In the late 19th and early 20th centuries, innkeeping was the primary business on the north end. The most prosperous hotel was located in the High Point area and attracted guests who belonged to the rising middle class. Visitors arrived on steamboats and enjoyed activities such as fishing, hunting, and going to the beach. At the height of the innkeeping era in the 1890s, guests numbered around 750. Black residents of the north end staffed the hotel: they served as waiters, cooks, laundresses, and drivers of the horse-drawn trolleys that transported guests. Hotel Cumberland at High Point was sold in 1918 and became a private club. The Candler family of Atlanta, associated with Coca-Cola, owned part of the north end.