Montgomery hotel listed on endangered historic places list
FILE – The closed Ben Moore Hotel on Highland Avenue in Montgomery. (AP Photo/Jay Reeves, File)
MONTGOMERY, Ala. (WAKA) – The former Ben Moore hotel in Montgomery is on the list of historic places that are currently in danger of not surviving.
The hotel is among 11 sites on this year’s annual list of the most endangered historic places in the United States compiled by the National Trust for Historic Preservation.
ACTION 8 ARCHIVES: 2017 story on saving the Ben Moore Hotel
ACTION 8 ARCHIVES: 2020 story on barber who worked in Ben Moore Hotel and cut Dr. King’s hair
The hotel was a refuge for Black people living under laws that enforced racial separation in the South. Prolonged vacancy has caused structural deterioration and the historic Centennial Hill neighborhood surrounding it faces pressure from development. The hotel housed key players from the Civil Rights Movement, including the Rev. Martin Luther King, Jr. and Rev. Ralph Abernathy.
The Conservation Fund announced in November that it would help preserve the hotel.
The 2026 list marks America’s 250th anniversary with the foundational principle that everyone is created equal as the theme, said Carol Quillen, president and CEO of the nonprofit organization. The 11 sites offer examples of how, over time, Americans have fought against injustice and for equality, she said.
“We wanted to think about those ideas, especially this notion that all human beings are created equal and find places, sometimes unsung places … that not all Americans routinely think about,” Quillen told The Associated Press.
The sites are spread across the United States — from New York and California on the East and West Coasts, to Alabama and Texas in the South, to Michigan in the Midwest and the Four Corners of Arizona, Colorado, New Mexico and Utah in the Rocky Mountain West.
For the first time since the list debuted in 1988, each site on the 2026 list will receive a one-time $25,000 grant to help highlight their connections to the principle that all people are created equal and address the threats they face.
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