Mt. Royal Hotel

03 / The story of this place

What was here?

Built for $100,000 to Joseph P. Jogerst's design, the Mt. Royal opened on August 26, 1924, as a 60-room family and transient hotel on North Woodward, later growing to 106 and then about 150 rooms. In 1957 it passed to Della Walker, a Black woman who both owned and managed it, and it became a gathering place for Black clubs, banquets and bridge tournaments; the Negro Motorist Green Book listed it from its 1963/64 edition to 1967. Singer Ty Hunter lived here in 1963, when the basement folk club The Retort hosted Buffy Sainte-Marie. After Della Walker's tax troubles a heroin trafficker took it over, and it became a notorious drug hotel. More than 100 police raided it on December 1, 1977; it was shut and razed after a March 10, 1980, demolition permit.

• Opened August 26, 1924 with 60 rooms
• Black-owned under Della Walker from 1957
• Green Book listing 1963/64–1967

Architect

Joseph P. Jogerst

Green Book

Listed in The Negro Motorist Green Book, the travel guide that showed Black travelers where they could stay safely during segregation.