Motz/North State Hotel (1840-1968)
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Continuing around the Court Square, you will come to a historical marker noting the location of the old North State Hotel. It used to stand where the parking lot of the James W. Warren Citizens Center is today.
First known as the Motz Hotel, later the Lincolnton Hotel, this building was renamed the North State Hotel in the 1890's. Some time prior to 1796, Jacob Summey and John Motz erected a house on Lot No. 1 in the Southwest Square and operated a mercantile business at the building. John M. Motz died on March 9, 1840, and his wife, Catherine, continued to reside at Lot No. 1. Newspaper advertisements in December 1840 document her residence on this lot and she was operating what was designated as "Mrs. Motz's hotel". She continued to reside on Lot No. 1 and operate the Motz hotel throughout the 1840's.
On November 25, 1862, the hotel property was conveyed to Samuel Lander, Jr., who converted the hotel into a boarding school for female students under the name Lincolnton Seminary. While ownership remained with the Lander family, by 1873 the building had been converted back into use as a hotel under the name of Lincolnton Hotel with various proprietors during the 1870's and 1880's. In 1891, members of the Lander family formed a corporation known as the North State Hotel Company to operate the building on Lot No. 1. In 1906, Thomas Edison arrived with his son and brother-in-law looking for cobalt for an experiment with the alkaline battery. The trio stayed at the hotel for ten days, paying two dollars a day for room and board. The North State Hotel was sold on June 2, 1966 to the Lincoln County Board of Commissioners and was demolished in January 1968 in order for the land on which it stood to be used as a parking lot.
