Raleigh, North Carolina
The Gables
Grammy-nominated singer-songwriter Tift Merritt restores the last operating motel on U.S. 1 into an 18-room boutique retreat in Raleigh's Mordecai neighborhood.
Announced · September 2026
The Gables, an 18-room boutique hotel restoring the 1928 Gables Motor Lodge on Wake Forest Road, is set to open in Raleigh's Mordecai neighborhood in summer 2026. Singer-songwriter Tift Merritt led the restoration with developer Daniel Robinson and designer Sarah Yarborough of Heyday Studios, turning the last operating motel on U.S. Highway 1 into an independent retreat with gardens, sleeping porches and an on-site bar, Alcove.
The essentials
- Group
- Independent
- Opening
- September 2026
- Rooms & suites
- 18 rooms
- Segment
- Boutique lifestyle
- Designer
- Sarah Yarborough, Heyday Studios
- Entry rate
- NC
The place
1217 Wake Forest Road, in Raleigh's Mordecai neighborhood — described in local press as the last operating motel on U.S. Highway 1 before it sat vacant for nearly a decade.
The concept
Built in 1928 as the Gables Motor Lodge, the building is being restored by singer-songwriter Tift Merritt with developer Daniel Robinson and designer Sarah Yarborough of Heyday Studios into an 18-room boutique hotel — a first-time repositioning of a historic motel property rather than a rebrand of an existing hotel. Renovation plans first surfaced in 2022; reservations opened in May 2026 ahead of a targeted summer opening. The hotel is styled as a 'traveller's retreat' built around gardens, sleeping porches and outdoor gathering areas.
Dining & wellness
Alcove, an intimate indoor-outdoor neighborhood bar on site.
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