The Muldrow

The Muldrow Hotel was located on the 1000 block Martin Luther King Blvd, Jr., formerly known as Old Middleburg Avenue. The Muldrow was opened in 1947 by Sarah Catherine Muldrow and her husband Joseph Muldrow.  At the time it was opened, it was the only commercial location for black American travelers to stay in the area.  

The hotel was known to provide housing for builders, military families and retired military associated with Lee Field, at 1400-acre air auxiliary complex as well for the employees of the first black high school in Clay County, Dunbar High School. 

During segregation, Green Cove Springs’ Middleburg Avenue was a center of commerce, art, and culture. Dubbed the “Black Wall Street,” its shops, hotels and cafes were frequented by some of the most consummate authors and artists of the Harlem Renaissance, according to local historian, the late Eugene Francis. 

The Muldrow was rumored to have been visited by the likes of African American luminaries such as Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., Mary McLeod Bethune, and Zora Neale Hurston. For decades, the Muldrow Hotel served the educational and religious endeavors of the African Methodist-Episcopal Church. It was reputed that Sunday dinners at the hotel were a popular and significant event, that attracted many local ministers and high-profile leaders from Jacksonville.   When Mrs. Muldrow's husband passed away in 1963, she continued to work at her church, Mt Zion AME Church, and at the hotel. Mrs. Muldrow is the namesake of The Sarah Catherine Muldrow Women's Missionary Society, a department of the Mt. Zion AME Church located in Green Cove Springs. 

Due to disrepair, the building was condemned and demolished in 2010.