The City of Paducah is honored to be named a recipient of a $1.34 million Humanities in Place grant from the Mellon Foundation. The City applied for the grant on behalf of the Upper Town Heritage Foundation to support the Hotel Metropolitan located at 724 Oscar Cross Avenue.
Serving currently as a museum and cultural space, the Hotel Metropolitan is a restored hotel that provided a place of safety and refuge during racial segregation with noted artists, athletes, entrepreneurs, and intellectuals staying there including Louis Armstrong, Duke Ellington, Ella Fitzgerald, Thurgood Marshall, and the Harlem Globetrotters.
Paducah Mayor George Bray said, “The City of Paducah is grateful for the Mellon Foundation’s recognition of the historical importance of the Hotel Metropolitan. By the end of this three-year grant period, the Upper Town Heritage Foundation will have multiple tools and resources to guide the Hotel Metropolitan toward a sustainable, profitable, and vibrant future. In order to continue the story of the Hotel for future generations, new programming will be developed, staff added, building improvements completed, and more. This grant and the partnership with the City of Paducah set the foundation for a bright future for the Hotel Metropolitan and a boost in tourism for our community.”
Visitors to the Hotel Metropolitan often are welcomed by Executive Director Betty Dobson who brings the history of the hotel to life by telling the story of Ms. Maggie Steed, who with passion and grit and by using her private residence as collateral had the Hotel Metropolitan built in Paducah for African American travelers approximately 120 years ago.
Dobson said, “Each time that I share the story of Ms. Maggie Steed and how she worked against so many odds to provide a safe and lovely place for African American travelers, I feel a connection to her and to my history. Being a woman of color and a local storyteller, I have a passion for uncovering Paducah’s African American stories and sharing them to inspire, educate, and unite our community. With this generous grant from the Mellon Foundation, we can work to preserve and further develop the Hotel Metropolitan so that these important stories and pieces of our history can continue to be shared.”
The Humanities in Place grant funding will be used to ensure the longevity of the Hotel Metropolitan and Purple Room through building improvements, strategic planning and board training to build organizational sustainability, the addition of staff to enhance organizational capacity, and increased programming to activate the site’s compelling history. The Purple Room is an accessory building of the museum that was constructed during segregation for parties, community meetings, and performances.
City Manager Daron Jordan said, “I am pleased that the Mellon Foundation is providing significant support to the Hotel Metropolitan so that the cultural and historical value of the museum can grow and thrive. This is a collaborative agreement that allows the City to serve as the fiscal agent to provide grant funding to the Upper Town Heritage Foundation. Our next step is to finalize a co-stewardship agreement between the City of Paducah and the Upper Town Heritage Foundation that outlines our partnership details. This is a great example of how a local government can partner with a nonprofit to preserve a cultural and historic icon.”
In addition to the $1.34 million from the Mellon Foundation, the City of Paducah is pledging a $250,000 grant match for the current fiscal year and contingent upon approval through the annual budgeting process and successful implementation of the co-stewardship agreement, the City pledges additional funding for FY2026 and for FY2027 in an amount of $250,000 for each fiscal year.
About the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation
The Andrew W. Mellon Foundation is the nation’s largest supporter of the arts and humanities. Since 1969, the Foundation has been guided by its core belief that the humanities and arts are essential to human understanding. The Foundation believes that the arts and humanities are where we express our complex humanity, and that everyone deserves the beauty, transcendence, and freedom that can be found there. Through our grants, we seek to build just communities enriched by meaning and empowered by critical thinking, where ideas and imagination can thrive. Learn more at mellon.org.
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