Home Eckers Trade School, Raleigh NC

We recently uploaded several interesting postcards of the Home Eckers Trade School, located in the Lightner Arcade Building at 122 E. Hargett Street in Raleigh.  The postcard above shows the entrance to the building, showing a sign that reads, “Home Eckers Trade School Hotel Cafeteria.”

I’m not entirely certain what the Home Eckers Trade School was, but it appears that it was an secondary educational institution for African American women that hosted a restaurant and hotel.  The postcard above shows a group of women in a kitchen classroom, and the postcard below shows women lounging in a dormitory common room.

Do you know anything about the Home Eckers school?  Please comment on the blog, we’d love to learn more.  The postcards are dated to ca. 1950s, and the earliest entry I could find in the Raleigh City Directory is from 1949.