DeLuxe Hotel

DeLuxe Hotel was listed in the Green Book as “De Luxe Hotel, 220 E. Cabarrus St.” under “Hotels” in Raleigh in 1954; as “De Luxe Hotel, 220 E. Cabarrus St., Mem. Nationwide Hotel Assn.” in 1955; and as “DeLuxe Hotel—220 East Cabarrus St.” in Raleigh from 1956-1957 and 1959-1967. The DeLuxe Hotel was advertised as the Lewis Hotel in 1941 and from 1947-1955. ¹

Hattie and Needham Lewis built the Lewis Hotel at 220 E. Cabarrus Street in the 1920s. The hotel supplied an income to Hattie after she and Needham separated and safe, affordable lodging for Hattie’s nieces as they attended her alma mater, Shaw University.²

Hattie Juanita Wooten Lewis passed away in 1945. She left her hotel to one of her nieces, Beadie Lucille Griswold, who chose to keep the hotel open and run it alongside her sisters. She changed the name of the hotel to the De-Luxe Hotel and secured a building permit to make repairs and improvements. Lucille’s sister and brother-in-law, Gloria and Robert Jeffers, operated a diner called “The Shop” on the ground floor. The hotel continued to rent furnished rooms on the top floor and a beauty shop continued to be housed on the ground floor.³

Beadie Lucille Griswold (later Griswold-Paige) was born in Dudley, North Carolina. Griswold moved to Raleigh to attend Shaw University and stayed with her aunt at the Lewis Hotel while earning a BS in Home Economics. In addition to serving as the manager of the hotel, Griswold was an educator who taught in Vance, Brunswick, Johnston, and Nash counties. She continued her education at North Carolina Central University, earning a Certificate in Personnel Administration and Industrial Relations, and at North Carolina State University, where she earned a certification in reading and grammar. Griswold also maintained the scrapbooks for First Baptist Church and wrote church-related articles for the church newsletter and local newspapers.⁴

The hotel was a source of support for Lucille and her sisters as they navigated their adult lives and relationships just as it had been for Hattie J. Wooten Lewis. B. Lucille Griswold was a talented businesswoman and served as Secretary for the Nationwide Hotel Association.  Unfortunately, the hotel sustained damage from an intentionally set fire in 1971 and was completely destroyed in a fire in 1992. Today, the property where the hotel stood is part of the campus for Tupper Memorial Baptist Church. Beadie Lucille Griswold-Paige passed away in 2009.⁵

Essay by Brandie K. Ragghianti, 2024

Notes

1. Victor Green, 1941 Green Book, 36; Green, 1947 Green Book, 65.; Victor Green, 1954 Green Book, 53; Victor Green, 1955 Green Book, 54; Victor Green, 1948 Green Book, 63; Green, 1949 Green Book, 57; Green, 1950 Green Book, 63; Green, 1951 Green Book, 54; Victor Green, 1952 Green Book, 54; Green, 1953 Green Book, 54; Green, 1954 Green Book, 53; Green, 1955 Green Book, 54; Victor Green, 1956 Green Book, 46; Green, 1957 Green Book, 47; Green, 1959 Green Book, 52; Green, 1960 Green Book, 73; Green, 1961 Green Book, 69; Green, 1962 Green Book, 74; Green, 1963-1964 Green Book, 58; Green, 1966-1967 Green Book, 58.
2.  For source citations and a fuller history of the Lewis Hotel, see: https://aahc.nc.gov/green-book/lewis-hotel
3.  Email correspondence from Linda Jeffers Arrington to Lisa R. Withers, NC Green Book Project, July 4, 2019; “Building Permit,” The News and Observer, September 16, 1947, p. 12, accessed from www.newspapers.com. 
4.  “Beadie Lucille Griswold-Paige” (obituary), The News and Observer, January 17, 2009, p, 26, accessed from www.newspapers.com.
5.  “Irate Husband Shoots Up Hotel: Shot Lock Off Door of Hotel,” The Carolinian, February 11, 1956, page 1-2, North Carolina Newspapers/DigitalNC, http://newspapers.digitalnc.org/lccn/sn80008926/1956-02-11/ed-1/seq-1/, http://newspapers.digitalnc.org/lccn/sn80008926/1956-02-11/ed-1/seq-2;  Bowers, Katherine, Derek Huss, and Rachel Jacobson, “The Green Book Assignment, North Carolina, Durham, Wake, Halifax, Vance: Historical Structure Report for the North Carolina Historic Preservation Office,” HI 587: Cultural Resource Management, North Carolina State University, Spring 2016, 3, 10, 22; Email correspondence from Linda Jeffers Arrington to Lisa R. Withers, NC Green Book Project, July 4, 2019;  “Deluxe Hotel Owner Gets High Nat’l Office,” The Carolinian, October 30, 1954, Page 1, North Carolina Newspapers/DigitalNC, http://newspapers.digitalnc.org/lccn/sn80008926/1954-10-30/ed-1/seq-1/; “Beadie Lucille Griswold-Paige” (obituary), The News and Observer, January 17, 2009, p, 26, accessed from www.newspapers.com.

Oral History