Morning, gang.

Today, we bring you another entry in our Postmark: Greensboro series, which looks at the past, present, and future of the city through vintage postcards.

Previous Postmark stories explored the radical educational experiment that created UNCG, two O. Henry Hotels inspired by Greensboro’s greatest writer, and the historic train station that could be a key part of downtown’s future.

Today’s entry, by Gale Melcher, is close to my heart. I wasn’t around for the heyday of the King Cotton Hotel, which was razed in 1971. But I spent more than a decade working at the News & Record, the daily paper that for decades dominated the city block where that grand hotel once stood. In my 20s, I spent more time in the newsroom at 200 E. Market Street than I did in my apartment. The office was far nicer.

In those years, we put the paper to bed at midnight and the place was buzzing with activity at all hours.

The crackle of police scanners. Reporters and photographers coming and going. People shouting into phones and banging away at keyboards as we screamed toward (and often past) deadlines. Trains and trucks brought in industrial quantities of ink and paper and left with finished newspapers, getting them to distributors all across our coverage area. Back then, that included Rockingham, High Point, Eden, and even Raleigh, where we had a state government reporter.

Sometimes, on a particularly stressful day, I’d walk down the hall to sit, watch, and listen as the printing presses rolled. It made me feel part of something larger, a part of the community our stories reached, and to the paper’s long history. When I first stepped into that newsroom as a college intern, it seemed like a local institution that had always been there and always would be. But the truth, as each of our Postmark stories illustrates, is that history is a record of constant change. 

The paper had only acquired its E. Market Street address in the mid-70s and had, until the mid-1980s, been two separate papers. The sweetheart deal that brought the Greensboro News Company to its new home was controversial, as was the demolition of the hotel that stood there for decades before. Hotels like the O. Henry and the King Cotton were aspirational—part of a community’s grand dream of itself in a period when its potential seemed limitless.

The city lost a lot in the century since those grand hotels were first imagined and constructed—the textile industry that once powered it, the vibrant downtown that was the center of so much. But now, after a long fallow period, we’re living through a continuing downtown revitalization. New hotels are going up again. People are moving back to the center of the city they once abandoned for suburban sprawl. The site of the old King Cotton and the News & Record is, once more, a vital part of dreams of what our downtown can be—and over what it should be.

— Joe Killian

Thanks for reading The Thread, a 3x week newsletter written by Greensboro editor Joe Killian and reporters Sayaka Matsuoka and Gale Melcher. Reach us with tips or ideas at greensboro@theassemblync.com.

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Postmark Greensboro:
The King Cotton Hotel

King Cotton Hotel soda shop, ca. 1945. (Digital scan courtesy of the Greensboro History Museum)

At the intersection of Davie and Market streets, across from the J. Douglas Galyon Depot, there’s a barren plot of land—a quiet void at the center of Greensboro’s bustling downtown. Concrete slabs adorned with graffiti and wildflowers hint at a former life.
A postcard sent from Greensboro to Baltimore in 1956 paints a grand view of the 13-story King Cotton Hotel, which opened at that very intersection in January 1927 with 250 guest rooms. Hundreds of cards arrived in local mailboxes announcing its formal opening.

“Every room is an outside room,” wrote the Daily News’ A.W. Stamey. “The hotel is considered one of the handsomest and most complete structures of its kind in the country. It represents an investment of close to one million and a half dollars.”

Read the full story here.

— Gale Melcher

Read this newsletter online or contact The Thread team with tips and feedback at greensboro@theassemblync.com.

What We’re Reading

Protections Set to Expire for Honduran Refugees: Temporary Protected Status provides refuge for migrants who can’t safely return to their home countries. Tens of thousands of Honduran nationals—including many in the Triad—may see their protected status expire in July. This week, the U.S. Supreme Court ruled the Trump administration can move forward with ending this status for Venezuelans. WFDD has the story.

Not So Fast: Greensboro City Manager Trey Davis’ “Road to 10,000” plan hopes to create 10,000 new housing units by 2030 to address the city’s housing crunch. But critics—including some on the city council—say four major housing plans may be moving forward too fast and with too little information. ABC 45 has the story.

Joe Killian is The Assembly's Greensboro editor. He joined us from NC Newsline, where he was senior investigative reporter. He spent a decade at The News & Record covering cops and courts, higher education, and government.

Gale is a Report for America corps member and Greensboro-based reporter for The Assembly. She previously covered local government and community issues for Triad City Beat. She holds a bachelor’s degree in biological sciences from N.C. State University.