Evening Breeze Motel
The Evening Breeze Hotel was listed in the Green Book from 1959-1967. It was located on US Highway 70, 3.5 miles away from Statesville and about a five-minute driving distance from US Highways 64 and 21.1
The Evening Breeze Hotel (also called Evening Breeze Motel and Evening Breeze Motor Court), owned by T. V. Magnum, opened to the public on August 24, 1956. The hotel was a “10-unit, brick veneer motel” with room service and private or semi-private bath facilities included with each room. The hotel also had a cafeteria called the Evening Breeze Grill (items served included fried chicken, seafood, steak, Borden’s ice cream, soft drinks, and beer), a shaded picnic ground, and an Amoco service station. The 1961 edition of the Green Book noted that the hotel also had a playground, facilities for fishing, and a radio or tv in each room.2
The hotel was designed by Statesville architecture firm Hutchins and Adams. Much of the masonry work was done by students at nearby Morningside and Unity schools. Several area businesses were involved in the construction of the hotel.3
The hotel was established by T.V. Mangum, a prominent mortician, businessman, civic leader, and socialite. He lived at the hotel with his wife, Eva Lee Green, and their children. The hotel was built to fulfill a need for local lodging for African American tourists; there was only one hotel for African Americans in the region at the time, located in Charlotte. Mangum stated that he considered the hotel to be “a monument to the progress of the citizenry of this city [Statesville].” The hotel hosted meetings of state-wide African American civic groups and professional groups, a function carried over from a nightclub previously owned by Mangum.4
Born in Creedmoor, North Carolina, in 1901, Mangum moved to Cincinnati, Ohio, as a teenager and attended high school there. He attended the University of Cincinnati and completed professional training at the Cincinnati College of Embalming from 1914-1924. Mangum operated mortuary businesses in Alleghany County, Virginia and Salisbury, North Carolina early in his career. He established a mortuary in Statesville (Mangum Mortuary) in 1932 and founded Peterson and Mangum Funeral Home in Statesville in 1934.5
T.V. Mangum was a powerful force in the Statesville community. In addition to his prolific civic and civil rights work in the Statesville area and beyond, Mangum served as president of the North Carolina branch of the NAACP (North Carolina Conference of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People) from 1944-1948. He was arrested during an act of civil disobedience at Statesville’s Howard Johnson Restaurant in 1962. Mangum ran an unsuccessful campaign to represent Statesville’s Second Ward on the Statesville City Council in 1963.6
T.V. Mangum was injured in an automobile accident in 1969. He developed an illness soon after and passed away at Davis Hospital in 1969. The Evening Breeze Motel, along with its restaurant, service station, and grounds, was auctioned off on Saturday, August 27, 1977.7
Essay by Brandie K. Ragghianti, 2022
Notes
1. Victor Green, 1959 Green Book, 52; Green, 1960 Green Book, 73; Green, 1961 Green Book, 71; Green, 1962 Green Book, 75; Green, 1963-1964 Green Book, 59; Green, 1966-1967 Green Book, 59.
2. “Evening Breeze Motel Opening Set for August 24,” The Carolinian, August 18, 1956, p. 9, accessed from https://newspapers.digitalnc.org/; “New Motel Project Seen As Monument to Progress,” The Carolinian, August 18, 1956, p. 8, accessed from https://newspapers.digitalnc.org/; “Modern Facility to Have 10 Units,” The Carolinian, August 18, 1956, p. 9, accessed from https://newspapers.digitalnc.org/; Victor Green, 1961 Green Book, 71.
3. “Evening Breeze Motel Opening Set for August 24,” The Carolinian, August 18, 1956, p. 9, accessed from https://newspapers.digitalnc.org/; “New Motel Project Seen As Monument to Progress,” The Carolinian, August 18, 1956, p. 8, accessed from https://newspapers.digitalnc.org/; “Modern Facility to Have 10 Units,” The Carolinian, August 18, 1956, p. 9, accessed from https://newspapers.digitalnc.org/. Advertisements, The Carolinian, August 18, 1956, pp. 8-9, accessed from https://newspapers.digitalnc.org/.
4. “Mangum Is Stricken,” Statesville Record & Landmark, June 6, 1969, p. 1, accessed from www.newspapers.com; “Statesville R & L (Statesville Record & Landmark), Statesville.com, (Facebook post), December 21, 2016; “Photos: Snapshots of Iredell Past Part 1, Image 17” Statesville Record & Landmark, May 2, 2018, www.statesville.com; “Negro Group Meets Here,” Statesville Daily Record, January 27, 1953, p. 13, accessed from www.newspapers.com; “New Motel Project Seen As Monument to Progress,” The Carolinian, August 18, 1956, p. 8, accessed from https://newspapers.digitalnc.org/.
5. “Modern Facility to Have 10 Units,” The Carolinian, August 18, 1956, p. 9, accessed from https://newspapers.digitalnc.org/; “New Motel Project Seen As Monument to Progress,” The Carolinian, August 18, 1956, p. 8, accessed from https://newspapers.digitalnc.org/; “Prominent Businessman Enters Race for Statesville Council--Statesville, Cont.,” The Carolina Times, March 9, 1963, p. 3B (Image 6), accessed from https://newspapers.digitalnc.org/; “Mangum Ill,” Statesville Daily Record, April 8, 1954, p. 1, accessed from www.newspapers.com; “Mangum Rites Set for Sunday,” Statesville Record & Landmark, March 16, 1961, p. 8, accessed from www.newspapers.com; “Mangum Seeks City Council Seat,” Statesville Record & Landmark, March 2, 1963, p. 1, accessed from www.newspapers.com.
6. “Mangum Heads Negro Group,” The Charlotte Observer, June 16, 1944, p. 14, accessed from www.newspapers.com; “NAACP Plans State Meeting,” The Charlotte News, June 8, 1948, p. 20A,accessed from www.newspapers.com; “NAACP In Meet Here,” The Charlotte News, June 9, 1948, p. 12A, accessed from www.newspapers.com; “Prominent Businessman Enters Race for Statesville Council,” The Carolina Times, March 9, 1963, p. 1, accessed from https://newspapers.digitalnc.org/; “Wood, McDaniel Seek Seats on City Council,” Statesville Record & Landmark, March 4, 1963, p. 1, accessed from www.newspapers.com; Rockie Hodson, “Howard Kivett New Candidate in Ward One,” Statesville Record & Landmark, March 8, 1963, p. 1, accessed from www.newspapers.com; “Unofficial Primary Tabulations,” Statesville Record & Landmark, March 25, 1963, p. 1, accessed from www.newspapers.com.
7. “Mangum Is Stricken,” Statesville Record & Landmark, June 6, 1969, p. 1, accessed from www.newspapers.com; “Auction Real Estate,” Statesville Record & Landmark, August 20, 1977, p. 4C (Image 14), accessed from www.newspapers.com; “Auction Real Estate,” Statesville Record & Landmark, August 23, 1977, p. 6B (Image 14), accessed from www.newspapers.com, “Auction Real Estate,” Statesville Record & Landmark, August 26, 1977, p. 6B (Image 16), accessed from www.newspapers.com; Rockie Hodson, “19 Are Convicted of Trespassing,” Statesville Record & Landmark, August 28, 1962, p. 2, accessed from www.newspapers.com.
Did you know?
- This entry was listed in multiple ways in various Green Book editions:
- 1959-1960: Listed as “Evening Breeze Motel---U.S. Hwy. No. 70, 64, & 21” in Statesville with a star, in all capital letters, bold, and bigger font.
- 1961: Listed with a full page advertisement as “The Evening Breeze Motel, Restaurant, Large Spacious Rooms, for reservations call TRiangel 3-8497, Highway 70 East, Statesville, N.C., 11 ultra-modern units, cafeteria, facilities for group picnics, playground for children, facilities for fishing, Amoco service station, Rooms with radio or TV, located on U.S. Highway 70 East Connecting U.S. 64 and 21, 3 miles east of Statesville, N.C.”
- 1962: Listed with an advertisement: “Phone TR 3-8497, On U.S. Hiway [sic]70, 3 miles east connecting 64 & 21, Evening Breeze Motel, Eat--Sleep--Rest, On Hiway [sic] 70, Statesville, N.C.”
- 1963-1967: Listed as “Evening Breeze Motel----On Hiway [sic] 70” in Statesville.
