Heidelberg Hotel
The Heidelberg Hotel was a hotel in Jackson, Mississippi, which operated from 1922 to 1974. The hotel was notable for several firsts: the first fireproof building in Mississippi and the first hotel to break the state's colour barrier in 1964 in reversing its policy to allow African-Americans to book hotel rooms. Other local hotels followed shortly thereafter. The hotel was also the site of John F. Kennedy's first speech in the southern United States in 1957, and senators Joseph S. Clark and Robert F. Kennedy visited the hotel in 1967 when on a fact-finding tour of the Mississippi Delta. History The hotel opened its doors on May 1, 1922. The Clarion-Ledger, Jackson's newspaper, dedicated two pages of its April 30th Sunday edition to the opening of the five-storey hotel, which was described the first fire-proof building in the state of Mississippi. The hotel opened with 124 rooms, all boasting an electric fan. In 1930, Heidelberg and hotel manager J.L. Latimer acquired A.H. Alvis's interest in the hotel and spent $200,000 on a renovation, which included adding three stories to the original building. Another $250,000 renovation followed in 1955, which added two banquet rooms on the 13th and 14th storeys of