Tookes Hotel: National Historic Landmark

Most Saturday mornings I spend at least an hour wandering around the weekly farmers’ market in downtown Tallahassee. The Downtown Market boasts much more than just local produce. There are usually Tallahassee area artisans with their wares for sale as well as informational booths.

A couple of weeks ago a display at one of the booths caught my eye and I spent a bit of time visiting with the volunteers manning the exhibit. The display was an enlarged copy of a hotel’s registry. On it were the signatures of several famous African Americans: singer Ray Charles, author James Baldwin, and Academy Award winning actress Hattie McDaniel of Gone with the Wind fame, among others. They had all stayed, at various times, at the Tookes Hotel in Tallahassee. 

The Tookes Hotel began in the late 1940’s as Tookes Rooming House, when Dorothy Nash Tookes added three rooms and a bathroom to her home to provide a place for African Americans to stay when visiting the state’s capital. At that time segregation prevented people of color from staying in other Tallahassee hotels.

Ms. Tookes’s grandson, Ronald McCoy is currently planning to operate the former hotel as a museum, bed and breakfast, and luxury function facility, preserving as much of the original furniture as possible. Even the original Tookes Hotel sign, one of the first functional neon signs in Tallahassee, will be refurbished and put to good use.

I can imagine what a welcoming place the Tookes Hotel must have been to weary travelers during the days of segregation. We all just want to be welcomed, after all.

The restoration of the Tookes is an exciting project with great historical significance, and I am eager to see the finished project. 

Want to know more? Go to Tookeshotel.org.

 

  

 
Dorothy Tookes earned degrees in both education and nursing and was Leon County’s first certified teacher. She also founded and served as principal of Bond School. 

 

 

  
Peace, people!