Downtown landmark holds many memories
On Thursday, February 10, 1927, Cleveland’s local newspaper, The Bolivar Commercial, reported the following: “For the benefit and entertainment of the large number of out-of-town guests, the Adath Israel Congregation gave a dedication dinner at six o’clock Sunday evening at the Hotel Grover at which the spacious dining room was at capacity.”
Admission was by card only and the musical numbers included local trios with piano accompaniment and violin solos by the talented violinist, Catholic priest, Father E. V. Rotondo. Rabbi Rabinowitz served as toastmaster. And so it was that the Hotel Grover began in impressive fashion.
Cleveland’s newest hotel had opened to the public scarcely a month prior and already had become the location of choice for both grand and important affairs as well as smaller luncheons and meetings. Business conventions and Boy Scout Courts of Honor booked the space at the Grover. Although other hotels and boarding houses had preceded the Grover, no less than The Clarion Ledger newspaper out of Jackson stated that Cleveland had long needed more adequate accommodations that matched the growth of the town and the increasing traveling public.
Mr. Carl Merck and son-in-law, Mr. R. J. Alston, built the five-story building with sixty bedrooms, forty of which had a private bath and toilet and all had telephones. Equipped with both freight and guest elevators, smiling bellhops, and electric lighting, the Grover also boasted of having steam heat and modern refrigeration. Constructed at a cost of $125,000, the Grover was billed as the “Delta’s first skyscraper.” The luxuries at The Grover included a dining hall, coffee shop, a tailor, and soon, a barber shop. From the top floor to the lobby, the Grover was a busy place.
It is interesting to consider the activities at the Grover set against the backdrop of the historical events that were unfolding on a much larger scale. In April of 1927, the levee broke in the southwest corner of Bolivar County near Scott, allowing the mighty Mississippi to have its way, inundating thousands of acres, creating thousands of refugees, and taking hundreds of lives. Cleveland was spared the floodwaters but did serve to house hundreds of flood refugees. In May of 1927, a few weeks after the levee break, the Woman’s Club of Cleveland held its gala and most important social event of the year in the banquet hall of the Grover. Shortly after, the engineering corps of the State Highway Department, the Department of Bridges, and Chief building engineers of the Yazoo and Mississippi Valley Railroad established headquarters at the hotel, taking up every room, as they planned the repairs to all roads and rails affected by the great flood.
The Grover was filled to capacity again when on October 19, 1929, at least 200 members of the American Bar Association arrived in Cleveland on the Y & MV. The group toured the area noting construction and improvements after the 1927 flood. They also conducted a study of the State Penitentiary at Parchman for use in creating future laws regarding the penal system. The large group of men were served a banquet there by the Superintendent. A few days later the stock market would crash, sending the United States into a downward financial spiral and signaling the beginning of the Great Depression.
In 1931, the Interstate Commerce Commission met at the Grover to hear the petition of the Y & MV Railroad who wished to abandon the railroad between Boyle and Dockery, known locally as part of the Peavine. The section had ceased to be profitable, and the railroad company wanted out from under the losses. Within ten years, the entire Peavine line that meandered all the way to Rosedale, would be conscripted by the United States Government, its materials used to create armaments for World War II.
In 1933, The Grover welcomed the Ice Manufacturers of the Delta region. The Ice Manufacturers Association described themselves as one of the most important and major industries in the state. As part of their discussion, which included ways to sell more ice and better refrigerators, the group voted to petition the Governor of Mississippi to allow the legal sale of beer, stating it was “the will of the people.” Included in their petition was the obvious link that wherever beer was sold, ice was a necessity. Mississippi did not repeal its’ Prohibition laws until 1966, the last in the nation to do so.
Over the years, The Grover changed owners and operators and even changed names. Greenville’s newspaper, The Delta Democrat-Times, reported that the Grover was to undergo needed renovations and be renamed the Hotel Shirley. Evidently the changeover was very brief, and the hotel changed hands again. For some time around the 1970’s, the Grover was the Downtown Hotel. The building was falling into disrepair and attempts at remodeling it did not do a great deal to improve the situation. The building stood vacant for several years when in 1986, Skene resident, D. A. “Doc” Brown, purchased the building from local resident, Paul Braswell. Described by the Clarksdale Press Register as a man with “a little time on his hands and good will in his heart,” Brown began work on the building in hopes of turning it into condominiums for senior citizens. That plan never came to completion and the building remained vacant, often vandalized and frequented by transients.
Around 2003, the building was purchased by local developer, Raymond Huerta, and in the following years it began to undergo major repairs and renovations. Ultimately, the Grover Hotel became private condominiums and remains so today. With guidance from the City of Cleveland’s Heritage Commission, Huerta restored the building to much of its original beauty and today it contributes to the beauty of Cleveland’s downtown and to the City’s Historic District.