Will Silver used to play the blues at the top of the round Holiday Inn on Hillsborough Street. He wore a silver vest and silver shoes, and he drove a silver Cadillac. On New Year's Eve, as The News & Observer recalled this fall, people out for a late night rode the elevator up to hear him at the Top of the Tower bar. Off the piano bench he was Wilbur Tharpe, a social studies teacher at Daniels Middle School and three times Wake County's teacher of the year. When the building reopened as Hotel Indigo Raleigh on October 1, the ribbon-cutting included a tribute to him.
The tribute fits the building. Ever since it opened, the 20th floor of the round tower has been the part of the hotel that tries to win over Raleigh itself. Hotel guests sleep on the floors below. The top floor has gone after people who live a few miles away, and the $36 million renovation that just finished kept that arrangement on purpose.
The hotel courted locals from opening day
The City of Raleigh's landmark designation report shows how early that started. At the State Capitol Holiday Inn's opening ceremony in April 1970, more than 1,000 people toured the 18th, 19th and 20th floors to see the suites and the rooftop restaurant. That restaurant was called the Twelve Signs. Dinner started at around $5 per person, and the menu ran to Maine lobster, cherries jubilee and baked Alaska.
The hotel also sold residents a $250 annual membership to the Observatory Club, a bar on the 20th floor. Suites rented for $75 to $85 a night when the hotel opened, so a year in the club cost about as much as three nights in a suite. A traveler would have no use for a membership like that. It only made sense for people who lived nearby and planned to come back.
Later decades kept the same aim. The landmark report cites News & Observer ads for Sunday brunch, a 1982 New Year's Gala at the Top of the Tower restaurant priced as dinner or as dinner and a room, and wedding receptions local couples held in the restaurant and ballroom.
The 20th floor has gone by several names:
- Twelve Signs, the rooftop restaurant at the 1970 opening
- The Observatory Club, the members' bar on the twentieth floor
- Top of the Tower, home of the 1982 New Year's Gala and Will Silver's piano
- SkyeTower, the restaurant that came with a full remodel after the hotel became a Holiday Inn again
- High Ground Lounge, open since October 2026
The Top of the Tower never revolved. In a 2014 comment on Goodnight Raleigh, the hotel manager passed along what an employee who had been there since the 1969 opening said: the room itself never rotated, but at one point it had a platform that slowly turned back and forth.
The tower nearly came down, and now it's protected
The building has never been anything but a hotel, though the brand on it has changed. The landmark report says it ran as a Clarion in the early 2000s and went back to Holiday Inn around 2012. Raleigh Magazine's timeline picks up from there. Tidal Real Estate Partners bought the property in 2021 and first planned to tear it down. In June 2025 it changed course and decided to turn the building into a Hotel Indigo.
Six months later, the Raleigh City Council voted to make the State Capitol Holiday Inn a Raleigh Historic Landmark. The ordinance was adopted and took effect on December 2, 2025. The round shape that earned the nickname "hair curler" now has formal protection, and Raleigh Magazine reports the 1969 exterior was preserved exactly.
Downtown Raleigh Alliance President Bill King called it "one of the most talked-about buildings in downtown" at the October opening ceremony, according to The News & Observer's coverage. Mayor Janet Cowell also spoke.
Why the top floor kept its event room
Once demolition was off the table, Tidal had to decide what the top floor would be. Tidal principal Eyal Einik told Raleigh Magazine the company considered turning the space into a larger restaurant but decided to keep the event venue. In that same interview, he explained why:
"Talking to folks that have lived in Raleigh for a long time, the story more often than not was something like 'I had my prom up there,' or 'I went to a friend's wedding up there.' We just felt like we couldn't lose that."
The private room is now called the Edenton Room. It seats up to 32 people and has the same skyline view from every window as the lounge. The rest of the floor is High Ground Lounge, a bar and restaurant with floor-to-ceiling windows that serves Southern-inspired food and craft cocktails. The High Ground site describes one menu of shareable small plates that changes with the season, and it lists eight house pours "spun by hand."
The ground floor now opens onto the street
The same thinking shaped the ground floor. The original hotel was built so guests arrived by car at a 1960s drive-up entrance. After the renovation, the lobby opens onto Hillsborough Street through a glass entrance. According to the opening announcement, selective demolition turned a series of broken-up rooms into one large lounge. A vintage Airstream coffee bar sits in the courtyard between the arrival area and check-in. IHG describes the Airstream as serving morning coffee, hot drinks and small bites.
General manager Carlos Faz told The News & Observer at the opening that the hotel wants "to be the living room of the community and the lounge of the community, and continue to pay homage to everyone who had a life event here in the past."
The interior is meant to feel like Raleigh. Warm oak finishes refer to the "City of Oaks," and the art comes from North Carolina artists chosen by nineDOTarts. Raleigh Magazine lists Raleigh artists Caitlin Cary, Micah Mullen and Skillet Gilmore among them.
Before you ride up
High Ground is in the same spot as the old Top of the Tower, so going for a drink works much like it did decades ago.
- Address: 320 Hillsborough St., Raleigh
- Breakfast: daily, 6:30 to 10:30 a.m.
- Golden hour: daily, 4 to 5 p.m.
- Dinner: until 10 p.m. Sunday through Thursday and until 11 p.m. Friday and Saturday
- Seating: The News & Observer reported first-come, first-served seating for up to 131 people
- Parking: valet only, open to visitors as well as hotel guests, listed by IHG at $30 per night with in-and-out privileges
The lounge serves breakfast as well as dinner, so you can see the skyline in daylight with coffee or at dusk with a cocktail. The hotel's High Ground page has current hours and seasonal menus. If you're planning a celebration for a group about the size of a wedding party, ask about the Edenton Room.
If you like making a night of downtown, our Raleigh evenings guide has more ideas. The story of the operators building Dix Park's new front door is another downtown spot built with locals in mind.
Do you have a Top of the Tower memory, like a prom, a wedding reception or a New Year's Eve? I'd love to hear it, and to compare notes once you've seen the view from High Ground. If one of those memories has you thinking about where you'd like to live next in Raleigh, Jody Whitehurst Real Estate is happy to talk it through. Let's talk about your next move.
