The Plantation Inn Motel and Restaurant, Raleigh, N.C.
“Gracious charm in pleasant surroundings” could only describe Raleigh’s now lost Plantation Inn. The classy motel offered road-weary travelers a hospitable and comfortable rest-over on the long journey along US 1 from the North to sunny Florida.
The Plantation Inn Motel and Restaurant. One of the South’s finest, is located on US Rt #1, 5 miles north of the Raleigh City limits. 26 acres of hospitality and old south charm.
For information and Reservations, Write P.O. Box 11333, Raleigh, N.C. 27604; or phone 919-876-1411.
The message on this card, mailed in 1973, is a bit enigmatic to me –
Dear Mary & Bill,
Our special thanks for a most enjoyable visit — Good food & good company! So far a good trip but the sun has been hiding until today — We tried steamed oysters at our favorite eating place last night.
Many many thanks. We look forward to seeing you May 5th.
Love Ginny & Bob
Looks like Ginny and Bob were still basking in the hospitality of their friends back home in Connecticut. At this leg of their journey, I wonder where they were headed to? Florida, maybe? And ‘steamed oysters’ at their ‘favorite eating place’? Looks like the couple had traveled this route before.
Despite its exterior appearance, the 106-room motel was never actually a plantation. It was built in 1956 of concrete block and masonry. Georgia native William Morse, bought the property in 1959, a few years after it was built. At the time its amenities included a small pond and walking trails through a stand of pine trees. He renamed motel The Plantation Inn.
An ad in the 1962 Raleigh City Directory detailed some of the Plantation Inn’s leisure attractions:
The Plantation Inn and Restaurant
Meeting and banquet rooms, heated pools, children’s playground, room service, free coffee, private fishing lake, putting green.
William B. Morse, general manager, member Quality Courts United, AAA
As its reputation as a haven of genteel ambience grew during the 1960s and ’70s, the Plantation Inn became a local mecca for native Raleighites, as well as for the traveling public. Countless weddings, family celebrations, business gatherings and special Sunday dinners-out took place at the now renowned hostelry. Under the management of Jim Hobbs in the mid-1970s, the Plantation Inn was rated among the best hotels in the country, along with The Velvet Cloak Inn in downtown Raleigh.
At that time it must have seemed the heyday of the Plantation Inn would last for many decades to come.
Before It Was The Plantation Inn
The refined Plantation Inn of the 1970s had sprung from humble roots. During the boom era of the ‘tourist camps’ of the 1940s, a Scandinavian native built a series of cabins in a pine grove on US1 just north of Raleigh. He gave his tourist camp the homey name ‘Scandia Village in the Pines.’
The property soon evolved into an upscale motor court where travelers from the Northeast could stop on their way to vacation in Florida.
11-17-44
Well! Here we are. fine trip. This is a wonderful place to stop over. But it is getting Hot — 80 [degrees]. Big swell meal this eve. Will write later –
Tom L[illegible]
The motor court prospered, and by 1956 the proprietor was able to erect a commodious motel resort on the site of his humble cabins.
Scandia Village in the Pines, Raleigh, N.C.
Motor Court and Restaurant
6 mi. north of Raleigh on US 1 Raleigh phones 3-8842 and 3-6070. Room phones, air conditioned, 18 hole putting green, golf course near by.
This elegantly furnished room in the ‘Old South’ style, characterized the accommodations at the new Scandia Village.
The End of an Era
The Plantation Inn continued to prosper through the 1970s and ’80s. Upon the death of Bill Morse in 1989, it was sold to local auto mogul Bobby Murray. He brought in new management and rebranded the motel ‘The Plantation Inn and Resort.’ By that time US 1, a two-lane blacktop in the 1950s, had become a multi-lane highway, and commercial development had begun to encroach on the bucolic oasis. Nonetheless, manager Jeff Blackstone continued the traditional graciousness of the Plantation Inn and brought its occupancy rate to 80%.
However, two road projects spelled eventual doom for the Plantation Inn. Completed in the early 1990s, I-95, east of Raleigh, drew traffic away from the US 1 corridor, and later, the I-540 Outer Loop, built literally across the Inn’s side yard, further siphoned off potential clientele.
Due to highway construction and increased commercial encroachment, by the late 1990s the occupancy rate had declined to barely 20%. Eventually the property was sold to developers, and on New Years Eve 2000 the Plantation Inn closed. In the spring of 2001 Raleigh’s Grande Dame of “Gracious charm in pleasant surroundings” was demolished. A non-descript, suburban big-box shopping center occupies the site today. It is called Plantation Point.
“The [Plantation Inn] property grows on you. It’s kind of a storybook place. It kind of has its own soul.” — Jeff Blackstone, manager of the Plantation Inn and Resort, 1991-2000
Source material for this article includes “A ‘Plantation’ Amid Chaos” N&O 25 Dec 1999, “The Plantation Inn Is Out of Time” N&O 6 Jan 2001, “Twilight at the Inn” N&O 13 Jan 2001
This week’s ‘art tone’ linen postcard was published by Beals Litho of Des Moines, Iowa
Beals Litho (1930’s-1950’s)
Des Moines, IAA publisher of comic, roadside, and national view-cards. Produced military cards during World War One. Despite that these cards were issued under the trade name Art Tone Glo-Var Finished, they are indistinguishable from other linen postcards. The firm was sold to Associated Lithographers, Inc. in the early 1950’s.
“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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03/08/2013
In the late 70′s or early 80′s I ate one of the best Thanksgiving dinners I ever tasted at the Plantation Inn. I remember how far it was out of town we had to drive to get to the place, in the middle of nowhere. It really was gracious and charming. Thanks for the memory!
03/08/2013
An overnight rest stop at the Plantation Inn was always a highlight for Snowbird relatives on their way to Florida in the ’60′s and ’70′s, and these were people not easy to please, they could have stayed anywhere. They loved the Southern Hospitality, and Southern Ambience. Had Raleigh had a beach, they would have made our little town their destination. But they had to go back up North with a glamorous tan, and the Plantation Inn poolside was a little too chilly in February. Florida couldn’t come close when compared to Plantation Inn hospitality service.
03/08/2013
This was and will always be a cherished symbol of Raleigh, and I think many people share that feeling. The nostalgia and historical Southern setting defined its beauty. It is a shame that Murray ran it into the ground, but to compare its elegance in the 70′s to the Velvet Cloak Inn as it stands now in ruin is an awful thing. The degenerative condition of the Velvet Cloak Inn, and both the ethical and building decay leaves the Plantation Inn with atleast some notion of pride and significance in comparison — and the cruel comparison up above should not be used.
03/08/2013
I have many wonderful memories of the old Plantation Inn. When my family relocated to Raleigh in the early 60′s, we stayed there for several weeks. It was late spring, early summer and we really enjoyed the pool. Later, my family would regularly partake of the wonderful Sunday buffets there. In high school, I took my prom date there for dinner before the dance. They had a organ player, Woody Hayes, I believe was his name, who would take requests. I asked him to play the theme from Gone with the Wind, “My Own True Love.” So very sad to see them tear it down.
03/08/2013
Tom Daniels: The reference to the Plantation Inn and the Velvet Cloak was made in the mid-1970s, and is not a comparison to the Velvet Cloak in 2013. You misread the sentence.
“…in the mid-1970s, the Plantation Inn was rated among the best hotels in the country, along with The Velvet Cloak Inn in downtown Raleigh.”
03/11/2013
Thanks for this story. They also had a putting green on the front lawn. “Sprawling” and “spacious” are appropriate adjectives. My family stayed there once when our furnace blew up and filled our house with smoke and soot.
Sad to see it go. Just like so many other things that made Raleigh “Raleigh.”
03/14/2013
Wow, I was just telling someone about this place on sunday. I redesigned the grounds and a wedding garden out back around 1993, large french parterre in front. It was one of the first big landscape design-build projects of my career. Ironically, a client told me during a site visit about a shrub she salvaged from the old plantation inn when it was torn down. She had no idea that I personally planted that very shrub 20 years ago, so she gave it back to me – now it’s at my home.
03/14/2013
After service in the USMC and USN, I was sworn in to the NCARNG at the Plantation Inn in 1996. A small brush with it’s history, yes, but I always remember the place when I pass that way.
Thank you.
04/10/2013
It was a family tradition for us to eat Easter Brunch there for quite a few years, and then take Easter pictures out front (late 80s/early 90s I think…) I moved away for about a decade and when I returned 540 had been built and The Plantation Inn was gone. I never made the connection until now, that where the shopping center is now used to be The Plantation Inn! Ugghhhh what a shame.
04/10/2013
Elizabeth, that shopping center is aptly named “Plantation Point”. :-)
I remember eating a buffet Thanksgiving dinner at Plantation Inn (approx. 1985 or 1986) and having shrimp newberg !