Historic Raleigh motel restored as boutique retreat in Mordecai

The Gables is turning a long-vacant roadside relic on Wake Forest Road into an 18-room boutique retreat, with reservations opening Sept. 15. The project, led by Tift Merritt, Daniel Robinson and Sarah Yarborough of Heyday Studios, puts a restored piece of Mordecai’s past back into use at a time when Raleigh often loses older buildings to demolition.

The motel’s story reaches back to Raleigh’s early auto age. City planning materials say The Gables Motor Lodge was established around 1925 by William and Ella Johnson as a Tudor Revival motel that drew on rising tourist traffic along Old Wake Forest Road, then also designated U.S. Route 1. The property was described as the last operating motel on that historic stretch before it sat vacant for nearly a decade.

That history matters in Mordecai Place, one of Raleigh’s early-20th-century suburbs shaped by the rise of automobile ownership in the 1920s. The city’s historic district materials describe The Gables as one of the quirky automobile-era building types that still remain there, a reminder of when roadside lodging helped define the city’s north-south corridors.

Before the restoration, Preservation North Carolina said the property sat on a 0.51-acre lot with 19 bedrooms, 13 bathrooms and a two-car garage across three buildings. After owner Charlie Griffin died in 2016, it was listed for $1.5 million. The building’s new life also fits a preservation strategy Raleigh increasingly leans on, since properties contributing to the Mordecai Place Historic District may be eligible for federal and state historic tax credits.

The idea for a boutique hotel is not new to the block. In 2018, the Mordecai Citizens Advisory Council approved a rezoning plan for the lodge submitted by Robinson and Merritt. That concept called for two rear additions, a small bar and possibly a pool. Neighbors then weighed parking and noise concerns against support for keeping the sign, shape and character of the old motel intact.

Now, the comeback is being framed as more than a hospitality project. Merritt has said the goal is to make The Gables feel soulful, welcoming and rooted in Raleigh, with an emphasis on conversation, rest, creativity and community. For Mordecai residents and nearby businesses, the reopening offers a clear test of what kind of growth Wake Forest Road is becoming: preservation that adds local character, or another step toward a pricier, more tourism-oriented corridor.