by Ian F.G. Dunn and Dana Deaton, Preservation Raleigh
Before Interstate 95 reshaped American road trips, U.S. Route 1 served as the primary highway connecting New York to Miami. Dubbed the “Richmond Highway,” this important north-south artery funneled thousands of motorists through North Carolina. Because Raleigh sits roughly halfway between the Northeast and Florida, our capital city quickly became a favorite overnight stop for weary drivers. At the time, Wake Forest Road was part of US-1, and many Raleigh property owners were inspired to open their homes to travelers.
With the recent buzz surrounding the restoration of The Gables at 1217 Wake Forest Road, Raleigh’s 1930’s roadside history is stepping back into the spotlight. Set to reopen as an 18-room boutique hotel, The Gables stands as a major preservation triumph—and a vibrant reminder of the historic “tourist homes” that once defined the US-1 corridor through the Mordecai community. Remarkably, most of these original guest house structures along Wake Forest Road and Person Street are still standing today as local businesses and private residences, preserving a fascinating chapter of our city’s architectural past.
The Rise of the Tourist Home
Established in 1926, U.S. Route 1 ran directly down Wake Forest Road and Person Street into downtown. As car ownership surged through the 1930s and 1940s, a unique hospitality model emerged along this urban corridor: the tourist home.
The precursor to the modern bed-and-breakfast, tourist homes were private residences opened by local homeowners offering furnished rooms, a cozy bed, and warm meals to passing travelers. Vacationers and traveling salespeople would sometimes park their cars directly in residential Raleigh front yards—a stark visual contrast to the highway travel stops of today. These informal guest homes offered homey hospitality during the height of the Great Depression and World War II, allowing local homeowners to generate extra income from the steady stream of passing automobiles. They filled a gap in early auto-tourism, offering an affordable, personal alternative to grand downtown hotels during the golden age of American road trips.
The 1935 Hill’s Directory of the City of Raleigh (above) listed eight homes along Wake Forest Road and Person Street renting furnished rooms, many of which operated as tourist homes. By the 1950s, these informal and often short lived guest homes began giving way to classic American “motor courts” and motels designed specifically for automobile convenience. Over time, highway relocations diverted traffic away from the Person Street and Wake Forest Road corridors, leaving behind the unique architectural footprint we see today.
Below, we feature seven historic establishments depicting the evolution of hospitality along the Wake Forest Road and Person Street corridor:
1. The Yellow Gables / Gables Motor Lodge (1217 Wake Forest Road)
This landmark stands as the corridor’s strongest anchor, and is currently set to reopen this fall as a boutique inn.
Completed in 1930 for William Johnson, a local pharmacist who operated Johnson’s Pharmacy on East Martin Street, and his wife Ella, the home quickly evolved beyond a standard single-family residence. Ella Johnson actively ran the business, taking on long-term tenants starting in the late 1930s before expanding to offer short-term rooms for traveling salespeople, vacationing families, and returning World War II veterans. In 1945, the Johnsons built a massive rear addition alongside a separate two-story structure, officially naming it the Yellow Gables Tourist Home.
Following the Johnsons’ passing in the early 1960s, Charlie and Dot Griffin purchased the lodge and rented rooms through the 2010s, with Charlie managing the lodge while his brother Johnny operated Johnny’s Drive-In Grill and Supper Club just down the street. Today, following an extensive sympathetic restoration led by Grammy-nominated singer Tift Merritt and hotelier Daniel Robinson, the stone-walled landmark is set to reopen in October as an 18-room boutique hotel named The Gables, complete with lush gardens and an indoor/outdoor café.
2. Pine Tops Tourist Home (1419 Wake Forest Road)
Pine Tops offers a clear picture of how local families leveraged the booming automobile traffic along U.S. 1 to navigate economic hardship during the Great Depression. Built around 1928, this structure stood out along the corridor due to its striking Spanish Colonial Revival architecture. By 1929, it was occupied by Elihu DeWitt Green, owner of Green’s Radiator Shop downtown, and his wife Mary.
In 1935, Mary Green began renting out rooms to “discriminating motorists” driving down from the North, officially opening the Pine Tops Tourist Home while Elihu continued running his radiator business. The venture proved short-lived, however; by 1937, the home was sold to Robert Barkley, a conductor with the Seaboard Airline Railway, and Pine Tops reverted entirely back to a private residence.
After 1937, the Greens and their downtown shop vanished from the local public record, leaving behind a brief snapshot of Depression-era entrepreneurship.
3. A Guest Home of Southern Charm (1209 Wake Forest Road)
Located just down the street from the Yellow Gables, this home illustrates how tourist home proprietors aggressively competed with early downtown hotels by introducing modern luxury amenities. Operating throughout the late 1930s, Mrs. L.H. McKinney marketed her home as a haven of genuine “Southern Charm” situated exactly 12 blocks north of the State Capitol. To entice motorists off U.S. 1, she advertised features that standard homes of the era rarely possessed, including full building insulation, steam heat, and individual private garages designed to protect travelers’ vehicles from the elements.
4. Tour Inn
Now serving as the Mordecai Historic Park Visitor Center, 1101 Wake Forest Road was constructed c. 1920 for Joseph Dozier Boushall who married into the prominent Heck family. In fact, he and his wife Mattie Heck Boushall moved out of the palatial Heck-Andrews House in 1919 into the newly constructed 1101 Wake Forest Road. After the stock market crash of 1929, the Boushall’s finances faltered and the home went into foreclosure in 1932. It was then purchased at auction by Furman and Ruth Barnes who converted the home into the Tour Inn. It was operated by the Barnes family until the early 1960s when the property passed to Furman and Ruth’s son, Carl, who owned the house until 1975.
5. Tourist Rest (1002 Wake Forest Road)
A great example of adaptive reuse along the corridor, this former overnight stop was constructed c. 1922 for State Prison Warden Samuel J. Busbee. It briefly served as a tourist home in the 1930s. This house is extant and still retains its unique original windows. Today it houses a local hair salon. https://theworkshoppesalon.com/
6. The Restover (506 N. Person Street)
Located further south along the Person Street leg of U.S. 1, The Restover offered lodging within walking distance of downtown Raleigh. The original building is still standing, and vintage postcards preserve its role in the city’s early hospitality network.
7. Wooten’s Hometel (567 N. Person Street)
Representing the transition phrase between informal tourist homes and structured “hometels,” this facility served mid-century drivers heading through downtown Raleigh. The home was eventually demolished, and the site now forms part of the bustling commercial strip near the landmark Krispy Kreme.
By the early 1950s, the era of the informal tourist home drew to a close. While 1930s travelers preferred the intimate, homey hospitality of private residences, post-war motorists demanded predictable parking, standardized booking, key-in-hand privacy, and eye-catching neon signs. The rapid rise of the classic American “motor hotel” or motel quickly wiped out most of the market for tourist homes along residential streets like Wake Forest Road.
Eventually, highway bypasses like Capital Boulevard and Interstate 95 diverted heavy traffic away from the US1 corridor altogether. Yet, as the revival of The Gables demonstrates, the architectural legacy of Raleigh’s original Route 1 remains a vibrant part of our city’s streetscape.
Trace the History Yourself!
To explore the original route of old U.S. 1 before modern bypasses reshaped Raleigh, search thousands of public-domain aerial photographs and historic road maps curated by the DigitalNC North Carolina Heritage Collection https://www.digitalnc.org/ , their specific DigitalNC Maps Component, and the NC State University Historical Data and Maps Library https://www.lib.ncsu.edu/formats/maps/historical-data-and-maps
Resources and Links:
http://goodnightraleigh.com/2011/10/a-guest-home-of-southern-charm-raleigh-n-c/
http://goodnightraleigh.com/2013/08/pine-tops-for-the-discriminating-motorist-raleigh-n-c/
1931 Map of Raleigh: https://www.carolana.com/NC/Towns/Raleigh_NC_Maps.html
1928 Map of Raleigh: https://raremaps.com/gallery/detail/91454/map-of-raleigh-nc
https://tiftmerritt.substack.com/p/meet-me-at-the-gables
1935 Hill’s Raleigh City Directory: https://lib.digitalnc.org/record/25779?utm_source=gemini&v=pdf (pic above)
https://www.thegablesraleigh.com