The building is gone. The guests who once filled its rooms are long gone. Even the name of the woman who built one of Raleigh’s most important Black-owned hotels has largely faded from public memory. But nearly a century ago, Hattie Wooten Lewis opened the doors of the Lewis Hotel, creating a refuge for Black travelers navigating the hardships of segregation and leaving behind a legacy that deserves to be remembered.
Nearly 80 years after her death, much of Hattie Wooten Lewis’s story has slipped from the historical record. Yet through the memories and family documents preserved by her great-niece, Janette Hodge, Lewis’s contributions as a pioneering Black businesswoman continue to survive.
“A lot of people, even in the Raleigh community, do not know about their contributions,” Hodge said.
The Lewis Hotel, located at 218–220 E. Cabarrus Street, was built in 1919 by Needham Lewis and his wife, Hattie Wooten Lewis. At a time when Black Americans were systematically excluded from white-owned hotels and boarding houses, the couple recognized a pressing need and answered it…