King Cole Motel
King Cole Motel was listed in the Green Book as “King Cole Motel—2418 Murchison Rd” from 1963-1967. A separate advertisement for the motel was also included in the Green Book from 1963-1967:“‘Where the Guest is King,’ King Cole Motel, Individual Heat & Air Conditioned, 2418 Murchison Road, Tel. 433-3775, On Highway #210 one mile No. of Fayetteville, N.C.” This is a white-owned business.1
The King Cole Hotel, located in Fayetteville, was owned by Amy Haywood Phillips. Phillips was a white real estate agent and businessman. He grew up with his grandparents in Fayetteville’s Cedar Creek community. As a young adult, Phillips married his wife, Lucille, and settled into a home at 609 Greensboro Street. He enlisted in the US Navy during WWII, serving as a Seaman. 2
Amy Phillips owned Phillips Real Estate and managed many businesses in the area. King Cole Motel opened in the 1960s. It was located between Fayetteville State Teachers College and Fort Bragg, one mile north of Fayetteville. The motel’s slogan was “Where the Guest is King.” In 1962 it offered 19 rooms with private and adjoining baths, individual heat, and air conditioning. By 1963, when it was advertised in the vacation section of The Baltimore Afro-American, it offered “34 modern units.”3
Amy Phillips passed away in 1965.4
Essay by Brandie K. Ragghianti, 2022
Notes
- Victor Green, 1963-1964 Green Book, 58; Green, 1966-1967 Green Book, 58.
- Hill’s 1962 Fayetteville City Directory, 281 (alphabetical listing); Hill’s 1963 Fayetteville City Directory, 219 (classified listing), 304 (alphabetical listing); 1920 United States Federal Census, Cedar Creek, Cumberland County, North Carolina, digital image s.v. “Ammie H. Phillips,” accessed from www.ancestry.com; 1930 United States Federal Census, Cedar Creek, Cumberland County, North Carolina, digital image s.v. “Amy H. Phillips,” accessed from www.ancestry.com; 1940 United States Federal Census, 609 Greensboro Street, Fayetteville, Cumberland County, North Carolina, digital image s.v. “Amy H. Phillips,” accessed from www.ancestry.com; Amy Haywood Phillips, December 9, 1945, LaFayette Memorial Park, Fayetteville, Cumberland County, North Carolina, US Headstone Applications for Military Veterans, 1925-1970, accessed from www.ancestry.com.
- Hill’s 1962 Fayetteville City Directory, 281 (alphabetical listing); Hill’s 1963 Fayetteville City Directory, 219 (classified listing), 304 (alphabetical listing); Green, 1966-1967 Green Book, 58; “Advertisement,” The Carolinian, May 5, 1962, P. 16, accessed form http://newspapers.digitalnc.org/; “King Cole Motel,” ad, The Baltimore Afro-American (Baltimore, MD), July 16, 1963, p. 15, accessed from https://news.google.com/newspapers/p/afro?nid=JkxM1axsR-IC&dat=19630716…;
- Amy Haywood Phillips, December 9, 1945, LaFayette Memorial Park, Fayetteville, Cumberland County, North Carolina, US Headstone Applications for Military Veterans, 1925-1970, accessed from www.ancestry.com. Amy’s brother, Cecil H. Phillips, owned Green Book business Jack’s Snack Shop.
