memories of the barbershop under the Andrew Johnson Hotel.
Red Smith, Claude Holland, and my father, Vance Clayton worked there as barbers, and Joe shinned shoes. It was called Holland’s Barber Shop. My time there was around the late 50’s through the mid 60’s.
It was always a treat to see Joe, no-one knew how old he was, and he slept/lived in a little room in the back of the shop. As soon as I walked through the door, if he didn’t have customers, he would help me get up on that tall chair and shine my shoes. Boy could he pop a rag – rhythm and timing were top notch – his kind of music. Joe had a pocket watch that he was mighty proud of and someone bought him a new chain for it, and Joe gave his old chain to my little brother, who kept it in his box of treasures as long as I can remember.
Many businessmen got their hair cut there, I Beverly Lake, Dr Edwards, the dentist, Jesse Helms, and many, many more.
Pinaud Clubman Powder, “world famous since 1810” was used after a cut or shave, and to smell it, still brings a tear to my eye. Yes, you can still buy it even in 2021.