HAMPTON — The Bay Shore Hotel will be getting a historical marker this weekend on Buckroe Beach.
The Buckroe Historical Society will be hosting the unveiling ceremony on Saturday (June 23) at 9 a.m. near the James T. Wilson Fishing Pier.
Speakers for the event include Mayor Donnie Tuck, members of the Buckroe Historical Society and community members who remember visiting Bay Shore.
This historical marker will commemorate the Bay Shore Hotel which served African-Americans as a top East Coast resort for 75 years, according to the city.
The cooperative venture, which opened in 1898, was funded by 60 African-American businessmen. It started as a four-room cottage but by the 1930s, Bay Shore had a three-story beachfront hotel with 70 rooms, a cafe, pier, pavilion and boathouses.
The city said hotel drew tourists from across the East Coast and Midwest.
The hotel was formed as a place for African-Americans to meet and enjoy themselves during the Jim Crow Law era.
It hosted state and national conferences, sporting events and concerts. Some notable people who performed there included Louis Armstrong, Cab Calloway and Ella Fitzgerald.
The hotel continued to draw visitors through the 1960s but after segregation began to decline, so did the popularity of the hotel and it was finally closed in 1973.
To learn more about the Buckroe Beach Historical Society, click here.
