Hotel Kinston
An eleven-story Art Deco tower that rose above Kinston’s tobacco-era skyline in 1928, its red brick shaft capped with cast stone Moorish ornament that marks the top floors from blocks away.
At a glance
Hotel Kinston stands at 503 North Queen Street in Kinston, North Carolina. Built in 1927–1928 as an eleven-story steel-frame Art Deco hotel, it is sheathed in red brick with cast stone Moorish stylistic details at the main entrance and upper floors. The hotel operated until the 1960s and was later converted to senior citizen apartments. It was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1989 as part of the Kinston Multiple Property Submission. The building remains the most prominent pre-war landmark on the Kinston skyline.
Key facts
- Built: 1927–1928
- Style: Art Deco with Moorish details
- Architects: Herbert Hunter; Joe W. Stout
- Structure: 11-story steel frame, red brick
- Location: 503 N. Queen St., Kinston, North Carolina
- NRHP: Listed November 8, 1989 (#89001770)
- Current use: Senior citizen apartments
History
Kinston in the 1920s was a prosperous tobacco market town, the seat of Lenoir County, and a regional commercial center that could support the ambitions of a full-service downtown hotel. The construction of an eleven-story tower — an extraordinary height for an eastern North Carolina city of its size — reflected the prosperity and optimism of the tobacco industry boom years, when eastern North Carolina’s flue-cured leaf was in high demand both domestically and internationally.
Architects Herbert Hunter and Joe W. Stout designed a building that combined the fashionable Art Deco tower form with Moorish ornamental details at the entrance and upper story — a combination that was not unusual in the late 1920s, when eclectic historicism and modern efficiency coexisted in American commercial architecture. The cast stone ornament at the crown gives the building a distinctive silhouette that still defines the Kinston skyline.
The hotel operated for roughly three decades, serving travelers along the regional road network and visitors to the tobacco market. As car culture shifted commercial patterns and national hotel chains standardized the industry, the original Hotel Kinston ceased hotel operations in the 1960s. The building was subsequently converted to senior citizen apartments, a use it continues to serve. Its 1989 NRHP listing recognized the building as a significant example of commercial Art Deco architecture in the Kinston Multiple Property area.
What you see
From North Queen Street, the Hotel Kinston presents a bold vertical composition: a red brick shaft that rises eleven stories before transitioning to the distinctive cast stone ornament at the upper floors and entrance canopy. The color contrast between the warm red brick and the pale cast stone punctuates the building’s Art Deco geometry and draws attention to the Moorish-inflected crown — horseshoe arch motifs, stylized muqarnas-inspired details, and arabesques that reflect the period’s fascination with North African and Near Eastern decorative vocabulary.
The lobby entrance, also articulated with cast stone, establishes the scale of the building at street level. This layering of materials — utilitarian brick ascending to ceremonial stone — is characteristic of late-1920s American hotel architecture, where the tower was primarily a functional structure but the public-facing entrance demanded architectural ambition. The building’s height and massing continue to dominate Queen Street’s commercial corridor.
Practical information
- Private residential building (senior apartments); exterior only accessible from public sidewalk
- Best viewed from North Queen Street and the surrounding historic downtown
- Kinston is approximately 30 miles southeast of Greenville, NC, and 90 miles southeast of Raleigh
- The historic downtown district along Queen Street has additional pre-war commercial buildings worth exploring
Getting there
Hotel Kinston is at 503 North Queen Street, Kinston, North Carolina 28501. Kinston is accessible from US-70 and US-258. The nearest major airports are Pitt-Greenville Airport (30 miles northwest) and Raleigh-Durham International Airport (90 miles northwest). The building is in the heart of Kinston’s historic downtown, walkable from other commercial buildings on Queen Street.
Nearby
- Kinston historic downtown — North Queen Street commercial district
- CSS Neuse State Historic Site — 1.5 miles north, Civil War ironclad gunboat
- Lenoir County Courthouse — 0.3 miles south on Queen Street
- Mother Earth Motor Lodge & Brewery — Kinston’s craft brewing revival anchors the downtown
Sources
- National Register of Historic Places nomination #89001770 (Kinston MPS) — NPS, 1989
- Wikipedia: “Hotel Kinston” — Art Deco, architects Hunter/Stout, built 1927–28
- Allison H. Black, NRHP nomination, June 1989 — NC State Historic Preservation Office
- NC SHPO National Register Properties database
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