The Hotel Metropolitan provided lodging for African Americans traveling through the area;[1] was a stop on the Chitlin' Circuit, and was listed in The Negro Motorist Green Book.
[1] Hotel Metropolitan was built in 1909 by its owner, Maggie Steed, to accommodate guests who were denied lodging at white-owned hotels due to discriminatory laws and practices of the Jim Crow South.
[1][2] Hotel guests included Louis Armstrong, Duke Ellington, Ella Fitzgerald, and Thurgood Marshall.
[1] The Purple Room, a freestanding building behind the hotel, was used as a gathering space and music venue.
[5] In 2021, the museum received a grant from the National Trust for Historic Preservation's African American Cultural Heritage action Fund for the purpose of restoring The Purple Room.