ORLANDO, Fla. – On West South Street in downtown Orlando sits a building nearly 100 years old that holds decades of Central Florida’s black history.

The Wells’ Built Museum, originally the Wells’ Built Hotel, has stood the test of time. The two-story building was originally the only hotel in Orlando that would serve African Americans, intentionally built in Orlando’s Parramore district.

The hotel was built by Dr. William Monroe Wells, a prominent African American physician who helped shaped Parramore during the segregation era. Though the museum now pays homage to his contributions, it also highlights the local Black History often left out of textbooks, the history that helped make Orlando what it is today.

Who was Dr. Wells?

Dr. William Monroe Wells was a physician and a businessman. He came to Orlando in 1917 and was one of the city’s first black doctors and one of the only physicians in the Central Florida area.

He called Parramore home.

His house stood by South Street, where the Amway Center now towers over the downtown Orlando landscape.

He opened his doors to treat patients who often had nowhere else to go. During the segregation era, African Americans were usually only allowed to see black doctors and were not accepted at all hospitals or medical centers. If a hospital did not have a dedicated floor or section to treat African American patients, they often would not receive medical attention they needed.

Wells saw the black community’s need for healthcare but as patients traveled from parts of Central Florida to get care at his hands, he soon learned there was more he could do.

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“(He did) not just come to Orlando to provide healthcare, but once he got here made his business to fulfill the needs of the community,” Elizabeth Thompson, executive director of the Wells’ Built Museum said.

In 1921, Wells built a hotel for African Americans who were otherwise barred from Florida’s segregated hotels. Across the street from his home, he built a space for black businesses to operate on the second floor of the hotel. Included were 20 rooms for people to rest their heads when they visited The City Beautiful.

Wells realized he had created a place for African Americans to pay a visit to Orlando -- but wanted to give African Americans a reason to visit.

He eventually opened South Street Casino next door to the Wells’ Built Hotel. The entertainment venue was built to host touring black entertainers, a rare business for cities to have in the 1920s.

South Street Casino also served as a recreational building for the community. Inside it housed a basketball court and a roller-rink, but after 8 p.m. it turned into a hang-out for adults.

Famous artists like Ella Fitzgerald, Ray Charles, Louis Armstong and Bo Diddly performed at the casino and after entertaining a crowd they would check in to the Wells’ Built Hotel. Other prominent African Americans like Jackie Robinson and Supreme Court Justice Thurgood Marshall also visited the venue.

People traveled from Sanford, Groveland and Eatonville to lay their eyes on these celebrities, making it one of the most popular spaces for African Americans in the South.

After nearly 40 years in business, a fire erupted through the South Street Casino destroying the building. The fire damage led to the demolition of the venue in 1987. Wells’ home now stands on the land where the South Street Casino was built, moved from its original location to make way for the Amway Center and to preserve its history.

History within its walls

The home opened as a museum in June 2009, the 6,000 ft. space is steadily encased in brick. Adorned with a large, glass storefront where light pours into a room where people would have conducted business in the building’s hay day. When one steps inside, the space opens into a large foyer-type area, where the walls are covered in photographs, paintings and historic signage in large part because of Rep. Geraldine Thompson.

Thompson represents the 44th District in the Florida House which includes Orlando’s tourist district. Known as a champion for public education, she pushed to save the Wells’ Built Hotel building and converting it into a history museum so new generations could carry the building’s legacy into the future.

Most of the artifacts at the Wells’ Built Museum have been donated or leased from local collectors, a collection curated to materialize the heart and soul of the Parramore community. Framed documents introduce guests to historic figures that called Central Florida home: university founder Mary McLeod Bethune, a forerunner in aviation Bessie Coleman, and Wells himself.

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The walls are dotted with cultural masks, stern faces carved intricately into wood. Embroidered dolls stand proudly, their yarn hair braided back and wrapped with beads.

“We look at them as artwork, but a lot of times in that day they were a way to bring forth history,” Thompson said. “So the markings and the faces told a story and carried forward a history. You also had dolls that called forth fertility or good luck, different things.”

Sitting in the center of the museum is a bible, enveloped in a large cube of glass. The bible contains the typical ancient scripture, but also handwritten notes, dates and names in efforts to document history.

“The importance of recording family genealogy, a lot of the time that was recorded in a family bible,” Thompson said. “During the times when African Americans were considered property, they were not required to receive statistical records. A lot of those things were recorded in a bible that would then be passed down from one generation to the next.”

Old vinyl records and black-and-white headshots of famous performers who graced the halls of the once-hotel lay around a mock-up of what a lounge in the early 20th century looked like. Crushed velvet sofas and tread-worn carpets complete the space, with what now seems like an ancient artifact standing resolute nearby.

“One of my favorite things to ask young people is ‘what is that’,” Thompson said. “It’s an old fashioned jukebox," she said in the museum’s music corner.

The upper level of the museum contains considerably less art but shows the bare beginnings of the structure.

Exposed brick walls are imprinted with the names of the masons who formed them, all dated from decades ago. Much of the building has been rearranged and renovated for modern standards, but the original brick-work stands proud and bare among what were once guest rooms.

Only one former guest suite remains on the second floor, most of which have been transformed into office and meeting spaces. The room that does remain is roped off like an exhibit, showing a by-gone era of what hospitality used to look like: a snapshot of polished wooden dressers, statement lamps, and tufted comforters. Rooms were quaint and only contained the essentials for a restful night’s sleep.

“A room in that day in time was just a place to lay your head -- not quite to what we’re accustomed to today,” Thompson said. “If you wanted to sit and visit with people, you were going to do it in a common area. You would also share bathrooms as well.”

Parramore: Yesterday & Today

If it weren’t for its brick walls and large antique subway clock hanging outside posing a stark contrast to its surroundings, the Wells’ Built Museum might be lost to drivers passing by.

The Amway Center and Exploria Stadium stand many stories taller, the Dr. Phillips Center for Performing Arts is only a few blocks away, and the Orlando Police Department oversees it all from less than a mile down the road. A home replaces where the South Casino once stood the area now decorated with a modest sign declaring Holden-Parramore a historic district and the land a listing on the National Register of Historic Places.

The Parramore community and the area which Wells once called home are almost unrecognizable.

The museum, though, seems unfazed by its larger neighbors. It is unlike any other landmark in the area and captures the stories of a community that suffered, grew, and continues to celebrate together.

Many names and stories one would find at Well’s Built are ones that have not been taught in schools. They are stories of black excellence in a time when achievements and recognition were largely reserved for the white population.

“We are very glad to be able to be here and celebrate some of the lesser-known figures whose names you don’t find in your history books,” Thompson said. “Orlando was founded and impacted by names of people who you might not know and we’re really, really privileged to be able to bring that education forward.”

To learn more about the museum or to schedule a tour, click here.