Scope and Contents: This collection consists of materials relating to the history of the Hampton House and efforts to preserve the house from between 1955 and 2003, donated by Donald Irving, Jr., of Dade Heritage Trust, and Rick Ferrer, and supplemented by material collected by staff of the Black Archives. It documents early customer service, correspondence from the governor of Florida in 1968, and efforts taken by the Hampton House Board to prevent the Hampton House building from being demolished. Materials include: meeting minutes, agendas, a business and marketing plan, brochures, post cards, photographs, newspaper articles and correspondence. The collection contains very limited financial information.
The Hampton House was built in 1954 and opened in 1955 as the Booker Terrace Motel. In 1961, it was renamed the Hampton House Hotel and Villas. The Hampton House was a popular meeting place for blacks during segregation with a jazz club and North/South golf tournaments played by celebrities. In 1960, Mr. Martin Luther King, Jr. visited the Hampton House.