The following article originally appeared in The Pilot last fall.

The Pinehurst Hotel, centerpiece of Resorts of Pinehurst, is going back to its original name: The Carolina.

Located halfway between New York and Florida by train, Pinehurst and The Carolina were a focus for golf, quiet wealth, brilliant social events and celebrated guests dating from the turn of the century.

The Carolina, a five-story Victorian structure that now contains 222 guestrooms surrounded by lush grounds, was known as "the Queen of the South." After the founding Tufts family sold the resort properties to Diamondhead Inc. in 1971, Diamondhead changed the hotel’s name to the Pinehurst Hotel, a moniker it has carried for 25 years.

That period in Pinehurst’s history is considered by some to have been the village’s nadir, one marked by successive owners and bank receiverships.

Resorts of Pinehurst acquired the large resort holdings in 1984 and later purchased the Manor Inn, also in Pinehurst. Last year it bought the Holly Inn, making Resorts the owner of five kinds of guest lodging in the village and operator of Pinehurst’s famed golf courses and other recreational amenities.

"We are in the multiple hotel business," said Pat Corso, president and chief executive officer of Resorts. "The Carolina, the Holly Inn, and the Manor Inn.

"We’ve been renovating Pinehurst for 14 years and only now with the purchase of the Holly Inn have we finally come full circle. ClubCorp (the parent company of Resorts) has restored Pinehurst to the position it held in so many hearts and minds.

"The restoration of the name of The Carolina means the re-establishment of Pinehurst as many of you knew it. The restoration closes once and for all the Diamondhead chapter. We talked about the name change for a long time and reviewed the past and what made Pinehurst great. The Carolina always stands out and people still call it that today. The Carolina conjures up warm feelings."

Necessarily, the name change from the Pinehurst Hotel to The Carolina will be a complex matter involving myriad details, such as signs, emblems, stationery, and advertising, so the transition will be done in phases and probably completed by next spring, said Beth Kocher, Resort’s executive vice president.

This would make the restored name of The Carolina ready next June when Pinehurst will be the locale of the 1999 U.S. Open. As in so many storied golf championships in its illustrious past, some of the Open guests will stay at The Carolina.

"Sometimes guests who stayed in facilities other than the Pinehurst Hotel have felt their lodging was not of equal stature to the Pinehurst Hotel," said Corso. "They had the impression that the name Pinehurst Hotel implied there was one and only one hotel. Actually, each of the three hotels has its own identity and personality, and their names reflect it.

"The name of the Pinehurst Hotel was a generic catchall probably intended to be a central focus for golf and proprietary interests," Corso said of the time when the hotel’s name was changed 25 years ago.

Kocher said, "We wrestled with this for three years. We have all the lodging in Pinehurst, so it doesn’t make sense to call one place the Pinehurst Hotel."

Resorts will mail 5,000 Christmas cards this year, and the illustration depicts three Christmas tree ornaments, symbolic of the restoration. Each ornament is inscribed with a name, either The Carolina, the Holly Inn, or the Manor Inn.

The Carolina was opened by James Walker Tufts of Boston on Jan. 1, 1901. When it was built at the turn of the century, the Carolina Hotel was the largest frame structure in the South.

The lead paragraph in the Dec. 21, 1900, issue of The Pinehurst Outlook pointed out that the demand for luxurious hotel accommodations "has made it necessary to provide a larger hotel, finished and furnished elegantly and provided with every modern convenience. The imposing structure, designed by Kendall, Taylor and Stevens of Boston, located on the highest ground on the west side of Pinehurst, is three minutes walk from the village."

A special car on the electric railroad ran between the hotel and the clubhouse.

The front looked out on spacious, sloping lawns with ornamental shrubbery; the back and sides embraced pinewoods stretching away for miles.

The main building is four stories high, built in the form of a T. The cupola on top, which has become a trademark for Pinehurst, was used during World War II for spotting airplanes. At the rear, there was a one-story brick kitchen; and back of that, a three-story employee’s dormitory.

Broad covered piazzas ran across three sides, and connected with them were four steam-heated sunrooms.

There was a music room with an excellent floor for dancing, a ladies writing room, a barbershop and 250 "richly furnished rooms, including 49 suites with baths." There were four stairways, an elevator and numerous iron fire escapes.

The "modern conveniences" included electric lighting, steam heat, open fireplaces and a telephone in every room. Rooms were furnished with Wilton or Brussels carpet. Water was piped direct from the Pinehurst Springs.

The steam-heating apparatus was unique. The Webster Vacuum System was used, supplying heat by low-pressure steam conducted through an underground pipe from the powerhouse about 1,700 feet from the hotel. (The motor from this power plant, back of the Manor Inn, is reportedly in a museum in Raleigh.)

Trev Sharp, who was recruited from the Hotel del Coronado at Coronado Beach, Calif., conducted the orchestra that played when the hotel began operation on Jan. 1, 1901.

Harry W. Priest, his wife and daughter arrived in Pinehurst in December 1900 to assume management of The Carolina. He stayed on until 1923, when Ed Fitzgerald took over management. When Fitzgerald resigned in 1937, Harry W. Norris took over, remaining until 1942.

G. Edward Horne, who managed Heaton Hall in the Massachusetts Berkshires, was promoted from management of the Holly Inn in ‘42. He resigned two years later to go into the Navy. When he returned after service aboard the aircraft carrier USS Essex, the door had been closed on his job, and William J. Fitzgibbon, whom Horne had brought to Pinehurst from Florida, was installed in the manager’s office.

In 1957, another of Horne’s Florida imports, who served in the Army Air Corps, Daniel O. Delany, came on board. He remained until 1971, to be replaced by Clifford Smith. In 1971, Diamondhead Corp. bought Pinehurst and brought in Eddie Susalla as head honcho. William Howard, Sal Forlani and William Hall were among general managers then.

Marcus Fields became manager in 1973, to be succeeded after three years by Al Stratta, who now manages the Country Club of North Carolina. Other managers have included K. DePasquale, Joseph Grantham and W.M. Johnson. Marcus Fields returned in 1980.

Currently at the helm is Scott Brewton, who succeeded Pat Corso as general manager when Corso was named president and C.E.O. of Resorts.

After a number of management turnovers, Robert Dedman, founder and head of the Dallas-based Club Corporation of America, in 1984 added The Carolina and the Pinehurst Resort and Country Club to his worldwide acquisitions of clubs and resorts, and the North Carolina resort became "the jewel in CCA’s crown."

Various changes and additions to the structure have taken place over the years. In 1969, air conditioning was installed throughout The Carolina, making it possible to keep the hotel open year-round.

The original ballroom was scrapped, and in its place, two smaller banquet rooms and the Carolina Ballroom were added.

In 1990, CCA opened the $4 million wing containing a convention center that seats 1,000 and the Grand Ballroom with its stage that can be divided into smaller functions and banquet rooms and opened up for large formal parties.

The array of the rich and famous that have passed through the fabled halls of The Carolina have contributed to the legend of this elegant lady, now close to 100.

John Philip Sousa played golf but mainly came here, accompanied by his wife, for trap shooting at the Pinehurst Gun Club. The world-renowned composer and bandleader was such a crack shot that he was inducted into the Trapshooting Hall of Fame at Miami Valley Country Club.

Annie Oakley, her husband Frank Butler and their hunting dog lived at The Carolina when she was hired by Pinehurst Inc. to teach shooting at the gun club. On rainy days, she would give shooting exhibitions in the old ballroom.

Will Rogers stayed at the hotel and entertained on the stage of the Pinehurst Theater.

A new young comedian came to The Carolina to entertain an automobile dealers’ convention with his monologues. His name was Andy Griffith.

Stars in the entertainment field who signed the guest register at the hotel included Mary Pickford and her husband Buddy Rogers, Douglas Fairbanks Sr. and Helen Hayes, who came here to open an equity company in the Pinehurst Theater.

While in Pinehurst on a film shoot, actress Gloria Swanson was snowed in at The Carolina for a week. Singer Grace Moore, playwright Booth Tarkington and poet Edgar A. Guest were all guests at the hotel. Nancy Reagan was there in 1976. Helen Keller stayed there while on a speaking tour for the American Foundation for the Blind.

Financiers J. Pierpont Morgan and John D. Rockefeller visited a number of times, and socialite Lady Astor was a guest there.

The register is loaded with the signatures of United States presidents: Theodore Roosevelt, Harry Truman, Dwight Eisenhower, Warren G. Harding, Grover Cleveland and Richard Nixon. The latest was Gerald Ford, who opened the world Golf Hall of Fame in 1974 and returned 21 years later to open the No. 8 Centennial Golf Course.

Famous golfers who have made The Carolina their temporary home include Bobby Jones, Ben Hogan, Francis Ouimet, Walter Hagen, Gene Sarazen and Harry Vardon.

Among famous fliers who have spent time at the hotel, the list begins with Amelia Earhart and continues with Capt. Eddie Rickenbacker and Jimmy Doolittle. Royalty who have graced The Carolina with their presence include Japanese Prince Nabeshiva Naoyas and Queen Frederika and her son.

Sirikit, Queen of Thailand, brought her son, the crown prince, and an entourage of 50, taking up one whole floor of the hotel and buying out area shops each day for the month they stayed there.

Latest in the list of celebrities who have taken time out to visit the venerable hotel are actors Dustin Hoffman and Tom Cruise and talk show host Oprah Winfrey.