Phillipps
Phillips Hotel was located in Sanford, NC. It was listed in the Green Book as “Phillips—Pearl Street” under “Hotels” from 1938-1941.1
Phillips Hotel was owned by prominent Sanford businessman John Green Phillips. It is not yet known when the hotel, located at the intersection of Pearl and Moore Streets near the Atlantic & Yadkin Railway, first opened.2
John Green Phillips (who typically went by J.G. Phillips) was born in Cameron, North Carolina around 1868. Phillips owned a barber shop in Sanford in the early 1900s and co-founded the Phillips-Boykin Drug Store in 1912. He relocated to Winston-Salem between 1926-1927 and opened a grocery store there.3
Phillips retained ownership of the hotel property after moving to Winston-Salem. He passed away in 1940, and the hotel property was sold to local white businessman O. P. Makepeace. It is unclear what Makepeace did with the property, but the decades-old Sanford Hotel (a white-owned business) was the only one standing at this intersection by 1950.4
Essay by Brandie K. Ragghianti, 2022
Notes
1. Victor Green, 1938 Green Book, 14; Green, 1939 Green Book, 33; Green, 1940 Green Book, 36; Green, 1941 Green Book, 36.
2. “Heart Attack Fatal,” The Carolina Times, March 9, 1940, pp. 1, 8, accessed from https://newspapers.digitalnc.org/lccn/sn83045120/1940-03-09/ed-1/seq-1/; J G Phillips, North Carolina, U.S. Wills and Probates, 1665 - 1998, accessed from www.ancestry,com.
3. “Heart Attack Fatal,” The Carolina Times, March 9, 1940, pp. 1, 8, accessed from https://newspapers.digitalnc.org/lccn/sn83045120/1940-03-09/ed-1/seq-1/; John Green Phillips, March 3, 1940, Sanford, Lee County, North Carolina, U.S. Death Certificates, 1909-1976, accessed from www.ancestry.com; 1900 United States Federal Census, Sanford, Moore County, North Carolina, digital image s.v. “John G. Phillips,” accessed from www.ancestry.com; 1910 United States Federal Census, West Sanford, Lee County, North Carolina, digital image s.v. “John Phillips,” accessed from www.ancestry.com; 1920 United States Federal Census, Sanford, Lee County, North Carolina, digital image s.v. “John Phillips,” accessed from www.ancestry.com; Miller’s 1927 Winston-Salem City Directory, 694 (alphabetical listing); Phillips is not listed in the city directory in 1926; 1930 United States Federal Census, 3rd Ward, Winston-Salem, Forsyth, North Carolina, digital image s.v. “John G. Phillips,” accessed from www.ancestry.com. Note: David L. Bland, founder of Green Book business Bland’s Drug Store, began his career working for John G. Phillips as a pharmacist at the Phillips-Boykin Drug Store. Bland’s drug store replaced the Phillips-Boykin store in the late 1910s. For more information, see the entry for Bland’s Drug Store: https://aahc.nc.gov/green-book/blands.
4. Jimmy Hair and W.W. Seymour, Jr., Sanford and Lee County, Charleston, SC: Arcadia Publishing, 2006, 105; J G Phillips, North Carolina, U.S. Wills and Probates, 1665 - 1998, accessed from www.ancestry.com; Hill’s 1950 Sanford City Directory, 31 (street listing); J G Phillips, North Carolina, U.S. Wills and Probates, 1665 - 1998, accessed from www.ancestry,com.
Did you know?
- This entry was listed in the Green Book as located in Raleigh, North Carolina, instead of Kinston, North Carolina.