The Gift of an Icon
Published on September 5, 2018Completed in 1924, the Carolina Inn quickly became a campus icon for visitors and alumni.
Completed in 1924, the Carolina Inn quickly became a campus icon for visitors and alumni.
In 1921, John Sprunt Hill, class of 1889, was on Carolina’s campus for a Board of Trustees meeting. Staying at an old ramshackle hotel on Franklin Street, he couldn’t sleep because of the heat and uninvited four-legged guests in the room. He took a walk in the night air. Near campus, he saw a beautiful piece of property that gave him a vision: a cheerful inn for visitors, a town hall for the state and a returning home for alumni. He purchased the land and began construction. Completed in 1924, the Carolina Inn quickly became a campus icon for visitors and alumni. In 1935, Hill donated the hotel to the University on one condition: that the profits from the inn would support what would later become the North Carolina Collection in Wilson Library. The Carolina Inn continues to support the collection to this day.
This is story number 75 in the Carolina Stories 225th Anniversary Edition magazine.
