Ever had a dream to help people, but you needed money to get the project rolling? That’s the predicament MAGGIE STEED found herself in.
Mrs. Steed arrived in Paducah, Kentucky in the late 1800s. Married, and widowed, by 24, she wanted to open a hotel. She’d worked in hotels before moving to Kentucky, and understood how to manage one successfully. More importantly, she knew that because of Jim Crow laws, African Americans needed a safe place to rest when traveling. Deciding to open her own hotel, she went to the bank for a loan, but was turned down. Why? She was a woman, and needed her husband’s signature. No problem! She took the papers home for him to sign, and returned the next day to retrieve her money. Never mind the fact her husband had already been dead four years…. All they needed was a signature; all she needed was the start-up money. Such was the illustrious start of The Hotel Metropolitan.
The Hotel Metropolitan was built around 1907. It was listed in The Green Book and hosted a plethora of entertainers and athletes. The Harlem Globetrotters, Thurgood Marshall, and musical legends such as Ike and Tina Turner, B.B. King, Billie Holiday, and Louis Armstrong stayed here. In fact, a building behind the hotel known as The Purple Room, served as a juke joint for live music and jam sessions.
Thank you, Maggie Steed, for creating a safe haven for African American travelers. For providing shelter and food and a practice space to the musicians who’ve provided the soundtrack of our country. You rock!
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