Pat Donahue/Times-EnterpriseAlvon Lewis, whose family helped build the Imperial Hotel and whose sister and brother-in-law operated it for 20 years, takes a look at the structure during a recent visit back to Thomasville.

THOMASVILLE — It had been a long time since Alvon Lewis had set foot in the Imperial Hotel.

Now a Maryland resident, Lewis grew up in Thomasville. His sister and brother-in-law started the hotel right alongside West Jackson Street. Lewis and his twin brother helped build it.

The Jack Hadley Black History Museum is holding a fundraising gala Saturday night in its efforts to save and preserve the Imperial Hotel.

The Imperial Hotel served an African-American clientele and was a frequent host to musicians and artists traveling the “Chitlin’ Circuit.” Stars such as Rosetta Tharpe, Bells of Joy, The Five Blind Boys of Mississippi and B.B. King stayed at the Imperial Hotel.

“There is not another hotel that we know of in southwest Georgia that is still sanding that was built back during that time,” Hadley said.

Built in 1949, the hotel was owned and operated by Harvey and Dorothy Lewis Thompson until 1969. The five Lewis brothers — the older ones learned the masonry trade from their father and passed it down to the twins Alfred and Alvon — completed the masonry work.

“My brothers did all the masonry work,” Alvon Lewis said. “We were helpers, making the mortar.”

The museum, with help from local foundations, such as Thomasville Landmarks and the Williams Family Foundation of Georgia, is in the process of purchasing the hotel. 

“The museum was very fortunate to be able to purchase the complex,” Hadley said. “We thought it was a piece of history. If I had turned my back on it, and if they had condemned it and torn it down and I knew I had the opportunity to step up to the plate to do something about it, I would have to live with that for the rest of my life.

“When the opportunity came long, I grabbed it,” he said  “We just made a decision.”

Hadley said the plan is to have the hotel as a satellite of the Jack Hadley Black History Museum, with a rotation of exhibits downstairs and then ushering visitors to the main museum.

Hadley called the West Jackson building part of the entrance to downtown Thomasville. A 2012 museum assessment said the Hadley museum needed a downtown location to help its visibility.

Coming back to the Imperial brought mixed emotions for Lewis, he acknowledged. 

His career as a mason and his membership in the international union led him to jobs in Key West, Florida, building a naval barracks, to Cape Canaveral, to working on an addition to the Smithsonian Institute, then to a 30-story building on Harlem’s Lenox Avenue and to the New Zealand and Russian embassies.

“They had Russian inspectors on that job. Everywhere you go, they were inspecting, breathing down your shirt collar,” Lewis recalled, “making sure you don’t put any bugs in the wall.”

Now 82, Lewis said he and his brother, as a team, could do more than other masons. His twin was left-handed, and he is right-handed.

“So that made a good combination for brick masons on the wall,” he said. “We had a lot of fun, too.”

The Save the Imperial Hotel gala will be held Saturday, October 20, at 6:30 p.m. at Receptions for You, 1200 West Jackson St. A silent auction will be a part of the event.

To date, $80,000 has been raised and another $100,000 is needed to stabilize the hotel. The initial $80,000 will go toward buying the property and hiring a structural engineer to look at the building and make recommendations for rehabilitating it.

Hadley, along with Diane Williams Parker and Louise Cromartie-Johnson, will be honored at the gala.

For more information, and to make contributions to the Save the Imperial Hotel initiative, visit www.jackhadleyblackhistorymuseum.com or the Thomasville Landmarks website www.thomasvillelandmarks.org. 

Editor Pat Donahue can be reached at (229) 226-2400 ext. 1806.