City to mark 65th anniversary of A.G. Gaston Motel

The city of Birmingham will commemorate the 65th anniversary of the historic A.G. Gaston Motel, which played a key role in the Civil Rights Movement, on Monday, July 1, at 9 a.m., according to Birmingham Mayor Randall Woodfin.

There will be a short program in the motel’s courtyard to celebrate the anniversary, as well as an unveiling of an honorary street designation to honor the motel’s founder, the late Birmingham businessman A.G. Gaston, Woodfin told members of the City Council at their regular meeting for Tuesday, June 25.

The event will be a chance for people to ‘celebrate the new life” of the motel, Woodfin said.

The city is currently restoring the motel, and the project should be complete by December 2021, according to the mayor.

Crews are currently assessing the building, including the doors, frames, windows and roof, to determine what is necessary to fully restore it, and the renovated motel will serve as a visitors center and a place for meetings and other activities, Woodfin said.

Gaston opened the motel on July 1, 1954, “to offer a place for African-Americans to stay, to eat and to be entertained,” he said.

The motel has been closed since the 1980s. However, “the motel is on the comeback to be restored to the look and feel that so many people remember it,” he said.

Dr. Martin Luther King and other leaders relied on the motel as an important meeting place during the key events of the Civil Rights Movement in Birmingham in 1963.

For more information about the July 1 commemorative program, go to birminghamal.gov/gaston.

Those who wish to share their memories or photos of the motel can send them to gastonstories@birminghamal.gov.