VoleerThomas MultimediaJournalist
The Cotton Club Museum and Cultural Center
Hundreds of people attended the ribbon-cutting ceremony of a historic building in Gainesville.
The Cotton Club building will now be a museum and cultural center to preserve African-American history focusing on North Central Florida and the Springhill neighborhood in East Gainesville.
The building hosted performers in the 1950s such as James Brown, B.B. King, and Bo Diddley.
Daughters of B.B. King and Bo Diddley, Patty King and Evelyn “Tan” Cooper, were in attendance as well as county and city commissioners.
The board of directors for the Cotton Club has been working on restoring the building since 2003.
The name of the building was derived from the Cotton Club in Harlem after musician Sarah McKnight purchased the building.
They are planning to host a grand opening of the museum and cultural center in January or February 2019.