Best of Orlando® 2015
Arts & Culture
Staff Pick
Best Shrine to Black Lives That Mattered
Wells’ Built Museum of African-American History and Culture
511 W. South St., 407-245-7535, wellsbuiltmuseumofafricanamericanhistoryandculture.org
Cab Calloway, Billie Holiday, Ella Fitzgerald, Bo Diddley and countless other legends rocked the South Street Casino in its day, but they wouldn’t have been welcomed at any of the hotels in town – so when Dr. William Wells built the nightclub, he went ahead and built a hotel right next door. Now his hotel is a museum of astounding treasures tracing the African-American history of Orlando. Tour the museum – including the re-created hip 1930s-era hotel guest room – and imagine Dr. Wells bringing Ray Charles a drink while he was getting down on the piano in the lobby.
(Sorry, no information is currently available for other years in this same award category.)
