Bringing McCollum Hall back to life

Reporter: Breana Ross
Published: Updated:
McCollum Hall (CREDIT: WINK News)

When you pass by McCollum Hall, you see an empty building.

But Vera Stephens remembers a time when it was full of life.

“It was really fun to go to the dances that they had there and it was a really jumping place,” said Stephens, 89, who was born and raised in Fort Myers.

McCollum Hall was built by Fort Myers Businessman Buck McCollum in 1938.

It was a centerpiece of commerce, music and entertainment that attracted some big-name performers in its prime, one of the few places both Blacks and whites went for entertainment during segregation.

Performers like Duke Ellington, Count Basie, Louis Armstrong, and B.B. King performed at McCollum Hall during the 30s and 40s.

Stories of its former glory are now painted on murals behind the hall, at the corner of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Boulevard and Cranford Avenue.

“I remember that, dancing, and there was a grocery store on the end of that plaza and then it was a liquor store there,” Stephens said. “All down the avenue was just things for Black people.”

Stephens would like to see McCollum Hall transformed into a centerpiece for the community again.

“It would mean a lot to this community. The younger people would see what it was in this community,” she said.

Michele Hylton-Terry, the executive director of the Fort Myers Community Redevelopment Agency, is determined to make that happen.

She has worked to restore McCollum Hall since at least 2007.

It’s come with challenges, the last two developers couldn’t come up with the funds for the project, so the CRA is once again searching for someone who can.

“I’m thinking the third time is the charm because we’ve had two developers that didn’t quite pull it off and now that it is on everybody’s radar and now that it is actually going to be added to the National Register of Historic Places, the state of Florida approved, nominated it, and sent it up to the National Park Service so that’s going to bring more attention and more acclaim to that facility which it well deserves and the community deserves to have it back,” Hylton-Terry said.

Stephens hopes she can see the building come back to life.

“I would like to see it done,” she said.

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