Hotel Metropolitan Museum is a museum in historic hotel building in Paducah, Kentucky, U.S. The Hotel Metropolitan provided lodging for African Americans traveling through the area;[1] was a stop on the Chitlin' Circuit, and was listed in The Negro Motorist Green Book.[2] The Hotel Metropolitan Museum focuses on African American history.
Hotel Metropolitan was built in 1909 by its owner, Maggie Steed, to accommodate guests who were denied lodging at white-owned hotels due to discriminatory laws and practices of the Jim Crow South. Hotel guests included Louis Armstrong, Duke Ellington, Ella Fitzgerald, and Thurgood Marshall.[3] Notable guests often gathered and performed in the hotel's Purple Room. The Purple Room, a freestanding building behind the hotel, was used as a gathering space and music venue. It was frequented by notable musicians staying in the hotel.
Steed died in 1924. Her son ran the hotel for a few years before selling it to Mamie Burbridge. In 1951, Burbridge sold it to the Gaines family whose son, Clarence "Big House" Gaines, donated it the Upper Town Heritage Foundation.[4]
The hotel now houses a museum dedicated to its history.[5] In 2021, the museum received a grant from the National Trust for Historic Preservation's African American Cultural Heritage action Fund for the purpose of restoring The Purple Room.