The hotel links stories from the Civil War to Civil Rights and will be reimagined as a gathering place in Selma, Alabama.
SELMA, ALABAMA — Today, The Conservation Fund announced the protection of the historic Edistone Hotel. Built in 1855, the site links together stories of American tragedy, triumph, and perseverance. Before the Civil War, the site served as the location for Dallas County’s largest market for enslaved people. During Reconstruction, it housed the Freedman’s Bureau, which was established by Congress after the Civil War, to provide food, clothing, and shelter for newly freed African Americans. In the 1870s, the hotel proprietor offered equal accommodation to patrons, regardless of race. The Edistone hotel is steps from the Edmund Pettus Bridge, where in 1965 more than 500 civil rights marchers were beaten on their way to Montgomery, now memorialized as Bloody Sunday. The hotel was set to be demolished until The Conservation Fund stepped in, saving it from the wrecking ball. The organization is now working to secure its long-term protection and plans for this historic site.
“It’s unfathomable that the Edistone Hotel, a place so rich in American history, came so close to being lost forever,” said Phillip Howard, Manager of the Legacy Places Initiative for The Conservation Fund. “As the site of the Freedman’s Bureau after the Civil War, you can imagine that the Edistone Hotel was one of the first places a formerly enslaved person in the South would have been treated like a human. By saving the Edistone Hotel, we’re not just protecting the physical location. We’re protecting the stories and legacies of all those that passed through its doors, or stood at this site, and are ensuring those stories live on as part of our shared American history.” There are thousands of historic African American sites across the country that are at risk of being lost forever — to time, development, or indifference. The Conservation Fund is working with local communities and partners to identify these important places, such as important civil rights sites across the South, homes and farms that made up the Underground Railroad, and locations where priceless American culture — art, music, literature — was created.
“The journey to preserve the Edistone Hotel has been a rollercoaster of delight and despair,” said Sarah Aghedo, Executive Director of the Selma Redevelopment Authority. “Since 2022, when the National Trust for Historic Preservation provided funding for the hotel’s structural documentation, we have wondered if this Alabama ‘Place in Peril’ would be restored to tell its multi-layered history. We are grateful that The Conservation Fund was able to purchase the hotel, supporting the many private efforts to secure its future.” The Conservation Fund worked with MASS Design Group, a Boston-based architecture firm that specializes in projects that promote justice and human dignity, to develop renderings of the site. Based on feedback from community listening sessions, the renderings reimagine the Edistone as a museum, co-working space, and grocery store as part of Selma, Alabama’s downtown revitalization.
“The Edistone Hotel is part of the people’s public memory in downtown Selma and has the potential to be a collaborative case for how memorializing the past can be a catalyst for our shared futures, delivering resources and amenities for city residents and visitors, while honoring and acknowledging the location’s profound history,” said Jha D Amazi, principal at MASS Design Group. “We are honored to work with The Conservation Fund to help make this historical location a place to honor memory while revitalizing and activating the site in ways that build new collective capacities for the community.” The Edistone Hotel is the latest African American heritage site protected by The Conservation Fund. Other projects include Zora Neale Hurston’s final home, the Chattahoochee Brick Company Memorial Park in Georgia, the Harriet Tubman Underground Railroad National Monument, the protection of formerly segregated beaches in Maryland, and the Freedom Riders National Monument in Alabama.
