Hotel Sir Walter, Raleigh, N.C.
For Flashback Friday this week, we feature this fine ‘linen’ post card of Raleigh’s famed Hotel Sir Walter. The card depicts a dramatic view of the hotel — I love that huge neon sign and the twin radio towers mounted on the roof. However, the message written on the back reveals a hint of peril.
Feb 8-47
To Joyce et als. [sic]
Arrived at 6pm after 2 straining [?] days. Snow — Icy 2nd snow storm to-day — and very cold, even in Raleigh N.C.
Car eating oil, and a nail puncturing one tire, otherwise we are both well, P.S.A.
Yikes! What an ordeal. I sure hope our correspondent and her husband made it to Florida safely.
The Hotel Sir Walter opened in 1924, and was Raleigh’s premier hotel for nearly four decades. During that time the well-appointed hostelry was locally known as the “third house of the legislature,” or the “second statehouse,” due to the fact that many legislators and lobbyists took up residence there when the General Assembly was in session.
We featured a postcard depicting the Sir Walter’s elegant lobby in an earlier Flashback Friday post. Nowadays, the former hotel functions as apartments for senior residents. It was placed on the National Register of Historic Places 1978 and has been designated a Raleigh Historic Landmark.
Below is a photo of the Hotel Sir Walter taken about 1925. An ell-addition in 1928 enlarged the hotel by 50 rooms, as can be seen in the postcard view.
North Carolina State Archives photo
The classically-styled building was designed by Raleigh architect James A. Salter. Salter later designed several homes in the new suburban development Longview Gardens in 1939-1940. Among these were the neo-Colonial revival home of North Carolina’s long-time secretary of state Thad Eure (2345 New Bern Ave), and the architect’s own Norman Revival home at the corner of New Bern Ave. and N. King Charles Rd. Sadly, Salter and his family would never occupy the house, as he was killed in an automobile accident in downtown Raleigh in December 1939.
Want to see the inside of the Hotel Sir Walter? Here are a few photos dating from the 1930s which showcase some of its stylish interiors.
Hotel guests entered into the luxurious lobby.
North Carolina State Archives photo
Here is one of the elegant, yet gracious, dining rooms.
North Carolina State Archives photo
Even the meeting rooms were on a sumptuous level.
North Carolina State Archives photo
[Update]
The photo below was taken about 1929 and clearly shows the 1928 addition. This vantage point is similar to that of our postcard view. Here you can see the buildings which once clustered around the intersection of Fayetteville and Davie Streets. Extra points if you can identify that ruined building in the foreground.
North Carolina State Archives photo
Our featured postcard this week was published by Tichnor Brothers, Inc. of Cambridge, MA.
Tichnor Brothers, Inc. (1912-1987)
160 N. Washington Street, Boston and Cambridge, MAA major publisher and printer of a wide variety of postcard types. Their view-cards were produced on a national level. They also produced a black & white series on the [New England] hurricane of 1938 in line block halftone.
Their photochromes went under the trade name Lusterchrome. They also produced an early Tichnor Gloss series in offset lithography that was so heavily retouched they floated somewhere between being artist drawn and being a photograph. The company was sold in 1987 to Paper Majic.
“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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09/21/2012
When I was a kid I used to love that house on King Charles. I thought it was a castle. Glad it’s still there. I think Thad Eure’s house has been torn down.
The upside down stamp was similar to “SWAK.” Right?
09/21/2012
My dad bought a roomful of furniture from them back in the early 70’s for my bedroom. I still have the desk.
09/21/2012
The upside down stamp meant “I love you”
09/21/2012
Was there any time after 1928 when the view shown in the postcard was really possible, or is it just an artist’s conception? I would have thought that other buildings nearby would have blocked that perspective.
09/21/2012
Great post. It’s a shame that the hotel isn’t functioning as a hotel anymore. I wonder what the lobby looks like today?
09/22/2012
How nice to get a link to Longview Gardens; what a history that area has. Home, of course, to many, many fellow Enloe-ites. And Clarence Poe was quite a character, a huge player in Raleigh’s development.
09/22/2012
*strenuous :)
09/22/2012
hah! Yes Ian, you have deciphered the handwriting — and it was written in PENCIL, no less! ;)
09/22/2012
When I lived there I never thought of Longview Gardens as being “historic”. But then again, it wasn’t as old then as it is now.
09/25/2012
Curt — You are right. I think Tichnor Brothers must have taken ‘artistic license’ with the perspective. I have updated the post with another historic photo which is similar to that of the postcard view and shows the ‘missing’ structures.
Bill — Too bad you still don’t have the entire suite of furniture, so hang on to that desk!
KL — There has been talk in recent years of bringing the old Sir Walter back into service as a premier downtown hotel.
NCSU et al. — I haven’t driven through Longview Gardens in years, but I always thought Salter’s home had that ‘castle’ look about it, too. The Eure home is still standing, but a similarly styled house across New Bern from there was torn down several years ago. And hollywoodgirl, I attended Enloe HS too!
09/26/2012
I know, Raleigh Boy. Thanks for taking me to Junior Prom. I’m nicer now.
09/26/2012
Enloe Eagle here too. Still separate from Charles B. Aycock Jr. High when I went. And magnet schools had not even been thought of.
Thanks for the clarification regarding the Eure home. I always thought it was on the south side of New Bern. Last night I spent some time on the Wake County Property Tax website and located it. Good to know it wasn’t demolished.
09/26/2012
I would see Mr. Eure quite often at the local bank branch, in his red bow tie. He worked the room like it was a Democratic caucus, shaking hands, back-slapping, hugging babies, blue-haired old ladies and local business people making a money drop. Man loved his job.
09/26/2012
I’ll join the love fest here: another Enloe graduate from the previous century.
09/27/2012
Wow! Group hug.
09/27/2012
So I’m thinking that the structure in the foreground of the most recently posted picture of the Sir Walter Hotel is a corner of the fire-gutted Yarborough House. It burned, if memory serves me, in 1925 and the automobiles in the photo seem right for that time. ?????
10/02/2012
Funny. I graduated from Enloe also. Class of 88. I was a magnet student though as my base school was Broughton.
10/03/2012
David B — You are correct about the ‘meaning’ of the upside down stamp. There apparently was a cult of stamp placements in the US in the early to mid 20th century — sideways to the left, to the right, diagonally, etc. In my own experience as a college student during the Viet Nam war era, we would place an American Flag stamp upside down to signify a protest against the war.
10/05/2012
I did that myself. lol
01/30/2013
As another Enloe grad from the early days (Lee, that doesn’t include you unless you were at least 35 at graduation), I cannot resist asking those of you who remember Longview Gardens when it was new, or almost so (and therefore not historic), why we haven’t achieved historic designation too.
01/30/2013
We are historic in Longview Gardens!
http://www.livingplaces.com/NC/Wake_County/Raleigh_City/Longview_Gardens_Historic_District.html
– Enloe grad and lifelong Longview resident
09/29/2020
I was a 1978 Enloe grad, go Eagles! I also worked at The Velvet Cloak Inn from 1985-1989 at the front desk. I met many from Congress and the Senate. They went downstairs to Baron’s, a 5star club. The most exciting celebs for this southern girl was Charlie Daniels Band.
12/26/2020
I was born at Rex Hospital (the old one on St Mary’s Street) in 1950. The radio towers on top of the Sir Walter shown in the post card and photos was the original transmitter site for what is now WPTF. WPTF operated on 1190 kHz at 100 Watts (not the current assignment of 50 kW on 680 kHzl.) I remember going with my parents to the S&W cafeteria which was located in the Sir Walter in the early 50s and watching the radio announcers through the window on the mezzanine level of the hotel.
05/08/2022
Can you give me any info on the Hillsboro Hotel that stood in the 600 block of Hillsboro Street back in the mid 40’s and early 50’s? I can find no mention of it any where on the internet. My step father Bruce Garner was the owner. He was also the original owner of the Blue Tower Restaurant, on Hillsboro St. In addition, Bruce was the original owner of the first Char Grill which is still located in the 600 block of Hillsboro Street. Note the spelling of Hillsboro Steet. Thank you.