The founder of the town of Cary, Allison Francis Page, built the Second Empire style hotel about 1868, and J. R. Walker bought it later.

[2] From 1868 until 1916, passengers from the Southern and Seaboard Air Line railroads stayed at the Page-Walker Hotel.

After the business closed, the building sat vacant and deteriorated for five years until the Cary Town Council purchased the property.

[4] The Page-Walker Hotel was added to the National Register of Historic Places on May 29, 1979.

Annually, they host a "Paint the Page" art contest in which young artists from grades 8-12 are invited to draw an aspect of the building that inspires them most.