A Green Book site, the Hotel Dumas, now the Dumas Center, is one of the few remaining buildings left on Henry Street, which was the commercial center of Roanoke’s African American population.
Located at 108 Henry Street NW, and built between 1916-17 by Central Manufacturing, the hotel was originally established as the Hotel Hampton and leased to James Hughes and T. G. Cooper. The hotel was later renamed the Hotel Dumas, after the French author Alexandre Dumas, in the late 1920s when Cooper took full ownership of the building.
The Barlow Family
In 1934, the Barlow family took over operation of the hotel, eventually purchasing the building. M. D. “Mack” Barlow Sr. alongside his wife Cystalbal and their children operated the hotel as a family business.
In a Roanoke Times article from March 14, 1979, Cystalbal Barlow stated that “the hotel was the place for blacks.” She went on to say, “you had no integration, so it was the center for all that went on in the black world. It was the Dumas Hotel for blacks, and the Hotel Roanoke for whites.”
A Community Hub and Cultural Center
The hotel served as the hub for celebrations in the Gainsboro Neighborhood. It hosted wedding receptions, Christmas parties for Black employees of major businesses, and various events for local social clubs and other organizations. One of its most popular gatherings including the hotel’s coveted by-invitation-only Sunday dinners.
With 26 rooms, the Jack and Jill snack bar, a poolroom, a barber shop, an ice cream parlor, a dining room and a second floor ballroom, the hotel offered many exceptional services to their guests and to the community as a whole.
Famous Guests Including Legendary Artists
Famous African American performers were often guests at the hotel when performing at the nearby American Legion Auditorium. Notably Duke Ellington, Count Basie, Louis Armstrong, Ella Fitzgerald, Cab Calloway, Billy Eckstein, Fats Domino, and Marian Anderson, among others, stayed at the hotel.
Housing Soldiers
During World War II, the Barlow family opened the hotel to Black draftees who were awaiting induction into the armed services and provided lodging to them by placing cots in the hotel’s ballroom, giving them a place to sleep.
Closure
In 1970, Mack Barlow died and operating the hotel became increasingly difficult for the Barlow family. By this time the Gainsboro Neighborhood had also changed significantly due to urban renewal projects. Additionally, integration of local businesses gave Black guests more options when choosing lodging. As a result, the Hotel Dumas closed in 1976.
The building then remained vacant until it was purchased in 1987 by Total Action Against Poverty and renovated in 1991, opening in 1992 as the Henry Street Music Center and Jazz Institute. In 2006 the building was rechristened the Dumas Center for Artistic and Cultural Development.
An article from The Roanoke Magazine, in September of 1995, noted that the hotel was “a structure with class, then and even now, built to last, and it was the favorite of locals.”
Sources
Kennedy, Joe. (1979, March 14). When the Dumas Hotel lived. The Roanoke Times.
Park, M. (2017, July 11). When a ‘Green Book’ site goes up for sale. CityLab. https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2017-07-11/when-a-green-book-site-goes-up-for-sale
Shareef, R. (1996). The Roanoke Valley’s African American Heritage: a pictorial history. The Donning Company Publishers.
Shockley, L. (1995, September). The Dumas Hotel: Centerpiece for Henry Street. Roanoker Magazine.