Arcade Tailor and Arcade Hotel & Dining Room (Eckers Hotel)

This business, The Lightner Arcade Building, housed several different businesses and meeting spaces for organizations in addition to the hotel. They included Grand District No. 10 Household of Ruth, physician offices, beauty parlors, The address 122 E. Hargett St and 120 E. Hargett Street were listed in The Green Book for this location. There was not a “Hotels” section listed for Raleigh in the 1948-1952 Green Book editions. In 1952-1955 the Arcade was listed as under “Hotels” AND “Tailors”. In the 1961-1967 Green Book editions it was listed as “Home Eckers Hotel---122 E. Hargett Street” in Raleigh.

This structure was built in 1921 by Calvin Lightner. It was the only hotel (commercial hotel) available to African Americans when visiting Raleigh. It is noted that Duke Ellington and Count Basie stayed at the hotel. The hotel changed ownership in the 1940s and was managed by the NC Homemakers Association. During this management, the name changed to Eckers Hotel. The name also later changed to Peebles Hotel (not clear if under the management of NC Homemakers Association or another group). The hotel burned in 1968 and the Capital Area Transit now sits at this address.

Since 2017, the NC African American Heritage Commission, completed research on North Carolina’s Green Book sites. The findings have been compiled in this interactive web portal which invites visitors to explore each site in depth through historical vignettes, stories, and images. The project also includes a traveling and virtual exhibition produced to highlight the experiences of African American travelers during the Jim Crow era in North Carolina.

This project was made possible in part by the Institute of Museum and Library Services. The views, findings, conclusions or recommendations expressed in this program do not necessarily represent those of the Institute of Museum and Library Services.