McCollum Hall
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McCollum Hall is a historic building block that was an entertainment venue in
Fort Myers, Florida Fort Myers (or Ft. Myers) is a city in and the county seat of Lee County, Florida, United States. As of the 2020 United States census, 2020 census, the population was 86,395; it was estimated to have grown to 95,949 in 2022, making it the List o ...
. It is listed on the
National Register of Historic Places The National Register of Historic Places (NRHP) is the Federal government of the United States, United States federal government's official United States National Register of Historic Places listings, list of sites, buildings, structures, Hist ...
and is a site on Florida's Black Heritage Trail. It included a gas station and was listed in '' The Negro Motorist Green Book'' guide for African Americans. Murals are now next to it. A rope line segregated the upstairs area where performances and dancing were located. It was "at the heart" of Fort Myers' Dunbar Community. It is at 2701 Dr Martin Luther King Jr. Boulevard. It is an
Art Deco Art Deco, short for the French (), is a style of visual arts, architecture, and product design that first Art Deco in Paris, appeared in Paris in the 1910s just before World War I and flourished in the United States and Europe during the 1920 ...
style building. It was built in 1938 by Clifford "Buck" McCollum, Sr. and his wife Gertrude and became a center of entertainment and commerce. It hosted performers including
Louis Armstrong Louis Daniel Armstrong (August 4, 1901 – July 6, 1971), nicknamed "Satchmo", "Satch", and "Pops", was an American trumpeter and vocalist. He was among the most influential figures in jazz. His career spanned five decades and several era ...
, B. B. King,
Ella Fitzgerald Ella Jane Fitzgerald (April25, 1917June15, 1996) was an American singer, songwriter and composer, sometimes referred to as the "First Lady of Song", "Queen of Jazz", and "Lady Ella". She was noted for her purity of tone, impeccable diction, phra ...
,
Count Basie William James "Count" Basie (; August 21, 1904 – April 26, 1984) was an American jazz pianist, organist, bandleader, and composer. In 1935, he formed the Count Basie Orchestra, and in 1936 took them to Chicago for a long engagement and the ...
, and
Duke Ellington Edward Kennedy "Duke" Ellington (April 29, 1899 – May 24, 1974) was an American Jazz piano, jazz pianist, composer, and leader of his eponymous Big band, jazz orchestra from 1924 through the rest of his life. Born and raised in Washington, D ...
between the 1930s and 1960s. In 2022, a developer was contracted to renovate the building and to add apartments adjacent. It was used by the U.S.O. ( United Service Organization) to host black servicemen from Page and Buckingham Army Air Fields. It was also a site for black professional baseball players visiting during spring training and hosted boxing matches.


See also

* Chitlin' Circuit * National Register of Historic Places listings in Lee County, Florida


References

{{Reflist Art Deco architecture in Florida African-American history of Florida Buildings and structures completed in 1938 1938 establishments in Florida