Article by Zach Goins
Video by Sabrina Cheung
GREENSBORO, North Carolina – Driving along Gorrell Street, you might miss it. A white and green house sitting on the corner, not really standing out.
But for African Americans traveling through the South during the Jim Crow era, the Magnolia House was once one of the most important buildings in all of Greensboro – a symbol of safety.
Ray Charles stayed there. So did Gladys Knight and Louis Armstrong. Jackie Robinson, too. But the house wasn’t just a haven for the rich and famous, it was a home away from home for so many travelers searching for refuge in the segregated South.
For nearly three decades, from 1949 until the mid-1970s, the house served as one of the few motels in the city that provided lodging for African American guests, forging years of memories and history along the way.
Thanks to the North Carolina African American Heritage Commission’s Green Book Project and the popularity of the film, “Green Book,” businesses across the state are now discovering their rich histories. But few are as impressive, nor run quite as deeply as the Magnolia House.
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In 1949, Arthur and Louise Gist purchased the Magnolia House and opened it to the public as a 14-room motel. Word spread of the family on Gorrell Street welcoming weary travelers with open arms, and the house quickly became Greensboro’s most highly recommended entry in the Green Book, a travel guide intended to help African Americans find safe lodging and avoid racism while navigating unfamiliar areas.
From 1936 to 1976 the Green Book was a staple in any African American’s vehicle – as essential to driving as the car itself. What started as a pamphlet covering the Greater New York City area quickly expanded into a full-blown book, including the Deep South, and eventually, a majority of the country, listing gas stations, restaurants, motels and more. Anywhere African Americans could visit without worrying for their lives.
The Magnolia House’s well-reviewed status in six editions of the Green Book led to it becoming a popular hub in Greensboro for all African Americans, celebrity and non-celebrity alike.
“Our guest list has some pretty prominent folks, and this was their extended stay motel,” said Natalie Pass-Miller, whose father bought the house in 1995. “But whenever you stayed here, whether you were a celebrity or not, it was just a safe place to let your hair down and not feel the pressures of everyday living.”
Since taking over the house, Pass-Miller and her family have been working to restore it to its former glory – emphasizing the preservation of the building’s memories and soul.
The memories are easy to see. The different editions of the Green Book that line the walls, the antique wooden furniture in every room, the photos of former celebrity guests. But the soul, that has to be felt – in the soft jazz echoing up the turning staircase, in the ear-to-ear smile of every worker, and in the welcome hug that Pass-Miller gives every new guest.
“One of the unique things about the motel is that it was very important to the Gist family to make it feel like home,” Pass-Miller said. “For example, Mama Gist heard biscuits with molasses was Louis Armstrong’s favorite snack, so she would always have those things prepared for him when he was here.”
Whether it was making new friends over a shared meal, enjoying the jazz music on the front porch or running with the neighborhood kids in the street, Pass-Miller said guests at the Magnolia House formed their own little community when they visited.
One recent guest who stopped by for brunch reminisced with Pass-Miller about his days growing up around the corner from the house. He told Pass-Miller that as a kid, he’d hear the jazz music spilling onto Gorrell Street and wander over to play with the other children – and that one time, they were joined by James Brown himself.
Pass-Miller said she hears new stories like this on a regular basis, it’s just a matter of finding the people willing to share them.
“We had a young lady who came here for brunch one day and she told us about how she had her honeymoon here and wanted to come back to see the house,” Pass-Miller said. “I don’t know about them until they walk through the door. They’ll pull us to the side and say, ‘Hey, did you know I,’ yada yada yada, and it’ll be another amazing story.”
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360 interactive video of Magnolia House by Sabrina Cheung
The Magnolia House may be one of the most well-remembered Green Book locations in the state, but that doesn’t mean it’s the only one.
Lisa Withers, a research historian working on the Green Book Project, is tracking down every North Carolina location mentioned in any version of the guide. So far, her team has discovered 66 locations where the original structure is still standing.
“We want to preserve the legacy and community stories associated with these places,” Withers said.
Safety Taxi in Salisbury, N.C. is a historically black-owned business, but current owner Archie Shaver never knew just how important his company was to African Americans traveling throughout the south.
“I was shocked at first,” Shaver said. “But once I thought about it, I used to hear the old ones around here mention the Green Book. I always knew this was an old establishment, but it’s good to know this cab company can probably stand in there as one of the oldest in North Carolina.”
Shaver said he believes it’s important for businesses listed in the Green Book to be recognized, especially ones like his that are still in operation.
“You have to be motivated, because you see the big businesses falling down, and it wouldn’t take a lot to take the little businesses out,” Shaver said. “It’s just a blessing that a small taxi company like this has survived for so many years, and I’m just honored to be a part of it.”
Withers said she hopes the Green Book Project will not only document the history of these places, but that it will also emphasize the significance of the book as a whole. To African Americans, the book was more than just a guide telling travelers where to go, but it also taught them what to do – and more importantly, what not to do.
“We know Jim Crow laws were in place, but there were also a lot of unwritten rules, if you will, that went along with Jim Crow,” Withers said. “If you’re unfamiliar with a place, you could easily break an unwritten rule and could find yourself in serious trouble, and unfortunately, you could very well lose your life.”
Withers said trouble like this could stem from something as simple as being in the wrong place at the wrong time, and oftentimes, it would lead to verbal harassment and even police intervention.
“Every community has its own quirks and customs, and sometimes a person can only know them by living there or being intimately involved with that particular community,” Withers said. “That tends to be local knowledge spread by word of mouth. Essentially, the Green Book is a textual representation of oral, local knowledge which was why it was important then, and why it is important today as a historical document.”
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Today, you can hear that same, smooth jazz flowing out of the Magnolia House every Sunday when it opens for brunch. Soon, the house will open its doors for supper on Wednesdays and Thursdays, too. But for Pass-Miller, the vision hasn’t changed.
“Our goal is to be able to restore the operation of the home to be what it was and function exactly as it did when the Gist family owned it,” she said. “When my dad bought the home, he completely restored it to the original floorplan, so what you see, what you walk through today is exactly what it looked like back then.”
Eventually, the family hopes to turn the house into a full bed and breakfast, allowing guests to fully experience the Magnolia House the way it was meant to be enjoyed.
“If you went out here and visited all these oasis spaces, how many would you find that were completely restored and open today and do exactly what it did back in the ‘50s?” Pass-Miller said. “You’d probably count them on one hand, if not just leaving the one finger for us.”
Until the motel is fully up and running once more, Pass-Miller and her family will continue to embody the motto they bestowed upon the house: creating memories with a side of soul. And if everything goes according to plan, the community will join them.
“A lot of people don’t know about us, and we’re working to let the public know this historic gem is here,” Pass-Miller said. “As the word gets out there, there’s definitely an appetite to want to be a part of it.”
