The hotel also held the premier concert of the newly-formed Jackson Symphony Orchestra in 1944,[1] was the site of John F. Kennedy's first speech in the southern United States in 1957, and then a destination for senators Joseph S. Clark and Robert F. Kennedy in 1967 when on a fact-finding tour of the Mississippi Delta.

The Clarion-Ledger, Jackson's newspaper, dedicated two pages of its April 30th Sunday edition to the opening of the five-story hotel, which was described the first fire-proof building in the state of Mississippi.

Latimer acquired A.H. Alvis's interest in the hotel and spent $200,000 on a renovation, which included adding three stories to the original building.

[5] On October 17, 1957, the hotel was the site of John F. Kennedy's first campaign speech in the southern United States.

[8] In July 1964, two NAACP members, Dr. H. Claude Hudson and Kenneth Guscott, checked into the Heidelberg, ending the city of Jackson's segregationist policies with regards to its downtown hotels.