Franklin Hotel

The Franklin Hotel was a hotel catering to African Americans when segregation was enforced. The building was constructed in 1930 and was known as the Mainlake Building. The bottom floor hosted a restaurant and four spaces for shops while the second floor held apartments. In 1955 the Franklin Hotel was established by Melvin E. and Donzelle Hutt and the hotel first appeared in the 1956 Greenbook Directory. Today it is no longer a hotel, but it still serves its original purpose of hosting shops and restaurants on the bottom floor.