Granada Hotel

From Bhamwiki
Jump to navigation Jump to search

The Granada Hotel was a 60-room hotel located at 2230 4th Avenue North in Birmingham.

Journalist Julian Street stayed in the Granada during his visit in 1916. He was initially disappointed that, due to a hardware convention, the Tutwiler Hotel would not honor his telegraphed request for a room reservation. However, after a night at the Granada he described it thus: "though a modest place, it was new and clean; the clerk was amiable, the beds comfortable, and if our rooms were too small to admit our trunks, they were, at all events, outside rooms, each with a private bath, at a rate of $1 per day apiece. Never in any hotel have I felt that I was getting so much for my money."

Frank Robertson was proprietor of the Granada in 1917. In 1920 the hotel was operated by C. M. Whiteside on the European plan, with rooms for $1.00-$1.50 per night. In 1922 Whiteside advertised hot and cold running water and telephones in each room. Those with private baths rented for $2.00 per night, with connecting baths $1.50, and with no bath, $1.00.

James Earl Ray stayed in the Granada Hotel on August 25, 1967 before finding longer-term accommodation at the Economy Grill and Rooms in Southside. He was registered under the alias John L. Rayns

First Presbyterian Church pastor Eugenia Gamble led efforts to raise $2.3 million to purchase and renovate the former hotel for the First Light women's shelter in 1998-2000.