Ben F. Moore

Ben F. Moore was born enslaved in Alabama in 1848 to Muddy and Hannah Moore. In 1873, he married Mittie Spencer (1852-19??). The couple had fourteen children, six of whom survived to adulthood. Moore was a tenant farmer turned carpenter and lived on St. John Street., Nearly four decades after his death, Ben Moore's name graced the facade of Montgomery's first modern African American hotel, built by his son, Matthew Franklin Moore (1893-1956), a graduate of Alabama State University and a carpenter and framer by profession. Moore contracted with the Brewer Building Service to construct the three-story structure at the corner of High and Jackson Streets at a cost of $75,000. Made of brick, concrete blocks, and steel, the "fireproof," twenty-eight room Ben Moore Hotel opened on September 23, 1951., A grocery concern, drug store, and the Majestic Cafe occupied the building's first floor. Hotel rooms were located on the second and third floors. The facility featured a rooftop garden, penthouse, bandstand, and other amenities for entertaining. For decades, this hotel named in honor of a formerly enslaved man was a place of refuge for African American travelers in an age of segregation and the site of important meetings during the Civil Rights Movement.