The Page-Walker Hotel, also known as the Page-Walker Arts & History Center, is a

historic house museum A historic house museum is a house of historic significance that has been transformed into a museum. Historic furnishings may be displayed in a way that reflects their original placement and usage in a home. Historic house museums are held to a ...

and former hotel located in

Cary, North Carolina Cary is a town in Wake and Chatham counties in the U.S. state of North Carolina and is part of the Raleigh–Cary, NC Metropolitan Statistical Area. According to the 2020 Census, its population was 174,721, making it the seventh largest muni ...

. The founder of the town of Cary, Allison Francis Page, built the

Second Empire style Second Empire style, also known as the Napoleon III style, is a highly eclectic style of architecture and decorative arts, which uses elements of many different historical styles, and also made innovative use of modern materials, such as i ...

hotel about 1868, and J. R. Walker bought it later. Page's son

Walter Hines Page Walter Hines Page (August 15, 1855 – December 21, 1918) was an American journalist, publisher, and diplomat. He was the United States ambassador to the United Kingdom during World War I. He founded the ''State Chronicle'', a newspaper in Rale ...

(1855–1918) was an American journalist, publisher, and diplomat.

History

From 1868 until 1916, passengers from the

Southern Southern may refer to: Businesses * China Southern Airlines, airline based in Guangzhou, China * Southern Airways, defunct US airline * Southern Air, air cargo transportation company based in Norwalk, Connecticut, US * Southern Airways Express, M ...

and

Seaboard Air Line The Seaboard Air Line Railroad , which styled itself "The Route of Courteous Service," was an American railroad which existed from April 14, 1900, until July 1, 1967, when it merged with the Atlantic Coast Line Railroad, its longtime rival, t ...

railroads stayed at the Page-Walker Hotel. The building served as a boarding house and private residence from 1916 until 1980. After the business closed, the building sat vacant and deteriorated for five years until the Cary Town Council purchased the property. Volunteers restored the exterior of the hotel to its original design.

Museum

The Arts & History Center also contains the Cary Heritage Museum, gallery exhibitions, educational rooms, an archive gallery, a

smokehouse A smokehouse (North American) or smokery (British) is a building where meat or fish is cured with smoke Smoke is a suspension of airborne particulates and gases emitted when a material undergoes combustion or pyrolysis, together with t ...

, and a garden.Page-Walker Arts & History Center
The Page-Walker Hotel was added to the

National Register of Historic Places The National Register of Historic Places (NRHP) is the United States federal government's official list of districts, sites, buildings, structures and objects deemed worthy of preservation for their historical significance or "great artistic v ...

on May 29, 1979.

Events Today

The Page-Walker currently hosts a variety of events such as weddings. Annually, they host a "Paint the Page" art contest in which young artists from grades 8-12 are invited to draw an aspect of the building that inspires them most.

References

External links

Town of Cary: Page-Walker Arts & History Center website

Friends of the Page-Walker Hotel website
{{National Register of Historic Places in North Carolina Houses completed in 1868 Historic house museums in North Carolina Museums in Wake County, North Carolina

Art museums and galleries in North Carolina North Carolina North Carolina () is a state in the Southeastern region of the United States. The state is the 28th largest and 9th-most populous of the United States. It is bordered by Virginia to the north, the Atlantic Ocean to the east ...

History museums in North Carolina Buildings and structures in Cary, North Carolina Hotels in North Carolina Hotels established in 1868 Houses in Wake County, North Carolina Houses on the National Register of Historic Places in North Carolina Hotel buildings on the National Register of Historic Places in North Carolina National Register of Historic Places in Wake County, North Carolina Second Empire architecture in North Carolina

History

Museum

Events Today

See also

References

External links