As the last fraction of the University Inn is destroyed to make way for the Graham Memorial, the exterior of the new Carolina Inn at the west campus gate is taking its final shape. While a force of wreckers were demolishing the dilapidated structure near the Alumni building last week, the workmen n the other side of the campus, having already completed the outer walls, and the framework of the north portico, were hurrying to get the building roofed in so that the interior operations might proceed without hindrance during the winter.
As the last fraction of the University Inn is destroyed to make way for the Graham Memorial, the exterior of the new Carolina Inn at the west campus gate is taking its final shape. While a force of wreckers were demolishing the dilapidated structure near the Alumni building last week, the workmen n the other side of the campus, having already completed the outer walls, and the framework of the north portico, were hurrying to get the building roofed in so that the interior operations might proceed without hindrance during the winter.
It is hard for many people in Chapel Hill to realize, but it is a fact that the University Inn, whose broken-down aspect has made it the butt of ridicule these last few years, was regarded a quarter of a century ago as one of the most select habitations in the village. When Jule Carter Jr. and John Carr and Frank Rogers, among the most popular and well-to-do students in the University, installed themselves, in 1895 or thereabouts, at the north end of the second floor, their suite was pointed out as the acme of undergraduate luxury.
W.G. Peckham, a New York lawyer who came here on a visit, bought a great deal of Chapel Hill real estate, and one of his purchases was the celebrated John Watson hotel. He tore it down, all except the part on the main street that had been put up to receive James K. Polk when he revisited his alma mater and built the Inn in its place. Walter Pickard conducted it as a hotel for many years. It was sold by the New Yorker to H.H. Williams and George Stephens, and they in turn sold it to the University. Used as a dormitory, as time passed it deteriorated and came to be less desirable as a place to live.
The contrast between this edifice and that which is now being put up by John Sprunt Hill, is the contrast between the old Chapel Hill and the new. The Carolina Inn, of Colonial design and with a portico modeled after the one at Mount Vernon, is to be modern in all respects. The plans call for rooms for a hundred guests. There will be an elevator, a ballroom, a spacious lobby, and the most improved restaurant service. The place is to be run as a club under the direction of University alumni and other friends of the institution. Mr. Hill’s present intention is to complete it in time for a formal opening next Commencement. The architect is Arthur C. Nash.
From the front page of The Chapel Hill Weekly, Thursday, Jan. 10 , 1924
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