Mrs. Charles Higgs Tourist Home

Green Book Entry/Entries
Mrs. Charles Higgs---219 E. Lenoir Street
Mrs. Charles Higgs Tourist Home---219 East Lenoir
Green Book Category
Tourist Homes
Years Listed
1952-1957, 1959-1960
Region
Piedmont North
County
Wake

Mrs. Charles Higgs Tourist Home was listed in the Green Book as “Mrs. Charles Higgs—219 E. Lenoir Street” under “Tourist Homes” in Raleigh from 1951-1955. From 1956-1957 and 1959-1960, the business was listed in the Green Book as “Mrs. Charles Higgs Tourist Home—219 East Lenoir” in Raleigh. Her daughter-in-law, Pattie Higgs, operated a tourist home that was listed in the Green Book from 1952-1954.1

Mrs. Charles Higgs Tourist home was operated by Gertrude T. Higgs. Higgs did not advertise the tourist home in newspapers and did not list it in the city directory. The 1950 United States Federal Census enumerated lodgers in her home, all of whom worked locally.2

Gertrude H. Tucker married Charles A. Higgs in 1919 and Charles moved in with Gertrude’s family at 219 E. Lenoir Street. By 1930 they had a son, Charles Jr., and Charles Sr. was working as a messenger boy for the State Department. He died suddenly in 1954.3

Gertrude Tucker Higgs passed away in 1956 following a short illness. It is not clear whether one of her sisters continued to operate the tourist home after her death.4

Essay by Brandie K. Ragghianti, 2024

Notes

  1. 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.
  2. Hill’s Raleigh City Directories, 1951-1960, alphabetical listing, street listing; “Gertrude L. Higgs,” 219 E. Lenoir Street, Raleigh, Wake County, North Carolina, 1940 United States Federal Census, accessed from www.ancestry.com; (“Gertrude T. Higgs,” 219 E. Lenoir Street, Raleigh, Wake County, North Carolina, 1950 United States Federal Census, accessed from www.ancestry.com. 
  3. Hill’s Raleigh City Directories, 1951-1960, alphabetical listing; “Gertrude Tucker,” 803 N. Salisbury Street, Outside West Raleigh, Wake County, North Carolina, 1900 United States Federal Census, accessed from www.ancestry.com; Charles A. Higgs and Gertrude H. Tucker, October 15, 1919, Wake County, North Carolina, US Marriage Records, 1741-2011, accessed from www.newspapers.com; “Gertrude Higgs,” 219 E. Lenoir Street, Ward 3, Raleigh, Wake County, North Carolina, 1920 United States Federal Census, accessed from www.ancestry.com; “Gertrude Higgs,” 219 E. Lenoir Street, Raleigh, Wake County, North Carolina, 1930 United States Federal Census, accessed from www.ancestry.com; “Gertrude L. Higgs,” 219 E. Lenoir Street, Raleigh, Wake County, North Carolina, 1940 United States Federal Census, accessed from www.ancestry.com; “Gertrude T. Higgs,” 219 E. Lenoir Street, Raleigh, Wake County, North Carolina, 1950 United States Federal Census, accessed from www.ancestry.com; “Charles A. Higgs” (obituary), The News and Observer, August 22, 1954, p. 10, accessed from www.newspapers.com.
  4. Mrs. G. T. Higgs Memorialized at St. Ambrose,” The Carolinian, January 14, 1956, p. 2, accessed from https://newspapers.digitalnc.org/lccn/sn80008926/1956-01-14/ed-1/seq-2/…;