Downtowner Motor Inn, Raleigh, N.C.
This week’s Flashback Friday postcard is a colorful depiction of Raleigh’s Downtowner Motor Inn, one of the handful of urban motels that once dotted the downtown area in the 1960s.
Downtowner Motor Inn
309 Hillsboro St
Raleigh, North CarolinaCombined advantages of Motel and Hotel facilities in a Downtown location. 82 Spacious Rooms — Free T.V. — Heated Swimming Pool — Free Parking — No Tipping — Candlelight Restaurant — Free TWX Reservation Service. For the finest in accommodations Phone: 833-5771
That ‘free TV’ was color TV, I’m sure — Nonetheless, the description of the Raleigh Downtowner says it all!
This week’s card was postmarked on April 11, 1967.
Hi: Hope all is well with the two of you. I’m fine, & am working here. Head housekeeper, and am living at 410 Elm St. Raleigh. Thought you might like a card & stamp.
Love,
Lillian
Love the way ‘Lillian’ crossed out the motel’s address and wrote over it her own. I wonder how her tenure as head housekeeper at the Downtowner worked out?
The Thing About the Downtowner Motor Inn
The Downtowner Corporation was organized in 1958 in Memphis, TN. The chain targeted downtown business districts in medium-sized cities throughout the South and Midwest as the focus location for its motels.
Downtowner Motor Inns opted to locate near larger established hotels with the aim to accommodate room shortages during conventions, trade shows and other similar big-draw events.
The company embraced a modernist architectural style as their building brand, characteristically using a grid pattern of colorful panels as their signature street facade.
These two 1960s chrome postcards depict the Columbia, SC Downtowner Inn, above; below, the Downtowner Motor Inn in Wheeling, WV bears a striking resemblance to the Raleigh Downtowner.
Before It Was Raleigh’s Downtowner
Raleigh’s Downtowner was erected in 1964 at 309 Hillsboro St., once the site of the grand Jeremiah Stainback residence.
The Jeremiah Stainback residence at 309 Hillsboro St, ca 1905.
The Victorian era house had been built on Raleigh’s fashionable residential Hillsboro St. in the 1890s. Jeremiah Stainback acquired it around 1903, and lived there with his family until the mid 1920s.
By 1927 a partnership of five local physicians bought the property, and, with one of the partners living in residence, occupied the mansion for nearly 35 years.
The Rise and Fall of Raleigh’s Downtowner Motor Inn
Raleigh City Directories listed the former Stainback lot as ‘vacant’ in 1962, ‘under construction’ in 1963, and finally as the ‘Downtowner Motor Inn and Candlelight Restaurant’ in 1964. Sadly, though, too much, too late.
As Raleigh’s downtown business district declined during the late 1960s and into the 1980s, so did its urban motels, including, among others, the Raleigh Cabana Motel, the Heart of Raleigh Motel, the Raleigh TraveLodge and the Raleigh Downtowner Motor Inn.
The Heart of Raleigh Motel opened about 1960 in the repurposed Faircloth Hall, a onetime dormitory on the former downtown Meredith College campus.
By 1973 the motel had been renamed the Golden Eagle Motor Inn. From 1977 to 1978 the Downtowner name was back. In 1979, following a corporate merger, it was rebranded the Downtowner/Eagle Motor Inn. Then for two years, 1980-82, it operated under the name Downtowner/Capital Motor Inn. As the decline continued, the motel became an EconoLodge Motel, 1983-89; and finally, 1990-92, a Friendship Inn.
By that time the former Downtowner was a lost cause and could no longer maintain any measure of profitability.  The hulking and deteriorating building, which had long lost its bright modernist color scheme, was demolished in 1993. The site of this once vibrant urban motel today is a parking lot.
Our Flashback Friday photochrome postcard this week was printed by the Curt Teich Co. of Chicago under the trade name ‘CurTeichColor.’
Curt Teich Co. (1893-1974) Â Chicago, IL
A 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!
11/14/2014
The Downtowner in Charleston, SC still exists today as College Lodge, a dorm on the College of Charleston campus!
http://www.postandcourier.com/article/20110110/PC1602/301109960
11/14/2014
My dad used to work in the office building that is in the background on the left side of that postcard. He worked there in the 90s and eventually his company moved from downtown to RTP (like many businesses). Up until he retired, he lamented the fact that he could have worked downtown when it is now thriving!
11/14/2014
Here’s a photo that shows the boring colors that the building was painted in the 80’s. Piet Mondrian would have been very disappointed.
https://www.dropbox.com/s/mbkmwyotnap0afn/Econo%20Lodge%20Raleigh.jpeg?dl=0
11/14/2014
Thanks for the post. Love Flashback Fridays!
11/21/2014
Thank you for another excellent article! I mourn the loss of the Stainback House, but I can’t shed any tears for the Downtowner. It was not built to last anyway. On the other hand, the Baptist Convention building, visible on the left side of the postcard, was a fine example of early Modernism. Such a shame it was torn down for a tower that was never built!
11/22/2014
Now that I can place where this was, I remember it! I stayed there a couple of New Year’s Eves in the mid 1980s, to be close to downtown and not have to walk home afterwards. The parking lot for Campbell Law School is there now.
08/10/2019
While attending Enloe High School in the late ‘60’s, I worked part time at the Downtowner. I first worked in the restaurant which at the time was a Pancake Restaurant. Later, I moved up to bellman, parking cars and carrying luggage to and from the rooms. I recall spending some of my leisure time at the pool which was located at the from of the property along Hillsborough Street. One big advantage to working at the Downtowner was its close proximity to Euro Auto. At the time I had a Triumph Spitfire and the majority of my wages went back into keeping the Spitfire on the road.
Dennis Sovel, Enloe Class of ‘69