Jackson Purchase Historical Society

Betty Dobson portraying Maggie Steed

Maggie Steed built the Metropolitan Hotel in 1909 when she was 24 years old. Maggie, a woman of “color”, was far ahead of her time, as she saw when she arrived in Paducah in 1893, the need for a hotel that would house “colored” people.

Maggie’s father was a slave and when President Lincoln offered slaves a chance to fight in the Civil War effort, he promised them and their families freedom after the war.  Many colored regiments were continued after the war and Maggie arrived in Paducah in 1893 mainly due to the colored regiment that was located there and for the opportunities for young colored women in the area.

Using her husband’s name, Maggie dealt with the lumber company that owned the land, purchasing the land and materials for her hotel. For $2 a day, guests could stay at her hotel and be treated to biscuits and coffee in the mornings at 6 a.m.  The Hotel Metropolitan, named by Maggie to give it a high-class sound, was very forward-thinking because it had lights and running water.

Many famous African-Americans traveled the “Chitlin Circuit” (the name of the route of hotels that accepted African-Americans as guests).  In 1915, it was so highly respected that it housed many members attending the Golden Jubilee convention of the General Association of Colored Baptists in Kentucky.   Famous guests who stayed there through the hotel’s operation were Louie Armstrong, Count Basie, Duke Ellington, Thurgood Marshall, B. B. King, Ike and Tina Turner, Marcus Haines, Jessie Owens, and the Harlem Globetrotters.  Langford Hughes and the Negro Baseball League were also guests traveling the Chitlin Circuit.

After Maggie’s death in 1924, her son ran the hotel for two to three years, then sold it to Mamie Burbridge. After her death, Lester and Olivia Gaines and their son, Clarence “Big House” Gaines (who was to become the 3rd winningest coach in the United States) owned it at one point.

The Hotel Metropolitan is located at 724 Oscar Cross Street in Paducah, KY.   It was Big House Gaines that made the property available for preservation as a museum.   Betty Dobson and others she gathered to her created the Upper Town Heritage Foundation which rehabilitated the Hotel so that it is now a viable museum.  Betty Dobson carries the message of the Hotel as she travels around as herself and occasionally in the persona of Miss Maggie talking to various community, service and historical organizations.  Visit the Hotel Metropolitan’s website at www.thehotelmetropolitan.org to find out more about this important historic landmark.

One of our members, Cecelia Edwards, made the following comment in response to our posting about Gritted Cornbread:  “While reading some old newspaper articles at the library I came across an article about a “madstone” that was apparently an old American Indian cure for being bitten by a rapid dog.  I researched it and found that it is a part of the stomach of a deer that is removed and given special treatment. From what I have learned it was not a common item to have around the house as the person in need had to find out who had one and then go for the treatment, which included several applications of the stone after it had been soaked in milk and other ingredients. It was then applied to the wound and left until the stone turned green. There may have been several applications. The articles that I read reported success with the stone.  One article told of the family traveling from Mayfield to Paducah for the treatment, which in those days was quite a journey.”

“R.T. Rowland, 78 years of age, was almost chewed to death by a mad dog at Eddyville.  He went to Paducah and had a madstone applied.”  (article dated 7-20-1898 under First District News reported in Volume 8, Graves Co., KY Newspaper Genealogical Abstracts Mayfield Monitor, 2-2-1898 to 12-28-1898, (Copyright 1983 by Simmons Historical Publications)  No further articles as to whether or not he survived.

Hmmm, is it progress to give shots in the stomach to combat rabies if there is a “madstone” that will do the same thing?

Teresa Ray

The speaker for our Winter Meeting was Teresa Ray who spoke about her upbringing in the South Graves County orphanage, Paradise Friendly Home, and her project “Paradise Friendly Home Revisited”.   Teresa became a resident of Paradise Friendly Home in December 1961 and lived there until her high school graduation in 1967.   She spoke of the founders, Leslie and Thelma Murdock, about how she came to be a resident, about life with 50-70 “siblings”, and the demise of the orphanage.   Although in the beginning (1935) the Murdocks did not receive any financial or other assistance, eventually almost all of Western Kentucky, through churches, service organizations, educational organizations and individuals,  pitched in and helped in some way.   The first building was the Murdocks’ two bedroom home but the physical plant grew to five buildings in order to house the estimated 500 children they parented from 1935 until 1978.

Ms. Ray has undertaken the task of preserving the story of the Murdocks and the orphanage.   The task has been named Paradise Friendly Home Revisited and its stated purpose is to “identify, gather and archive the oral histories of the children, staff, and families who lived at Paradise Friendly Home between the years of 1935 and 1978″.  The oral histories are also being collected for the Kentucky Historical Society’s Oral History Commission.  More information on this project, along with pictures of the Murdocks, can be found on the website: www.paradisefriendlyhome.com.  Ms. Ray also hopes to write a book about Paradise Friendly Home and its children.

If you haven’t already, please listen to our interview with Teresa; you will find it under the podcast category on the right side of this webpage.

Mausoleum of Thelma and Leslie Murdock, founders of Paradise Friendly Home, Highway 97, Bell City, KY (south Graves County)

We had the extreme pleasure of talking with Teresa Ray of the Paradise Friendly Home an orphans’ home located in Farmington, KY. She recounted her time there as an orphan as well as Paradise Friendly Home’s place in the history of Western Kentucky. She will be the guest speaker at the quarterly meeting of the Jackson Purchase Historical Society on January 16. Now available through iTunes or you can listen to it here.

“‘I recollect when Daddy made a gritter from a board and piece of metal.  After he gritted the corn, Mom made such good gritted corn bread, crackling’ bread also.’  Editor’s Note…I had never heard of “gritted corn bread” so I asked my parents about it.  They knew what I was talking about immediately.  They said that in the fall, when the corn was beyond ripe, but not yet dried completely, the ears of corn would be pulled and grated and made into something between a bread and a pudding in texture.  They said people used to make their own “gritters” (graters) by taking a lard bucket lid or such and punching holes in it with a nail.  Then all people had to do was use the side of the metal flared out from to grate their food.  I thought that was pretty smart.

Home “gritters” were probably only one of many pieces of life of yesterday that are no longer around.   They were taken for granted in that era.  Now there is a whole generation who never heard of such things.  How many other things are being forgotten.”

-Excerpt from column,  Mountain Memories, written by Louzilla Patrick appearing in the January 1985 issue, page 21, of The Mountain Laurel, a monthly Journal of Mountain Life by Laurel Publications, Inc., Meadows of Dan,  Va. 24120

Dear History Buff visitors:  What “other things” do you know of.  If you will share them, we’ll post them!!