Restful Inn

Restful Inn was listed in the Green Book in 1939 as “Restful Inn—418 Gillespie St.” under “Tourist Homes;” from 1940-1941 and from 1947-1955 as “Restful Inn—418 Gillespie St.” Under “Hotels;” and as “Restful Inn Hotel—1306 Fayetteville” in 1956. The business was located in Fayetteville. The 1956 entry for Restful Inn is incorrect, as it is listed at the same address as College Inn Restaurant in Durham.¹

Restful Inn, also known as McNeill Tourist Home and Restful Inn for Colored Tourists, was located at the home of Elizabeth “Lizzie” Christmas McNeill at 418 Gillespie Street. Lizzie McNeill came from and married into prominent Fayetteville families. Her parents, Guilford and Malissa Christmas, were emancipated from slavery around 1862. Guilford Christmas became an important political figure in North Carolina during the reconstruction era and was elected assistant door-keeper of the North Carolina Senate. Lizzie’s husband, Thomas Hall McNeill, was a well-known funeral director and embalmer. He ran the McNeill family’s decades-old mortuary business until his death in 1933.²

Lizzie and Thomas McNeill raised their family in their three-story home at 418 Gillespie Street. After Thomas died and the rest of their children left the family home, only Lizzie and one of her daughters, Helen, remained there. Lizzie, a graduate of Kittrell College, quickly established herself as a businesswoman in her own right. She worked as a dressmaker and Helen worked as an interior designer; by 1940, they had transformed their family home into a tourist home with furnished rooms (15 in all by the time it closed around 1953).³

Lizzie McNeill was enumerated as unable to work in the 1950 census, though her daughter, Helen, kept the tourist home going (six lodgers were staying at the home at the time of the census). The Carolina Times reported that Lizzie was sick in 1952 and she died in Pontiac, Michigan in 1953.⁴

McNeil Tourist Home was advertised as available for lease in 1953. Dr. Howard McNeil, Lizzie McNeill’s son, owned the home through at least 1958 but lived in Pontiac, Michigan. The home was damaged by arsonists in two separate incidents in 1958. The home was later demolished.⁵

Essay by Brandie K. Ragghianti, 2022

Notes

1.  Victor Green, 1939 Green Book, 32; Green, 1940 Green Book, 35; Green, 1941 Green Book, 35; Green, 1947 Green Book, 64; Green, 1948 Green Book, 62; Green, 1949 Green Book, 56; Green, 1950 Green Book, 62; Green, 1951 Green Book, 53; Green, 1952 Green Book, 53; Green, 1953 Green Book, 53; Green, 1954 Green Book, 52; Green, 1955 Green Book, 53; Victor Green, 1956 Green Book, 45. 
2. Guilford Christmas and Malissa Christmas, December 25, 1862, Warren County, North Carolina, U.S. Marriage Records, 1741-2011, accessed from www.ancestry.com; (“Why Honor Was Shown Guilford Christmas,” The Caucasian (Clinton, NC), December 14, 1911, accessed from http://newspapers.digitalnc.org; “Thomas Hall McNeill,” obituary, The New York Age, September 2, 1933, 6, accessed from www.newspapers.com.
3. “Thomas Hall McNeill,” obituary, The New York Age, September 2, 1933, 6, accessed from www.newspapers.com; Hill’s 1939 Fayetteville City Directory, 184, 185, 223, 306, 364, 376, 381 (alphabetical listing); 1940 United States Federal Census, Fayetteville, Cumberland County, North Carolina, digital image s.v. “Lizzie C. NcNeill” or “Lizzie C. McNeill,” accessed from www.ancestry.com; Hill’s 1943 Fayetteville City Directory, 319, alphabetical listing, 704, street listing; “Restful Inn” (advertisement,) The Carolinian (Raleigh, NC), February 26, 1949, 3 accessed from http://newspapers.digitalnc.org; “Mrs. Elizabeth McNeil Dies; Funeral Rites Held in Michigan, Fayetteville,” The Carolinian (Raleigh, NC), August 1, 1953, 12, accessed from http://newspapers.digitalnc.org; “For Lease: McNeil Tourist Home” (advertisement), The Carolinian (Raleigh, NC), August 1, 1953, accessed from http://newspapers.digitalnc.org. 
4. 1950 United States Federal Census, Fayetteville, Cumberland County, North Carolina, digital image s.v. “Elizabeth McNeil,” accessed from www.ancestry.com; “Mrs. Elizabeth McNeil Dies; Funeral Rites Held in Michigan, Fayetteville,” The Carolinian (Raleigh, NC), August 1, 1953, 12, accessed from http://newspapers.digitalnc.org; “For Lease: McNeil Tourist Home” (advertisement), The Carolinian (Raleigh, NC), August 1, 1953, accessed from http://newspapers.digitalnc.org.
5. “For Lease: McNeil Tourist Home” (advertisement), The Carolinian (Raleigh, NC), August 1, 1953, accessed from http://newspapers.digitalnc.org; “Arson is Hinted as Police Check Fayetteville Fire,” The Carolinian (Raleigh, NC), May 10, 1958, digital p. 13, accessed from http://newspapers.digitalnc.org. Note: the last name “McNeill” began to appear as “McNeil” more frequently in the 1950s.