Latimore Tourist Home

Latimore Tourist Home

Photograph by Ralph S. Wilcox, courtesy of Arkansas Historic Preservation Office

Quick Facts

Location:

318 South Houston Avenue Russellville, Arkansas

Significance:

Ethnic Heritage/Black

Designation:

Listed in the National Register – Reference number 11001049

OPEN TO PUBLIC:

No

MANAGED BY:

Friends of the Latimore Tourist Home

Listed in the National Register of Historic Places in 2012, the Latimore Tourist Home inn Russellville, Arkansas, operated from the 1940s until the 1970s, providing overnight accommodations to African American travelers passing through the Russellville area. While the date of construction for the home is unknown, it is estimated to have been built around the turn of the 20th century. The tourist home was run by Eugene Latimore and his wife Cora Wilson Latimore. The Latimore house catered to people looking for a place to stay short-term rather than long-term, specifically, to railroad workers in the area and travelers who were passing through. It was the only overnight accommodations in Russellville that catered to African Americans, and the only one that was listed in the 1949 Green Book. The house stayed in business until the 1970s, even after the Civil Rights Act was passed and legal segregation was abolished. Today, the Latimore Tourist Home is vacant, but it is still a vivid reminder of the era of segregation that affected Arkansas travelers in the late nineteenth and twentieth centuries. From Arkansas's largest cities to its smallest towns, facilities specifically for African American travelers were the norm, and the Latimore Tourist Home is an outstanding example of the types of accommodations that were prevalent in the Green Books. There are plans to move the building from this location to nearby James Park.

Link to Latimore Tourist Home File