PADUCAH, KY — The Hotel Metropolitan—a historic hotel that predominantly served Black people during the Civil Rights Movement—is hoping for funding from the Mellon Foundation to help support its new mission as an African American Museum.
The idea is that if granted the money, the City of Paducah would match the grant, giving the museum a total of $1.5 million to support its mission and ensure the museum lives on into the future.
Betty Dobson, the director of the Upper Town Heritage Foundation, said the money would be used to staff the museum and to overcome some maintenance issues the hotel has dealt with for years.
“The cultural significance of the Hotel Metropolitan is that it tells the story of our past,” Dobson said. “This is here because of the days of segregation.”
Visitors to the Hotel Metropolitan visit outside after their visit on Oct. 27, 2023. The hotel is seeking a $750,000 grant from the Mellon Foundation to support their mission to educate future generations by looking to the past.
The founder of the hotel wanted to create a place where Black people could safely stay during their visit to then-segregated Paducah, according to Dobson.
“People needed somewhere to stay here in Paducah,” Dobson said. “Had she not had that vision, some of the greatest jazz musicians and talent of our time…we may not have had because during those days it was difficult.”
The hotel has hosted some of the most prestigious names in entertainment, sports, and politics. Among some of the more notable names is Thurgood Marshall, a former Associate Justice of the United States Supreme Court… Tina Turner, a celebrated singer-songwriter who won 8 Grammy Awards…, and Ray Charles, another famed musician in the Grammy Hall of Fame.
Visitors to the museum said it is an essential part of African-American heritage, not just in Paducah but around the country.
Michelle Wright and Jin Nugent are from Atlanta, Georgia, and they visit Paducah several times per year. However, this is their first time visiting the Hotel Metropolitan.
“Fabulous” is how Nugent describes their first to the museum. “We come to visit Paducah from out of state… it’s an incredibly rich cultural town, and we all deserve for its complete history to be shared.”
Wright, an English Professor at Emory University, was one of the first Mellon Ph.D.’s, and she said the work that the hotel does is consistent with the foundation’s mission of educating people about African-American history.
“It’s hard to make history come alive sometimes,” Wright said. “Ms. Dobson gave us a tour as “Maggie”—the original owner of the hotel—and that just made it so alive and entrancing.”
Dobson will know by the end of November if the hotel has received the grant, then it will go to the City to determine if they will match the funds received.
For more information about the Hotel Metropolitan, visit their Facebook page.
To learn more about the Mellon Foundation, visit the Mellon Foundation website.