{"nrhp_refnum":"82003531","name":"Cherry Hotel","other_names":[],"category":"building","location":{"address":"333 E. Nash St.","address_restricted":false,"city":"Wilson","county":"Wilson County","state":"NC","lat":35.73245810700007,"lon":-77.90862957799999,"geom_source":"nps_gis"},"listed_date":"1982-08-26","is_nhl":false,"nhl_designated_date":null,"areas_of_significance":["Architecture","Social History"],"significance_levels":["local"],"summary":{"what_it_is":"A six-story, U-shaped brick hotel on the northeast corner of Nash and Lodge Streets in downtown Wilson, North Carolina. It was begun about 1917 for Rufus A. Cherry.","why_significant":"The nomination argues the hotel was vital to Wilson's early twentieth-century railroad-based urbanization and served as a regional center for commerce, entertainment and social activity. It is also presented as a typical example of medium-sized small-city hotel architecture of the period, with Beaux Arts exterior detail and Art Deco interior features.","narrative":"Built beginning in 1917 for Rufus A. Cherry, the six-story brick Cherry Hotel stands on a flat corner lot in downtown Wilson, North Carolina, with roughly two hundred rooms in a U-shaped plan. Designed by Charles C. Benton and built by Joe W. Stout and Company, it has a Beaux Arts entrance with lion-mask supports, a metal cornice with plume and anthemion detail, and a lobby and ballroom with Art Deco lighting and finishes. Its importance lies in the railroad-based growth of Wilson in the early twentieth century. Travelers moving between New York and Florida stopped there, tobacco salesmen rented rooms for entire seasons, and its ballroom hosted dances, civic events and conventions. The hotel represents a typical medium-sized hotel of small North Carolina cities in the first quarter of the century. It closed in 1981 after road improvements and declining train traffic reduced its business.","period_of_significance":"1917","architect_builder":"Charles C. Benton (architect); Joe W. Stout and Company (builder)","architectural_style":"Beaux Arts; Art Deco interior","criteria":["A","C"],"status_note":"The hotel closed in 1981.","vacant_flag":null,"machine_generated":true,"model":"claude-haiku-5-5","prompt_version":"v1.1-2026-10-29","generated_at":"2026-10-29 17:11:41.481884-05","source_pdf":"https://s3.amazonaws.com/NARAprodstorage/opastorage/live/77/7228/47722877/content/electronic-records/rg-079/NPS_NC/82003531.pdf"},"photo":{"url_800":"https://nationalhistoricalregister.com/media/82003531/edf4f9956a-800.webp","url_1600":"https://nationalhistoricalregister.com/media/82003531/edf4f9956a-1600.webp","licence":"CC0","author":"Ammodramus","credit_html":"<a href=\"https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Cherry_Apartments_(Wilson_NC)_from_S_1.JPG\" rel=\"noopener\">Ammodramus</a>, <a href=\"http://creativecommons.org/publicdomain/zero/1.0/deed.en\" rel=\"license noopener\">CC0</a>, via Wikimedia Commons","source_page":"https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Cherry_Apartments_(Wilson_NC)_from_S_1.JPG"},"district":{"nrhp_refnum":"84000736","name":"Old Wilson Historic District","url":"https://nationalhistoricalregister.com/districts/north-carolina/old-wilson-historic-district-84000736/"},"sources":{"nps_snapshot_date":"2026-05-22","nara_catalog":"https://catalog.archives.gov/id/47722877","wikipedia":"https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cherry_Hotel","wikidata":"https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Q5092404"},"indexable":true,"url":"https://nationalhistoricalregister.com/north-carolina/wilson-county/cherry-hotel-82003531/"}