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.

7 thoughts on “Home Eckers Trade School, Raleigh NC”

  1. I’m told that my great aunt Lucy Fuller James owned the school and yes it was a hotel. Supposedly top entertainers of the day stayed at Home Eckers.

  2. My mom graduated from there in 1957. It taught cooking but she went for sewing and pattern making. She had to take English and math at Shaw University but did say that she met fats domino as well as other professional artists and gospel groups.

  3. I am Howard Carroll, guitarist and member of The Dixie Hummingbirds. We stayed at the Home Eckers Hotel all the time when we played concerts in east North Carolina. We loved it there. It was like home.

  4. Oh I wish I could find a big feature story on the Home Eckers Trade School, but I found only a little article about its graduation ceremony in 1961, saying it was the school’s 11th year. So at least that provides information about when it STARTED.

    From The News & Observer, May 28, 1961 —
    “Home Eckers School trains high school graduates to develop skill in dressmaking and tailoring, general business and food service management.”

  5. My Mom went to Home Eckers school for a semester in 1955. She remembers all of the big entertainers staying at the hotel. She met Sam Cooke while he was there with the Dixie Hummingbirds. She remembers Mrs. James and her husband and says Mrs. James tried to teach them to be ladies in addition to the other skills they learned.

    1. This is wonderful to hear. I heard my dad, grandmother (Mrs. James’ sister), and Aunt Lucy talk about the hotel, and meeting the prominent Black entertainers of the day. When they traveled, they stayed there because the hotel was renowned for its wonderful hospitality, delicious food, and outstanding service.

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