Hotel Alexander

The Hotel, located at 513 North McDowell and Ninth Streets was a three-story white frame home advertised as "one of the Nation's finest and most exclusive and newest Negro hotels." Owned and operated by Dr. J. Eugene Alexander and his wife, Bobbie. Built in 1905, it first served the community as the Florence Crittenton Home, a shelter for "fallen women" operated by Charles Crittenton. In the mid 1940s, Alexander turned it into a hotel. When legislation was passed to desegregate hotels, it closed. The building was destroyed by the fire department in 1973 in a controlled burn. Before its fateful demise, it was home to many visiting black entertainers, salesmen, politicians and other blacks visiting the area but not allowed to stay in "whites only" hotels. Louis Armstrong stayed at the Alexander in 1962.