OCEAN CITY, MD — It's located in a very popular area of Ocean City, but it has been overlooked for decades, until now.
Henry's Hotel, on 101 South Division Street, was approved for a grant by the Maryland Board of Public Works to the tune of $250,000.
The grant, through the African American Heritage Preservation Program, will allow this historic site to be rehabilitated and turned into a museum and learning center.
“Henry’s Hotel is an important historic site not only for the African American community on the Eastern Shore and Ocean City but all of Maryland," said Senator Mary Beth Carozza, a strong supporter of the preservation and rehabilitation. "I have seen the great interest in the story and history of Henry’s Hotel after taking visitors by the site on Ocean City tours.”
During the Jim Crow era, Henry's Hotel was the last hotel to allow African Americans access to the beach, when state and local laws often enforced segregation.
Charles and Louisa Henry purchased the 20-room hotel in 1926.
Visiting African American entertainers, like Duke Ellington and Cab Calloway performed at various venues across Ocean City but always stayed at Henry’s Hotel where they would be treated as guests.
During a January 2024 Board of Public Works meeting, Maryland Governor Wes Moore talked about the importance of preserving Henry's Hotel, "This grant will support efforts to turn the building into not just a hotel and refurbished building, but into a museum, into a learning center, a place where people can learn about the history of African Americans on the Shore and throughout the State, and despite years and decades and generations of discrimination, it’s helping to tell the story of ‘despite it all, still I rise.’”
A total of $5 million in grants was awarded to the African American Heritage Preservation Program to support 24 projects across the State of Maryland.
