Payne’s Tourist Home, also called Payne’s Hotel, was a Wilmington institution. The hotel opened in 1925 with a grand banquet with 300 guests. 

It was originally owned by Thomas Payne and managed by Thomas H. Knight, “a well-known railroad man.” In its first year the hotel hosted weddings, parties, and organizational meetings, many of them reported in the national African American newspaper The Pittsburgh Courier.2

By 1926 the hotel was under the ownership and management of Charles F. Payne and his wife, Annie B. Payne. Charles F. Payne was born in North Carolina in 1887. His parents were Lewis Payne, a cooper, and Albina Davis. Charles served in the U.S. Coast Guard during the Spanish American War, enlisting in 1898 and serving until his retirement in 1929.

 He married Annie Bell Maids around 1917. In the years before they purchased Payne’s Hotel, Charles owned a grocery store and worked as a porter in a department store, Annie worked as a laundress, and the couple had two children, Charles Jr. and Francis. Charles Jr. was born in Massachusetts and Francis was born in Michigan, a testament to the family’s frequent travel during the late 1910’s and early 1920’s.3

Advertised in the Green Book as a home with “comfort and convenience, where particular people stop, steam heated,” Payne’s Hotel featured an open first floor where lodgers could dine and socialize during their stay. Current owner, Jim Lofton, remembers a time when there were no stops for African American travelers along the highway between Maryland and Wilmington, making Payne’s Hotel a welcome respite for out-of-town travelers. 

The hotel was also popular among performers on the Chitlin’ Circuit, local professionals, sorority and fraternity members, and teachers who were new to the area. The 1930 census listed three professionals lodging at the hotel: a sleeping car porter from North Carolina named Claude Wade, a retail baker from Georgia named Dupry Brown, and an office building janitor from North Carolina named James Faust. 

The hotel also boasted better known guests, such as musicians Duke Ellington and Louis Armstrong.4

Charles Payne passed away in Wilmington in 1958. Annie B. Payne continued to operate the hotel for the remainder of the time it was advertised in the Green Book. 

Jim Lofton purchased 416 N. 6th Street from a Payne family member in the 1970’s, and the hotel now operates as an apartment building. Annie Bell Payne passed away in 1987, at the age of 104.5

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Green Book Entry/Entries: Paynes---417 N. 6th St. - Payne’s Tourist Home---417 N. Sixth St. -Charles F. Payne, 417 North 6th St.

Green Book Category: Hotels Tourist Homes

Years Listed: 1939-1941, 1947-1951, 1954-1957, 1959-1967

Region: Tidewater

County: New Hanover

Notes

1. Victor Green, 1939 Green Book, 33; Green, 1940 Green Book, 36; Green, 1941 Green Book, 36; Green, 1947 Green Book, 65; Victor Green, 1948 Green Book, 63; Green, 1949 Green Book, 57; Victor Green, 1950 Green Book, 63; Green, 1951 Green Book, 55; Victor Green, 1954 Green Book, 54; Victor Green, 1955 Green Book, 54; Victor Green, 1956 Green Book, 47.

2. “Wilmington, NC,” The Pittsburgh Courier, September 12, 1925, p. 6, accessed from www.newspapers.com; “Wilmington, NC,” The Pittsburgh Courier, January 9, 1926, p. 14, April 24, 1926, p. 13, and July 31, 1926, p. 6, accessed from www.newspapers.com.

3. Hill’s 1926  Wilmington, N.C. City Directory, Hill Directory Co., Inc.: Richmond, VA, city directory p. 343;  1920 United States Census, Wilmington, New Hanover County, NC, digital images s.v. "Charles F. Payne,” accessed from www.ancestry.com; Charles F. Payne, July 10, 1958, North Carolina, Death Certificates, 1909-1976, accessed from www.ancestry.com; Charles Frederick Payne and Wilma Elise Thompson, Virginia, Select Marriages, 1785-1940, accessed from www.ancestry.com; Charles Frederick Payne, U.S. National Cemetery Interment Control Forms, 1928-1962, accessed from www.ancestry.com; Charles Frederick Payne, Wilmington, New Hanover County, NC, U.S. World War I Draft Registration Cards, 1917-1918, accessed from www.ancestry.com; Hill’s 1922  Wilmington, N.C. City Directory, Hill Directory Co., Inc.: Richmond, VA, city directory p. 417; Hill’s 1924 Wilmington, N.C. City Directory, Hill Directory Co., Inc.: Richmond, VA, city directory p. 465.

4. Victor Green, 1956 Green Book, 47; Alma D. Green, 1960 Green Book, 74; Green, 1961 Green Book, 72;  Beverly Smalls, “Lofton Owns ‘Green Book’ Treasure, A Segregation-era Hotel,” Wilmington StarNews, June 7, 2016, https://www.starnewsonline.com/news/20160607/lofton-owns-green-book-tre…, accessed April 25, 2019; Adam Wagner, “Did You Know Wilmington had 2nd-Most Green Book Locations in NC?” Wilmington StarNews, March 18, 2019, https://www.starnewsonline.com/news/20190317/did-you-know-wilmington-ha…, accessed April 25, 2019; “Brown Will Address Colored Trade Body,” The Wilmington Morning Star (Wilmington, NC), March 2, 1941, p. 9, accessed from https://chroniclingamerica.loc.gov/lccn/sn78002169/1941-03-02/ed-1/seq-…;  1930 United States Census, Wilmington, New Hanover County,, NC, digital images s.v. "Charles F. Payne,” accessed from www.ancestry.com.

5. Hill’s 1959 Wilmington, (New Hanover County, N.C.) City Directory, Hill Directory Co., Inc.: Richmond, VA, city directory p. 279, classified directory, p. 208, street directory, p. 17; Hill’s 1963 Wilmington, (New Hanover County, N.C.) City Directory, Hill Directory Co., Inc.: Richmond, VA, city directory p. 271, classified directory, p. 221, street directory, p. 16; Smalls, “Lofton Owns ‘Green Book’ Treasure;” Wagner, “Did You Know;” Charles F. Payne, July 10, 1958, North Carolina, Death Certificates, 1909-1976, accessed from www.ancestry.com; Annie Payne, September 21, 1987, North Carolina, Death Indexes, 1908-2004, accessed from www.ancestry.com.

Did you know?

• Payne’s Tourist Home was listed in multiple different ways in various Green Book editions:1939-1941, 1947-1949: Listed as “Paynes--417 N. 6th St.” under the “Hotels” section in Wilmington.
  1950-1951: Listed as “Payne’s Tourist Home--417 N. Sixth St.” under the “Tourist Home” section in Wilmington on two lines, bold, and bigger font.
  1954: Listed as “Charles F. Payne, 417 North 6th St.” under “Tourist Homes” in Wilmington on three lines, bold, and bigger font.
  1955: Listed as “Payne’s Tourist Home, 417 North 6th St.” under “Tourist Homes” in Wilmington on two lines, bold, and bigger font.
  1956: Listed as an advertisement in this edition of the Green Book. Advertisement includes an image of the house with the following wording: “Payne's Tourist Home, Comfort & Convenience, Where Particular People Stop, Steam Heated, C. F. Payne--Proprietor, 417 North 6th Street, Wilmington, North Carolina, Phone: Wilmington 6301.”
  1957, 1959: Listed as “Paynes’ Tourist Home---417 No. 6th St.” in Wilmington.
  1960-1961: Entry listed twice in the Green Book. First, as an advertisement with an image of the house with the following wording: “Payne's Tourist Home, Comfort & Convenience, Where Particular People Stop, Steam Heated, C. F. Payne--Proprietor, 417 North 6th Street, Wilmington, North Carolina, Phone: Roger 2-6301.” A second entry is included below the advertisement: “Paynes’ Tourist Home---417 No. 6th Street.” in Wilmington.
  1962-1967: Listed as “Paynes’ Tourist Home---417 No. 6th St.” in Wilmington.
  

Source: Essay by Brandie K. Ragghianti, 2019 / The North Carolina African American Heritage Commision 

.....

Wayne Lofton owns ‘Green Book’ treasure, a segregation-era hotel

Paynes Tourist Home was for black travelers

Beverly Smalls StarNews Correspondent

June 7, 2016, 6:30 p.m. ET

From 1936 until 1966, “The Negro Travelers Green Book” provided valuable lodging resource information for middle class tourists and the country’s popular entertainers.

James "Jimmy" Lofton owns one of those Jim Crow segregation era’s special properties, Payne’s Tourist Home at 417 North Sixth St. A plaque on the exterior indicates it was established in 1898.

The University of South Carolina’s digital index for the “Green Book” (http://bit.ly/SN_GreenBook) includes a 1956 edition featuring an ad for Payne’s on page 47.

“In those days black travelers could not live in hotels and motels.” Lofton said. “When I was growing up I remember everyone calling it Payne’s Hotel.”

Reared in north Wilmington’s Bladen Street neighborhood, the businessman wasn’t aware of “Green Book” publications when he purchased the site during the late 1970s. He was familiar with the Payne family, and multi-purposes of their building for out-of-town visitors, local professionals, sorority and fraternity members, and the Chitlin Circuit” entertainers.

Victor Green, a Harlem, N.Y., postal employee, began the travel guide for the safety and convenience of his minority culture. After marrying Anna Duke, a Virginia participant in the great migration of Negroes from the South, he learned that usable lodging, restaurants and gas station locations needed to be known prior to travel.

Originally named, “The Negro Motorist Green Book,” his publications are being studied by scholars like Tom Lewis, author of “Divided Highways: Building the Interstate Highways, Transforming American Life.” Standard Oil, later known as Esso, promoted and served as a sponsor of the publication, stating that blacks could, “go further with less anxiety.”

Lofton also recalls dilemmas linked to travel.

“When you got past Maryland, Highway 301 that is now (Interstate) 95, there was no place to stop to rest, sleep or eat," he said. "When entertainers and bands came to Wilmington to perform in a large place called ‘The Barn,’ they stayed at Payne’s Hotel.”

Lewis and other researchers confirm that the American Automobile Association, the airlines, travelers’ aid societies, libraries and travel bureaus promoted or distributed “The Green Book.”

A Payne’s Tourist Home 1956 ad describes the structure as steam heated and a provider of comfort and convenience, “where particular people stop.”

The Duke Ellington Band, Count Basie, Louie Armstrong, Lionel Hampton and their musicians were some of the special guests, Lofton said. He recalled that sometimes bandleader would reside in the home of The Barn’s owner.

“Schools also had new teachers that would board in Payne’s. It had a very large dining room with very good food,” he said.

The massive living room housed a private library with lots of old books, and a huge dining room doubled as a social dance hall, Lofton said.

Usage diminished with the passage of the 1964 Civil Rights Act. Members of the Payne family died and the hotel was vacated for many years. Lofton has upgraded deteriorating pipes, walls, windows and infrastructure. The building now provides long-term rooms for locals.

He always recognized the historic and cultural significance of the site. In 1981-1983 Flora Hatley Wadelington of the N.C. Department of Cultural Resources consulted with Lofton and included images of Payne’s in an exhibit in the former Red Cross Street Library.

“The Negro Main Streets study included Raleigh, Durham and Wilmington and showed those hotels and motels as integral parts of local communities,” said Hatley Wadelington, associate professor of history at Shaw University.

Resurging interest in segregated lodging needs is possibly connected to the Memphis African-American Lorraine Motel's 50th anniversary celebration as a museum interpreting where Dr. Martin Luther King was slain in Memphis, she said.

“It causes people to think about how things used to be."

-End-