Call it the price of progress.
When I learned this week that Goodnights Comedy Club on West Morgan Street in Raleigh is likely to be demolished to make way for mixed-use apartments and retail, I felt a familiar pang of not sadness, exactly, but pained, begrudging acknowledgment of the inevitability of change.
I was similarly low-key devastated when I drove by the old, white-brick warehouse building on Dawson Street–the one with arched windows, once home to a broom and mattress factory, and one of my favorite buildings in the city–to find, out of nowhere one day, its owner, the state of North Carolina, was tearing it down (it had long fallen into disrepair). And to this day, five years on, I can’t even talk about the bygone, New Orleans-style Velvet Cloak Inn on Hillsborough Street without getting verklempt.
And so, yes, we’re losing another one.
Goodnights (originally Charlie Goodnights) has been operating in the 1930s Art Deco Whites Ice Cream Co. building since 1983, following renovations in the early 80s by its original owner, Tommy Williams. The club has lured in some of the biggest names in stand-up comedy over the years: Jerry Seinfeld, Chris Rock, Ellen Degeneres, Jeff Foxworthy, Dave Chapelle, even Robin Williams stopped by for shows (some kept secret) on their way to the top. I’ve seen plenty of acts at Goodnights myself, cringed through Open Mic nights on Wednesdays, sipped margaritas at the bar upstairs, and laughed with so many friends. The last show I saw at the club was a year ago last February, right before the pandemic swept through and closed everything down.
Never was there a more fun, perfect union between a physical space, that quirky old brick building, and the way it was utilized.
Of course, as it’s been pointed out, the site–as valuable real estate as any that exists in Raleigh currently, tucked between the Warehouse District, Glenwood South, and close to N.C. State on Hillsborough Street–will serve a higher and better purpose providing some 400 apartment units for current and future Raleighites to live in. The city is desperately short on housing stock and plans filed by developer Gregg Sandreuter and HM Partners would help fill a gaping need.
It didn’t surprise me to read that the developers have been negotiating with the property’s current owners for a while. And Goodnights, now operated by Helium Comedy, is seeking a new space, so its legacy will live on in some way, shape, or form. Ideally, the developers would preserve the original building (a la the Dillon) and the club would continue to operate at the site; ideally, there’d be no vertical parking deck–but I realize how much wishful thinking that is.
I realize, too, that with work slated to begin on the site this summer (if site plan approval comes through), I probably won’t make it back to Goodnights for a final show. I’m pretty far down the list for the COVID vaccine. When the demo starts, I won’t be caught by surprise this time, I’m telling myself, so I’ll walk up there when the weather warms up and take some pictures of the building on my phone. At least I’ll have those to remember what Raleigh was like before it grew up–those pictures and the memories.
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