We are so proud of the Greenville City Planning Commission who took the bold move to preserve the W.H. Smith Tourist Home. This two-story home is listed in the 1954 Negro Travelers’ Green Book — that guide served as a lifeline for Black Americans traveling through Jim Crow America. The Mrs. W.H. Smith Tourist Home located at 212 Asbury Street was Greenville’s version of that safe harbor.
Oral history tells us that guests here included Cab Calloway, Sarah Vaughan, Duke Ellington, and Ella Fitzgerald — artists who performed for Greenville audiences at Textile Hall, then returned to Asbury Street because there was nowhere else in this city they were permitted to sleep.
Our Historic Review Board has already acted, designating this a local landmark. All that remained yesterday was for the Planning Commission to allow the historic use to resume and continue into the future. And they did it!
Mrs. Smith opened her home so that people excluded from this city’s public life could move through it with dignity. That house is still there. Yesterday, our Greenville City Planning Commission made the bold decision to protect, preserve, and enable the activation one of the most significant cultural resources remaining in our community.
