After the Kellahan Hotel closed and was sold to Kingstree attorney LeRoy Lee, there was a period in which there was no hotel in town to serve the traveling public. Philip and Emile Arrowsmith petitioned the Secretary of State to form the Kingstree Hotel Company with proposed capital of $50,000, but due to a nationwide recession, they were unable to proceed with their plans. A year later, The Kingstree Hotel was incorporated by a group of residents with capital stock of $60,000. F.W. Fairey was president; E.B. King and L.W. Gilland, vice presidents; W.H. Carr, secretary; and H.E. Montgomery, treasurer.
The hotel underwent major renovations, including the addition of hot and cold running water in the newly painted rooms and the installation of modern equipment throughout the hotel. When it opened in August 1921, John Gelzer was the hotel's manager. There was, however, no dining room in the hotel, and although the stockholders advertised for someone to open either a regular hotel dining room or a cafe in the building, there was no food service available at the hotel until 1924. That year, Henry and Bertha Whitaker became managers of the hotel.
In 1925, the Kingstree Kiwanis Club was organized in a meeting at the hotel. Insurance agent Ira A. Calhoun was the driving force behind bringing the Kiwanis organization to Kingstree as he believed the town would benefit from a civic club with national affiliation. Those attending the organizational meeting were serenaded by a quartet composed of M.H. Jacobs, Ira Calhoun, C. N. Griffin and Dr. LeRoy Cates, much to the audience's amusement, as these four had "never before lifted their voices in public."
The hotel benefited in the late 1920s for Bernard Baruch's patronage. Mr. Baruch often stayed in his private rail car, which was parked on the siding at he depot, when he came to Williamsburg County to hunt, but after the hotel opened, he and his guests would often stay there.
The Whitakers left Kingstree in 1928 to operate the Carolina Inn in Chester. In December 1928, they bought the Manning Hotel. In 1929, sisters from Orangeburg County, Mary Bell King Walker and Effie King Izlar became managers of the Kingstree Hotel. Both the Whitakers and the King sisters would play additional roles in Kingtstree's hotel history later.
An ad in The State newspaper in September 1929 read: WANTED: Two speedy waiters for dining room in busiest little hotel in state. Write Kingstree Hotel, Kingstree, SC.
By March 1930, the hotel was advertising in the Raleigh News & Observer and the Charlotte Observer, gearing the ads primarily toward tourists visiting Magnolia Gardens. Accurate road information was available 24 hours a day through the installation of a "travelfax" self-service feature at the hotel. It was installed and equipped by the South Carolina Motor Club in cooperation with the hotel management.
On Saturday, April 26, 1930, around 3 a.m., fire broke out in the kitchen of the hotel. The Kingstree Fire Department was able to confine the damage to the kitchen and the pantry, but the loss of the use of the kitchen and pantry prevented the hotel from serving breakfast that Saturday morning. However, the hotel had another range which was set up in another part of the building so that lunch and dinner service were able to go on as scheduled. The news reports stated that repairs would begin immediately, and guests would not be "seriously incommoded."
The sisters managing the hotel owned a house farther west on West Main Street, located on what is now the McDonald's parking lot. In August 1930, they added on to the house and began using it as an Annex to the Kingstree Hotel. The Annex became popular among tobacco buyers and other persons associated with the tobacco market, many of whom brought their families to live in Kingstree each summer.
In January 1931, Kingstree Mayor F.R. Hemingway hosted a banquet at the hotel for town officials, including town council members, police officers, fire fighters, waterworks commissioners and all other town officials.
In December 1934, Mary Walker, one of the sisters managing the hotel, foiled a potential robbery. On Christmas night, she left the front desk for a moment. When she returned, she surprised a man rifling through the cash drawer. He fled when he saw her, but she called night policeman James Benton, who chased the suspect down. The man claimed to be a part of the a carnival that had been held on Christmas day in Kingstree. When he was arrested, he had $120 in his pocket, the amount Mrs. Walker said was missing from her cash drawer.
In May 1936, the hotel was again closed. In June, LeRoy Lee leased the building to E.W. and Louise Jerow, who planned to re-open it as the Hotel Carolina after a through renovation and the addition of several rooms. The Jerows came to Kingstree from Bishoville, where they had managed the Hotel Lee, but Mr. Jerow had extensive hotel management experience, particularly in West Virginia. Kennedy Furniture Co., a local store, was awarded the contract to completely furnish the renovated hotel.
Meanwhile, in June 1930, Henry and Bertha Whitaker opened another hotel in Kingstree, almost directly across the street from the Kingstree Hotel in the old Thomas Opera House building, which the Whitakers had bought. They named the hotel The Charles Henry, after their two sons. The downstairs contained a lobby and dining room with guest rooms on the second floor. The Charles Henry served dinner in its dining room during the intermission of the 1930 Holiday Season Kick-off Dance held at the Wee Nee Beach Club. The Charles Henry also catered to northern hunters who were beginning to flock to Williamsburg County during the winter. However, the hotel was closed by 1935 when ERA Administrative Offices moved into the second floor of the building.
When the Kingstree Hotel closed in 1936, Mrs. Walker and Mrs. Izlar continued to run what had been called the Kingstree Hotel Annex, changing the name to the King's Tree Hotel. There is some indication that they either enlarged the building or built a new hotel on the same site. Other than a number of advertisements for waitresses, bell hops and housekeepers, there was little published about the King's Tree Hotel. However, in 1943, the hotel apparently became the target of rumors which were not uncommon during the Jim Crow era. The rumors charged the ladies with serving a family of Negroes in their dining room on May 23, 1943. Their advertisement in the Charleston Evening Post is reprinted below.
Also, in 1937, the Hotel received a gold seal certificate from the State Board of Health for 100 percent observance of all State health laws. The state inspector noted that this was the first gold seal he had ever issued to a hotel in the state.
The private dining room became a regular meeting place for the many bridge clubs in Kingstree. Numerous bridal luncheons were also held there.
A tragedy occurred on October 5, 1937, when W.B. "Bill" Lowe, who had managed the hotel since its opening, died after drinking carbolic acid in his room. He had been ill for several days and sent a bellhop to the drugstore for the acid, ostensibly to clean the bathroom. The bellhop gave Lowe the acid, went downstairs and then returned to Lowe's room, only to find Lowe locked in the bathroom. When Lowe did not respond to the bellhop, he went to get assistance, returning to find Lowe unconscious on the bed. He was rushed to Kelley Sanitorium but didn't regain consciousness before his death.
In April 1939, work began on a large addition to the hotel. All the new rooms would have private baths and showers tiled in black and white. Private baths and showers would be added to existing room which did not already have them. Owner LeRoy Lee had retired from his law practice and now was kept busy with looking after his real estate investments and serving as president of the Exchange Bank of Kingstree.
It appears that at some time after that, E.W. and Louise Jerow acquired ownership of the hotel. By 1963, Mr. Jerow had died and Mrs. Jerow was considering closing the business after operating it for 27 years. By that time, the hotel had 42 single and double rooms, most of which were air-conditioned and had televisions in them. But on Sunday, April 7, she announced that she had leased the business to Joseph Alsbrook, Inc., so that Kingstree would continue to have a hotel.
The hotel continued to serve the town for several years. In the November 5, 1966, issue of The Charlotte Observer, J.A.C. Dunn called the Hotel Carolina "a fascinating antique of the hostelry business." He further observed, "The Hotel Carolina is white-painted brick, massive and venerable. Its marquee and recessed balcony present an open-mouthed facade to the main street, like an old man dozing in a chair."
The building was torn down in the early 1970s, and the Exchange Bank of Kingstree built a modern banking facility on the site. That building is owned today by Williamsburg County and houses the county's water department.
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