The Freeman Hotel
The Freeman Hotel is located in a little town called Windsor right in the Tar Heel state. (North Carolina)
This beautiful Greek revival style building is CA 1840s. It is only 1 of 15 surviving antebellum-style buildings in the town of Windsor.
Management changes, name changes, location changes, and hauntings oh my!
Not to mention sightings of a Lady in white.
There is a lot of mystery circling this unique building. No one knows exactly why the building was built, or who commissioned it to be so.
It originally sat at the northeast corner of Granville and Queen Street in Windsor. Where it had its very own garden and stables on King Street.
In 1882, LD Perry sold the property to Samuel Freeman for a mere $800. However, at this time it is only speculation that there was a building on the property. For $800 back then there should have been a building on it but there is no proof of it.
Whether there was or wasn't makes little difference, however. Because Mr. Freeman turned "the building" into a hotel shortly after purchasing it.
Around 1887, there is speculation but no hard proof this building was the Odd Fellows Lodge but no records are to be had regarding that either.
On August 8th, 1888, the local newspaper was the first mention of this building being used as a hotel. And from 1888, all the way until 1936, it was ran as an 8-room 2 dining room hotel.
In the 1890 and 1896 issues of the business directory, this beautiful building was listed as The Freeman House Hotel.
With the turn of the 1900s there came new management and with it a new name. In 1903 Mr. Junius Bridger of Lewiston took over as the hotel's manager and the name became “The Commercial House.” Why management change required a name change is just one of this building's many mysteries.
Mr. Junius didn't last long as manager because in 1907 you guessed it, It was under new management again and yet another name change. RL HollowMan became manager and the name became the hotel Pearl named after Freeman's daughter.
What is amusing is the Freeman family lived just across the street in a large home on Queen Street.
Sadly Mr. Freeman died in 1923, and his lovely daughter Pearl inherited the property. Replacing RL with a new family. The Shimer family took over management and shockingly there was no name change this time. The Shimer family remained management until the hotel closed in 1936.
After the closure of the hotel in 1936 the building was moved to the back of the lot and was repurposed and used as apartment buildings until 1980.
By 1966 when Miss Pearl died, the building was inherited by her sister Louis Freeman Englehart. Which she quickly sold to Coastal Concrete Company in 1968 and they continued to use the building as apartments.
Only 12 years later in 1980, the concrete company deeded the property to the Historic Hope Foundation with the stipulation the building would be moved off the current property.
So within the year the Hope Foundation worked with the Historic Commission of Windsor and had the building moved to its current location at 101 N York Street for only 10k with the understanding, that the building would be restored.
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| (Where it sits on York St) |
By 1982, this unique building finally entered the National Register of Historic Places.
If you look closely the chimneys are no longer there but replaced with stove flutes, which is just a small visual of it being moved.
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| (2023) |
After it was moved and renovated in 1982 it became home to office spaces and the Chamber of Commerce. Until it flooded in 1999 during Hurricane Floyd at which point they again repaired the property.
In 2010, it was flooded once again and has remained in disarray and an unrepaired state since. However this year 2023 there is good news!
The town has found a location out of the flood zone at 388 West Camden Street Windsor to be able to move and ideally repair what was once the beautiful Freeman Hotel.
The building has survived many hardships, the horrible flooding, and multiple relocations, not to mention changing of hands. There is no surprise people have had experiences of things moving on their own, falling off shelves, and even seeing A LADY IN WHITE walk the halls of the upper level.
Would you stay in what was once the Freeman Hotel?
After having the grant to move this historical landmark for a few years... Today 1/21/2025 the town finally moved it to its new home where hopefully it will be repaired to its former glory.
Check out my YouTube video for some footage
revised 1/21/2025
reference 2 National register of historic places
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