When North Carolina Agricultural & Mechanical College broke ground back in 1887, the college was outside of city limits — officially, the campus was designated as "West Raleigh." This made sense, given that it was a land-grant school which required a great deal of space for its agricultural and military programs. The only commercial operation in the area was the State Fairgrounds, which had similarly pursued the area for its quietude. Slowly, businesses began recognizing the opportunity to cater to this influx of students, as well as the periodic congregations of spectators at the fair. City limits were extended in 1907 from St. Mary's Street to Park Drive, and in 1910, one of the earliest developments, College Court, opened on the northeast edge of campus; it's the building in which Player's Retreat now resides. Development hit its stride in 1920 and never slowed down [1]. (Mouse over images to enlarge).
Among the best-known businesses on Hillsborough Street today is Mitch's Tavern, which stands at 2426 Hillsborough Street. Mitch's began its life in 1974, taking over the space of the Jolly Knave. Despite the historic nature of the business, as well as the building in which it dwells, there's a dearth of information on the age of the structure in which one of NC State's most popular bars resides. Mitch's is one of just two original buildings remaining on the 2400-block of Hillsborough Street. But, how old is it?
A precise answer has eluded capture for several years. An October 1990 NRHP form for the West Raleigh Historic District estimated the building was circa 1925, while other estimates range from 1910 to 1929 [2] [3]. To find the answer, we have to look back to another West Raleigh staple: Charlie's Lunch Room.
Charlie's traces its roots back to Raleigh resident Charles Wesley Jones, who enrolled in the college as a sub-freshman in 1910. Though he dropped out after just a year, by 1911 Jones had opened an establishment "near the little church which stood at the edge of Pullen Park." His earliest documented restaurant, Gem Lunch Room, was advertised in October 1912 as being located on the "Right side of [street] car line," but by December, he had opened the venue bearing his name, Charlie's Lunch Room, "across from the textile building." He leased the land, just west of Tompkins Hall, and on it built "a dwelling and store of temporary character" [4] [5].
The land which Jones leased was on the plot known as the Harris-Chamberlain property, a large tract of land adjacent to the fairgrounds and across the street from NC A&M's campus. When it was sold and divided into lots, he purchased the southwesternmost lot of the development (closest to the fair's gate) in 1917, and in short order had constructed and moved his family into "a brick veneered store and dwelling" [5] [6].
More than just providing reprieve from the campus's strict military discipline (and infamous cooking), Charlie's also served as an off-campus gathering place. As any good hospitality worker will tell you, rapport with clientele is key, and Jones had that connection with students by the bushel. "The students all knew him and liked him," wrote one alumni. "He knew nearly all of them, their virtues and their faults. He was and has been, for a long time a part of our college life."
Thanks to his endearment with the students, Charlie's Lunch Room was immediately a campus staple. The 1918 Agromeck ran a caricature of Charlie's nestled in an "intensely realistic drama" depicting their college days, nostalgically describing the dinery as filled with "Tobacco smoke, grease, crying kids, and College talk." The play carried alongside it a sketch of the interior, shown below.
Regrettably, the good times were short-lived: Jones took ill with the flu and passed away in February 1918 after it led to pneumonia [5] [7]. With Charles's passing, the property passed into the hands of his wife, Annie Ray Jones, who rented the property out to Charles and Irene Baugh, who rechristened the restaurant as Baugh's Cafe; they also ran the upstairs as a boarding house. Charles Baugh passed away in April 1920, leaving the business to his wife, who continued operations through 1922 [8].
In January 1922, ads for Charlie's Lunch Room reappeared, advising readers that it was opposite the 1911 Building; by the summer of 1923, the "Wayside Inn," managed by Claud D. Church and James W. Parker, had opened in its place. The following year, Annie Ray Lambert (formerly Jones) leased the property to J. J. "Johnnie" Hill, an ex-baseball player for the Aggies from the class of 1924. Johnnie rebranded the business as "The College Inn," and took a guerilla approach towards attracting prospective customers: he would send "representatives... to the rooms on campus every night with drinks, sandwiches and candies" [9].
The following winter, however, The College Inn was under new management and rebranded as "The College Cafe." The business went up for sale once again in late 1927, this time with a series of ads running to draw interested buyers. The ads helped greatly in confirming the continued presence of the building by 1) confirming that the building had formerly housed Charlie's Cafe, and 2) noting the building had "a large store on the first floor" and "5-room apartment upstairs" [10].
At this point, the grill had been run by 4 different proprietors in just 6 years. Lambert, either exhausted from the constant churn of ownership, or feeling financially burdened by its continued multi-month vacancy, elected to sell the property and wipe her hands clean. In January 1928, the property was transferred to Visola J. Zimmerman, and later that year, ads appeared for an apartment called The Greystone; described as a "Thoroughly-modern new five-room apartment" with a storage room on the bottom, Visola's husband, Calvin, was the only inhabitant listed in the city directory. An A&P Grocery moved into the lower storeroom on the west side [11].
Though I've found no formal documentation of construction to support these claims, I suspect two major modifications happened to the building about this time. Firstly, this is almost certainly when the building was fitted with its now-iconic stone veneer, giving stock to the Greystone name. Secondly, the building was widened and lengthened to its current dimensions about this time; sketches of the property from the 1928 sale (see below) indicate the building was only 28' wide and 48' deep. It now extends the full 39' width and 78' depth of the lot; to complete the building, the eastern suite was built. Evidence of the seam of this construction can be seen in the present day: note the white line that runs from just right of the front eave of Mitch's to the bottom of the corbeled cornice.
Up to this point, the building had been listed in city directories under just one address: 2410 Hillsboro. In 1928, the building was addressed twice: 2408-1/2 for the Greystone Apartments upstairs and 2410 for the A&P grocery store, which opened in the former kitchen space. The following year, it had three addresses: 2410 for the eastern expansion room, 2412 for the upstairs floor, and 2414 for the western downstairs suite. From here on out, I'll trace the development of each address separately, starting with the upper suite. The addressing was shifted up 14 spots, to 2424 through 2428, between 1951 and 1952.
Though the Greystone name was not retained past its first year of operation, the upper level remained apartments for several years, hosting a number of tenants before rebranding as the St. Moritz apartments, a name it retained from 1935 through 1943. Most years, three or four tenants were listed in city directories, with a handful staying for multiple years, until the early 1940s [12].
World War II disrupted life at the college considerably, with each of the entries from 1941 to 1943 showing full vacancy at the apartments. The latter year, Zimmerman sold the property to Albert Goldston, who promptly rented the upper level to a fraternity. Early on, both Delta Sigma Phi and Delta Nu were listed as occupants, but soon after only the latter occupied the house. The upper level remained a frat house until 1950, at which time it returned to life as a private residence [13].
The upstairs remained a private dwelling for just two years before reopening as the headquarters for Raleigh architect Edward "Terry" Waugh and his associated practices. Waugh, originally from South Africa, immigrated to the United States in 1941. After spending a decade as an architect and city planner, he came to Raleigh from the University of Oklahoma with Henry Kamphoefner and began both his own private practice and a partnership with NC State as a professor and, later, master planner of the college's campus [14].
Waugh used the upper level as his office from 1952 through 1958. After his departure, the upper level was listed as vacant for a couple years; once again, this resulted in the sale of the property, with the Goldstons selling the property to J. N. and Ann W. Gary in September 1961. Gary tried twice to convert the spot to college housing, first in the form of Boys Hall (1961) and then Varsity Hall (1962-1963), but neither proved very successful [15].
Unfortunately, we don't know exactly what business operated on the upper floor between 1964 and 1966, but by 1967, it was a dance club known as The Jolly Knave. Ostensibly known as a spot to listen to beach music, it ushered in Mitch's current ethos of eclectic and cozy atmosphere by spangling the walls in wood paneling and serving beer from wooden barrels while inviting patrons to shag to up-tempo beach music. The now-iconic staircase was seen as a "wrinkle" in the otherwise bacchanalian scene.
While the homy atmosphere, free dance floor, and proximity to campus were the site's primary calling cards, owner owner Fled Fletcher III quickly beleaguered of the attention it drew for another reason: crime. The jukebox was stolen less than 6 months after opening. The denizens of the back rooms were frequently embroiled in scandals for sports gambling. After half a decade, Fletcher wanted out. Mitch Hazouri bought the place in 1972, and, after two years of maintaining the status quo, folded the knave and reopened as Mitch's, which it remains to this day [16] [3].
Mitch's Tavern is now perhaps best known for its appearance in the 1988 movie Bull Durham, which is shown in the clip above. Though the fight scene which followed, as well as the pool hall shots, were filmed in Durham's "Green Room," the moment when Annie Savoy meets Crash Davis and Nuke LaLoosh over a few beers and supper was shot at Mitch's.
While the upstairs portion of the building has gone on a wild ride, the downstairs tenants were long the spot's anchors, in particular the western storefront, which, with the upper floor, has been a part of the building since its construction in 1917. The erratic series of restaurants following Charlie's Lunch Room were supplanted by an A&P Grocery in 1928. When they shut down shop in 1938, their replacement, Powell & Griffis Grocery, proved to be equally long-lived, selling foodstuffs from 1939 to 1960 [17].
After four decades as a place for comestibles, it seemed likely the spot's next location would likewise be a grocer. Though the Stagg Shop sold pants and shoes rather than pasta and shrimp, it proved to be similarly long-lived, operating from 1961 to 1988, when the owners elected to relocate to Cameron Village [24].
When the Cycle Center closed, the premises returned to their roots as a cafe, and have remained there ever since. Caribou Coffee chose the downstairs spot to open their first Raleigh location in 1995; they remained until 1999, when another coffee shop, Global Village Coffee, took over the location. Coming up on 25 years of business, Global Village is on track to become the longest-running business in the western suite [19].
The easternmost suite of the building, built about 1929, has similarly been something of a paradigm of stability, though it took some time to get there. After starting its life as a storeroom, the space bounced between vacancy and light commercial uses, first as the Fairmont Tea Room (1929), then Fisher's Lunch (1931), then Fairmont Grill/Cafe (1933-1935), and finally Commonwealth Products Co. (1938), a welding service [20].
Finally, in 1941, the College Grill opened. The spot was a staple spot to eat on Hillsborough Street from then through 1958, when the owners retired. From 1959-1963, it was owned and operated by Charles "Red" Campbell, who rebranded the spot as The Profile Restaurant or Tavern. The similarities between past and future owners and Campbell were multifaceted. First, he was at least the third Charles to have stakes in the businesses. And secondly, he preceded the gambling problems at The Jolly Knave: Campbell was charged with running an undercover sportsbook and betting on basketball games — legend has it the gambling which brought down the Dixie Classic took place there. By 1963, the joint had reverted to College Grill.
The eastern suite is still technically College Grill to this day, however, it’s been functionally closed since 1978, when Hazouri purchased and shuttered the subterranean joint. Word on the street is that the grill was purchased to keep down competition against Mitch's, though the charges are purely speculative. It gets reopened periodically for special events (such as the 2024 NCAA tournament), but otherwise has remained a time capsule, silently watching the landscape change around it [3] [21].
After nearly four decades of managing the pub, Mitch's Tavern experienced its first prolonged closure during the Covid-19 pandemic, closing up shop from about March 2020 until May 2022. Perhaps relishing the freedom afforded by the break, the 80-year old Hazouri was considering retirement and planned to turn in his notice on the lease. Fortunately, Raleigh restauranteurs Chris Post and Van Alston stepped in to manage the day-to-day detailings of the venue, giving Mitch's a new lease on life [3] [22].
Mitch's Tavern closed again from mid-May to June 15th, 2025 while repair work was carried out to the building. A permit dated May 22nd described the scope of work as plumbing-related, which is also evidenced by construction photos shared by the business [23].
With the steady churn of students and fashions on Hillsborough Street, few things are constant. But with Mitch's and Global Village each remaining a popular hang-out for students and alumnis alike for multiple decades, the supercentenarian building is poised to remain a constant presence in West Raleigh for years to come.
1917-1927 - One Address (2410)
1928 - Two Addresses (2408-1/2 // 2410)
1929-1951 - Three Addresses (2410 // 2412 // 2414)
1952-pres - Three Addresses (2424 // 2426 // 2428)
Last updated: 6/14/2025