Three Old Greenville Hotels For many years Greenville suffered the need of a commercial hotel to meet her expanding business needs. There were always numerous boarding houses in town but they could not compete with the larger hotels which sprang up over the years. The following are brief histories of three commercial hotels that were once familiar landmarks to Greenville citizens but are now lost to faint memory. King House Hotel The King House Hotel was once located on Evans Street where Dale’s Indian Restaurant now sits. It was opened in 1886 by Sheriff William May King (1833-1911) and his wife, Dicie Almeta Peebles King (1836-1917). The proprietress, Mrs. King was noted for having the best food in town and her rates for room and board were $1.25 per day or $5.00 a week. A funny story is told about a traveling salesman who stayed at the King House Hotel in 1891. It seems the streets of Greenville were renowned for being big mud holes after it rained. This traveler constructed crude signs with words like “Danger! two men drowned here” and “Danger! don’t cross here!” and placed them in the mud holes on Evans Street in front of the hotel. He was heard laughing at his supposed joke and returned to his room in the hotel. Directly the town policeman saw the signs and inquired who put the signs up. He was told a stranger in the hotel had done it. The chief went into the hotel, called the man down and ordered him to walk outside and remove them at once. A crowd assembled as the now embarrassed stranger walked out to the street. Spying a boy, he asked him to go out and get the signs out of the mud holes. The boy replied “I didn’t put ‘em there and ain’t going to take ‘em down neither.” The chagrined stranger then waded out into the mud and removed his placards as the crowd screamed with laughter. The Hotel operated an omnibus to carry passengers to and from the train depot and at different times the bus got tied up in vehicle accidents with other wagons. In July 1894, a third story and double balcony was added to the hotel, which added 6 more desirable rooms. In March 1895, a large sign was painted across the front of the Hotel which commanded the view of everyone on the street. In March 1896, Mrs. King decided to retire from the hotel business and in Oct. 1898 she sold the hotel to J. A. Andrews. The King House Hotel, which then consisted of three floors and 20 rooms, with stables in the rear facing Cotanche Street, were then offered for rent. Charles Carson Vines (1857-1917) a merchant of Falkland and his wife Mattie Mayo Vines leased the Hotel for the year 1899, taking possession of it on Jan. 1, 1899. On the evening of May 4, 1899, a huge fire destroyed Greenville, burning 25 stores and offices, the post office and the King House Hotel. After the fire, C. C. Vines rented the Hoell House on Third Street and opened another hotel. In Dec. 1899, a new King House was opened on Dickinson Ave. by Mrs. Hiram Bentley Harris and Miss Lena King. It was mentioned in the newspaper in July 1904 that the King House on Dickinson Ave. was having additions put on. Hotel Bertha In 1900, Benjamin F. Patrick, a local farmer and merchant, seeing the need for a larger hotel for the traveling public, built a hotel near the northwest corner of Evans and Fifth Streets at Five Points (now the site of Starlight Cafe). He named it the Hotel Bertha in honor of his young daughter Bertha. The contract for the hotel was let in July 1900 to D. H. Rose of Rocky Mount and cost nearly $10,000 to build. The Bertha opened in Feb. 1901 and C. C. Vines and wife gave up their hotel on Third Street and began working as managers of the hotel. Tom G. Blow, the earliest known clerk at the Hotel Bertha, left in August 1910 to work at the Hotel Louise in Washington, N.C. C. C. Vines and wife left the employ of the Hotel Bertha in 1913 and built what was known as the Vines House. According to a feature in the local newspaper in 1907, the Hotel Bertha was a three story building, containing 30 rooms..”well lighted and ventilated and comfortably furnished. The office, lobby, dining room and kitchen are on the main floor, with parlors on the second floor. There are sample rooms at the service of travelers and busses meet all trains. The entire house is lighted with electricity and all rooms equipped with call bells.” The Hotel Bertha was again featured in a 1914 illustrated brochure of Greenville. According to the brochure, B. F. Patrick was the proprietor and James H. Freeman was the manager. The hotel was described as having “modern equipment throughout, including steam heat, hot and cold running water, call bells, etc. There are fifty rooms, all nicely furnished, every piece of furniture throughout the entire hotel being absolutely new. The rates are very reasonable, only $2 per day on the American plan. The table fare is excellent.” The hotel had an omnibus to pick up guests at all trains and a dray to carry their luggage. In Dec. 1914, it was reported in the newspaper that Kinchen W. Cobb had sold his interest in the Hotel Bertha to his partner, Mr. Pace. In July 1915 it was announced that B. F. Nunn, one of the oldest hotel men in the State, had bought the Hotel Bertha. By 1916 it was known as the New Bertha Hotel and in Oct. 1917 the New Bertha Hotel became known as the Princeton Hotel. It had a flower shop, a band, and a dining room known as the best around. By 1919, the Princeton Hotel moved to a building on the corner of Greene Street and Dickinson Avenue known as the New Princeton Hotel. The Princeton Hotel burned in December 1925 and was rebuilt in early 1926. The old Hotel Bertha building housed several businesses over the years, such as the A & P grocery store and was eventually taken into the Brody department Store. When you sit in the main dining room of Starlight Cafe you are sitting in the old Hotel Bertha. Vines House The Vines House, built by Charles Carson Vines and wife Mattie in 1913, was located on the southeast corner of Pitt and Fifth Streets. It was built as a large boarding house and it was said to have the best meals in town. C. C. Vines died in 1917 and about 1920 the City of Greenville bought the Vines House as a teacherage for unmarried teachers. It served this purpose until the school system had it auctioned off in 1942 and it was bought by Mr. and Mrs. W. I. Wooten. According to an interview with Mrs. Wooten in 1970, the Wooten’s leased the Vines House to the Salvation Army soon after they bought it. Over the approximate five years it was operated by the Salvation Army, Mrs. Wooten remembered that “Some 30,000 military men had slept there. Mrs. John Horne was matron while it was used by the Salvation Army as an extension of the USO.” It was called “Buckingham Palace,” and every weekend all available floor space was taken up with men sleeping. It was also where the Greenville Greenies Baseball Team stayed. After its use as a serviceman’s hotel, the organization called the Patient’s Circle of the King’s Daughters bought the Vines House in late 1950. Their idea was to use the building as the first old folks home in Greenville. However, because the structure was brick veneer, it was ruled as unsafe for that purpose and was sold back to Mrs. Wooten in 1951. Mrs. Wooten operated it as a room-rental house until 1970 when she learned that renovating it would be too expensive and had it torn down. She reported that happily she was able to salvage some of the fine old interior fittings. “I have saved two wooden oak mantels and arches and columns from inside the house” she said. “I’ve also recovered some brass beds and old wash stands.” Another period treasure Mrs. Wooten salvaged was the stained-glass window located in what was the dining room facing Pitt Street. _________________________________________________________________ Proud to be a PC? Show the world. Download the “I’m a PC” Messenger themepack now. hthttp://clk.atdmt.com/MRT/go/119642558/direct/01/