The long-abandoned Hotel Thelma’s faded cinderblock exterior sits now in contrast to the large ‘block glass” windows in front that beckon to a past when it was once a haven for African-American travelers in Bluefield.
The two-story rectangular building still sits on the corner of Wayne and Logan streets on the city’s North Side, near the Grant Street Bridge, and a historic marker in front briefly tells the hotel’s story, a story now being revived in an effort to restore and promote one of Bluefield’s most significant landmarks.
Rev. James Mitchell Sr., who now owns the hotel, told members of the Bluefield City Board Tuesday that restoring the landmark is an “important issue,” especially during Black History Month.
“Hotel Thelma was more than just a hotel,” he said. ‘It was a symbol of hope and hospitality for the black community, offering refuge for black travelers.”
The hotel was on the list of places to stay for African-Americans in the “Green Book,” which was circulated in the black communities from 1936 to 1967 so visitors would know where they could stay during an era that Jim Crow laws prevented African-American citizens from staying in most hotels or eating in most restaurants.
Those laws also applied to many up-and-coming black musicians who needed places to stay when they came into cities to perform.
In fact, Hotel Thelma hosted many of America’s most famous musicians, Mitchell said, including Ike and Tina Turner, Sam Cooke, Etta James, James Brown, Little Richard and many others who performed in the Bluefield Auditorium.
“The Green Book served as a guide for African-Americans to navigate the Jim Crow laws,” he said. “Hotel Thelma became a popular destination during the 50s and 60s with emerging black jazz and pop musicians.”
Travelers Inn, a smaller hotel during the era, is still intact and sits nearby Hotel Thelma.
But it was the determination of Thelma Stone, for whom the hotel is named, that created this piece of Bluefield history.
“In 1947, the ambitious Thelma Stone walked into the Flat Top National Bank to apply for a loan despite discrimination faced by African-Americans during this time,” Mitchell said. But she did secure the loan and built Hotel Thelma, which opened in 1949.
Restoring the historic hotel would help bring communities together, he said.
“We need to embrace the history of this city,” he said. “Mercer County has the highest percentage of blacks than any county in the state. That should be recognized.”
Mitchell said the recognization comes from supporting people of color and bringing everyone together as a community for the city.
“We have to lead by example,” he said of making everyone in the city part of the wider community, which was neglected in the past.
“We are all part of Appalachia,” he said. “We have to listen to each other. We have to educate each other.”
Mitchell has applied for non-profit status for the hotel so can undertake fundraising efforts and he asked the city and the community to help with the project, which can help make the East End and North Side “viable to the city, but also part of the community.”
Skip Crane, a member of the board of the Bluefield Arts Revitalization Corp. (BARC), said this is a project to bring people to Bluefield because people will get off the interstate to see a Green Book hotel.
“People get off the interstate for experiences,” he said, and delving into history is an experience, so the hotel could serve as a museum, reflecting that history.
Crane pointed to the restoration and success of the Granada Theater in Bluefield, which was on the verge of ruin before a project was started to restore it. The Granada reopened in August 2021 and now is a showcase facility for movies, music and performances.
“We are asking for some help,” he said. “We can do this. We can do this together.”
No one knows more about Hotel Thelma and Thelma Stone than Dr. Carolyn Bailey Lewis, who is now retired and lives in Athens, Ohio and has a distinguished career of her own, including being the first woman and first African-American to be general manager of a Public Broadcasting System television station.
“Mama Thelma” was Lewis’s great-aunt and took her in when she was 6 months old after her own mother became ill in Pittsburgh.
“I grew up in Hotel Thelma,” she said. “I was wiping off tables when I was 3 years old. I later cooked. We did everything.”
She said Mama Thelma learned her cooking and business skills from her mother, Janie Whitten, who ran Janie’s Green Leaf Restaurant on Bland Street.
Lewis said Mama Thelma taught her how to work hard and be successful as the hotel, which included a restaurant and grocery store on the first floor, was a “hopping place.”
“She got up at 4:30 or 5 in the morning and worked until 10 or 11 at night,” Lewis said. “She was phenomenal. I learned so much from her.”
Lewis eventually ran the grocery store.
Lewis said everyone would get extra excited when billboards went up promoting a well-known artist, like James Brown, coming to Bluefield, and being connected with Hotel Thelma gave them a chance to see the big names up close.
“When I was 7 years old, I took dinner to room 22,” she said, which turned out to be Ike and Tina Turner’s room. “She took the tray and gave me a dollar. I thought I was in heaven.”
Lewis is now in the process of writing a book about her life there and the working title is: “Mama Thelma:Her Life, Purpose, and Legacy.”
Lewis said when she was 12 years old, her parents were in El Paso, Texas and sent word they wanted her back.
Here is an excerpt from her book on the trip:
“The Green Book was full of history and listings of where ‘Negroes’ could stay and eat in each state. Mama Thelma was fair-skinned and could ‘pass’ in some southern white restaurants. Of course I couldn’t being dark-skinned, so she would tell me to stay down in the car while she went in to get takeout. There were times she would go into a grocery store and buy food that she would cook roadside at a rest stop or wherever we would see a roadside grill. God certainly protected us. We arrived in El Paso and, after a week’s visit, I told my parents my home was with Mama Thelma. To celebrate my decision, this brave, entrepreneurial woman drove on to California (she had friends in Anaheim) and we went to Disneyland! The farther west we went, the less segregation. Mama Thelma and I had such a love for each other. Driving herself, with the Green Book and me (I was the navigator sometimes), she motored across country and back to West Virginia – about 5,000 miles round trip. What lessons I learned along the way.”
“I am who I am because of her,” Lewis, who has many professional accolades and will soon join her long-time friend Dr. Patrice Harris in the Academy of Distinguished Alumni at West Virginia University, said about Thelma Stone.
Harris, also a Bluefield native, was the first African-American woman to be president of the American Medical Association. Harris once lived at the hotel.
“I spent my first several years of life living in an apartment at Hotel Thelma which by then had been converted to apartments before my family moved up the hill” on Wayne Street, she saiid.
Lewis spearheaded the drive to get the historical marker placed in front of the hotel and is now working with city leaders on the Hotel Thelma project.
“I have talked with Cecil Marson (Bluefield City Manager) and Peter Taylor (City Board Vice Chair) about a plan,” she said. “If they (and Mitchell) can get the funding, if they can get it restored, I am all for it.”
Lewis said it would be great for the hotel to be turned into something that can be toured.
After integration, the hotel was no longer needed, she said, and eventually was turned into an apartment building until it closed in the mid-1990s. Mama Thelma died in 1981.
But its legacy, as well as the woman who created it, is rich with history.
Mayor Ron Martin is on board with the project.
“I think it’s a great project,” he said. “And I think it is needed.”
Martin said plans need to be put together and the city is willing to help.
— Contact Charles Boothe at cboothe@bdtonline.com
