Colonial Pines Hotel, Raleigh, N.C.
This week Flashback Friday leaves the familiarity of downtown Raleigh and heads out to the Colonial Pines Hotel, located two miles south of town. We’re talking 1956, mind you.
Colonial Pines Hotel, Raleigh, N.C.
Residential Golf — 18 Holes
Really Good Food — Reasonable Rates
I’m curious why our correspondent used a six cent airmail stamp on a postcard for which a  two cent stamp would do. Maybe she hoped the card would get to Ohio really fast, or perhaps that’s all she had in her pocket.
Marian
Here is where we stayed Sat nite / we are having Breakfast Sunday morning then going on to Kinston
Trees & Country Beautiful
Howard & Foy
Apparently Howard and Foy enjoyed the splendor of a North Carolina autumn on their trip; I hope they got some of that “really good food” served up at the Colonial Pines, too.
A Tale of Two Hotels — and a Fraternity House
The ‘Colonial Pines Hotel’ opened in the summer of 1933 to great fanfare as the ‘Carolina Pines Hotel and Resort.’ The grand opening even merited a special eight-page insert section in the News & Observer under the banner headline “A Great Dream Comes True.”
The resort was located on 450 acres two miles south of Raleigh on Tryon Rd., adjacent to the Norfolk Southern Railroad and the Raleigh Municipal Airport. A short distance east, Tryon Rd. connected with US 70/15-A. The hotel’s namesake, a vast pine forest, surrounded it on three sides. The grounds of the Colonial Revival style hotel included two eighteen-hole golf courses, a riding club, tennis courts, a ‘casino,’ outdoor drive-in theater, polo grounds, camps, a pet farm, and a lake. A mineral spring was also located on the site, from which water was bottled and sold to guests and local residents.
State Archives of North Carolina
The hotel bus awaits to transport guests in this late 1940s photo.Â
State Archives of North Carolina
This photo shows the spacious lounge of the Carolina Pines Hotel. Below is seen the well-appointed dining room.
State Archives of North Carolina
A stylishly furnished central hallway led guests from the lobby to the lounge.
State Archives of North Carolina
The Vision of a ‘Dreamer and Builder’
The Carolina Pines Hotel and Resort was the brainchild of the Raleigh visionary, entrepreneur and developer, Herbert A. Carlton. Among his earlier real estate projects was the development of Pullen Park Terrace in the late 1920s. Carlton’s hope was to provide a recreational facility for the enjoyment of not only the wealthy, but for those of “ordinary means,” as well. (News & Observer, July 23, 1933)
Courtesy The News & Observer
Sadly, the dream was short-lived. Less than a year after the hotel’s grand opening, Carlton’s creditors forced him, and his dream, into court-ordered receivership. Carlton was broke. However, the Carolina Pines, Inc. corporation managed to continue operation of the hotel through the 1930s and ’40s.
A New Chapter in the Tale of Carolina Pines
Carolina Pines, Inc. sold the resort in 1947, and the new owners re-branded it as the Colonial Pines Hotel. However, the hotel never regained the popularity it had enjoyed in the early days. The property changed hands several times during the 1950s, and ultimately closed for good.
In 1957 the Rho Chapter of the Delta Sigma Phi fraternity at NC State purchased the building, and has occupied it in excellent maintenance ever since.
Photo credit: The Raleigh Historic Development Commission, Michael Zirkle Photography
Still standing on Tryon Rd., the Carolina Pines Hotel is now the chapter house of Delta Sigma Phi.
The Carolina Pines Hotel has been designated a Raleigh Historic Landmark by the Raleigh Historic Development Commission (RHDC).
Our Flashback Friday white border postcard this week was published by the Artvue Post Card Co. of New York.
Artvue Post Card Co. (1936- ) Â Â New York, NY
A publisher of black & white, and sepia view-cards as collotypes and photochromes. They purchased the Albertype Company in 1952. With this came the right to publish Baseball Hall of Fame cards, which they did until 1963.
“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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11/01/2013
I did not realize that the frat house was the old hotel. Glad to learn that!
A few more photos, including the drive-in theater are here:
http://www.harrellsign.com/Galleries/signs-old-historical-pictures.php
11/01/2013
I remember that hotel! I always thought those awnings were neat. I lived on South Saunders St. at the time.
11/01/2013
Do you know who designed the golf course(s) there? I remember driving down Tryon road an a friend pointing to the woods and saying that there was a Donald Ross or someone similar’s course in there.
11/02/2013
I’m sure I remember reading an article about the golf courses(or course) years ago in the N&O, and that they were Donald Ross designed. They would have been located on part of the land that is now the Carolina Pines neighborhood.