Hotels in Meridian, Mississippi
The numerous historic hotels in Meridian, Mississippi, provide insights into the city's growth and expansion, both in the late 19th and early 20th centuries and into the modern age.
Many hotels were built in downtown Meridian in the early 1900s to provide lodging for passengers of the railroad, which was essential to the city's growth at the turn of the 20th century.
Others, including the E.F. Young Hotel, owned and operated by an African-American entrepreneur, have been recognized as contributing properties to the Meridian Downtown Historic District.
Urban activists are working to establish a downtown hotel to aid in revitalizing the city's core and support the theater.
This three-story building provided a wooden-covered walkway for its customers leading directly over the dirt road to the train station, a luxury that other hotels did not have.
The Grand Avenue Hotel was located a block away from the train station and appealed to families accompanying students traveling to and from the Meridian Male College.
Luxuries standard in the hotel included ceiling fans and reading lamps in every room, ornate oak woodwork throughout the building, and a public stenographer to assist patrons.
During the demolition, workers discovered several metal canisters full of crackers from the 1960s, evidence of a shelter dating from the Cuban Missile Crisis of 1962.
The four-story building is located two blocks from Union Station and offered rooms to frequent rail travelers for only $2 per night, even as late as the 1960s.
The Williamses left the property after World War II but re-acquired it in 1955; they operated the hotel until closing it on December 18, 1973.
[7] Boosted by the railroad industry and related manufacturing, the economy of Meridian was in its "Golden Age" at the turn of the century.
[19] In 1907, around forty trains per day stopped in the city, providing passenger and freight service to a wide variety of destinations.
[18] Sam and Joe Meyer, who had previously been successful in the grocery business, became determined to build a hotel to express the grandeur of the growing city.
By the later 20th century, rail passenger traffic was superseded by people traveling by automobile, and sometimes bypassing downtowns altogether when they stopped for the night.
[7] Black travelers often visited this area when coming to the city, as they were prevented by racial segregation laws from using most other public facilities.
Young opened a hotel and barber shop in 1931,[25][26] and he also began selling hair care products made especially for African Americans.
[7] While operating the barber shops out of the hotel, Young sold customers some hair care products he made in his own kitchen.
[7] The company did so well that by the end of World War II, Young's hair products were sold at locations around the state, including a pharmacy in Clarksdale and a barber shop in Cleveland.
[24] Later, he opened a second manufacturing site for his products in Chicago, a major destination in the 20th-century Great Migration for many African Americans from Mississippi.
After strip commercial interests began to move downtown, the city worked to preserve its architectural legacy.
The Meridian Main Street program was founded in 1985 to capitalize on the city's unique assets and sense of place.
[18] Meridian Main Street organized several projects to revitalize downtown and worked with merchants on marketing and design.
[33] Staff at the Riley Center reacted positively, saying a downtown hotel would be a "wonderful thing for the city of Meridian.
In 2009 the city entered into a partnership with Historic Renovation, Inc. (HRI) from New Orleans, which had completed a similar project in Jackson.
"[37] Former mayor John Robert Smith, Lauderdale County Tourism Director Suzy Johnson, and Lala's partner Dede Mogollon agree.
