A ‘boutique hotel’ is coming to Raleigh’s Village District with nod to freedman past

A 115,000-square-foot boutique hotel is coming to Raleigh’s Village District.

But unlike years past, where buildings had been named after prominent antebellum landowners, this upscale seven-story lodge — with rooftop bar and restaurant — will pay tribute to the neighborhood’s freedman past.

The Oberlin Hotel will offer 153 guest rooms and presidential suites near the intersection of Woodburn Road and Cameron Street. It promises “city views” on the site of the former K&W Cafeteria, west of downtown Raleigh. As part of the Curio Collection by Hilton Hotels, it will also be named after Oberlin Village, one of the largest and longest surviving Black Freedman’s villages in North Carolina.

“These folks made a lasting impact on Raleigh, and the entire country, because of what they achieved,” said Graham Bennett, president of Quality Oil Company, the project’s developers, in a release. “This special hotel will honor them.”

It’s another sign of how far the district has come more than two years after relaunching itself.

Formerly known as Cameron Village, the district has drawn Raleigh shoppers since the 1940s when it opened on land owned by one of North Carolina’s largest slave-holding families.

But in January 2021, the shopping center’s owners abandoned its namesake, Duncan Cameron, renaming it Village District to cut ties with its racist past.

Now some developers, like Quality Oil Company, are leaning into the district’s rich freedman history as part of its rebranding.

Villager’s ‘helped build Raleigh’

In 1858, Jesse Pettiford, a free Black man, bought 16 acres of land for $160. Eventually, it grew to become known as Oberlin Village. By 1880, it had about 750 residents. Among them: carpenters, brick masons and seamstresses, some of whom had been slaves for the Cameron and Mordecai families.

It thrived for decades, through the Reconstruction era and Civil Rights Movement, but eventually got squeezed out by gentrification. When the Cameron Village Shopping Center was built next to it in 1949, it brought new traffic and development, including the Oberlin Road overpass across Wade Avenue, which split the village in two.

The village, as it once was, is long gone, say its elders. But they continue to share stories to preserve its story. An oral history exhibit, called “The Voices of Oberlin,” is currently up at The Block Gallery, inside the Raleigh Municipal Building, until Sept. 22.

Sabrina Goode, who is descended from an early settler in Oberlin Village, is among them. As founder of the Friends of Oberlin Village, she welcomed the Quality Oil’s plans to name the hotel after the once-thriving community. But she also remains cautious.

“The proof will be in the structure,” she said in a phone call to The N&O. She’s especially aware of the risk for misappropriation for “economic gains,” she said.

At a minimum, she’d like to see an educational exhibit honoring Oberlin in the lobby. “I have to be faithful that they will honor their pledge to incorporate the history. That remains to be seen.”

NC-owned hotel

Quality Oil Company is a family-owned company that’s been headquartered in Winston-Salem since 1929. It already has a strong presence in the Triangle, with numerous Quality Mart and Quality Plus gas stations, a Hampton Inn & Suites near PNC arena and eight other hotels throughout the Southeast.

Construction on its latest project is slated for this summer, the company said, with a delivery date scheduled for 2025.

It’s expected to fill a gap in the market. Only a few blocks south, the DoubleTree by Hilton, known as The Brownestone Hotel, has closed at 1707 Hillsborough St. It will soon be torn down and replaced with luxury apartments, Triangle Business Journal has reported.