Melvin Clifton Hutt (1921 -1986): Veteran and Entrepreneur

Article by Andre Nieto Jaime

Donzelle and Melvin Hutt in an issue of The Baltimore Afro-American
The Baltimore Afro-American
1957

​Salisbury’s Mainlake Building, first built in 1930, has housed several businesses over the 94 years it has been standing at the corner of West Main and Lake streets. This building sat at the heart of what was once a bustling Black business district containing theaters, clubs, restaurants, service stations, and more. While there was some crossing of the color line, this was for the most part, a Black entertainment district. Nearly 70 years ago, the Franklin Hotel was part of that thriving community. Originally opened in 1955 by Melvin Clifton Hutt, a born and raised Salisbury local, the Franklin Hotel contributed to this robust district in Wester Salisbury and represented a step towards integration by opening with the intention of serving all people regardless of color in an era where segregation was the norm. 

Mainlake Building
University of Virginia

Mainlake Building in the 1980s
Office of Publication Photographs SUA-031
c. 1982-1983

Melvin C. Hutt (1921 – 1986) was the eldest son of Harrison and Ella Hutt.  Melvin Hutt, judging from census records and newspapers, spent most of his life in Salisbury, living within the city in both the 1930 census as well as the 1950 census.  However, he appears to be absent from the 1940 census along with his father. However, his mother and his siblings are recorded in the 1940 census in Fruitland living with Ella Hutt’s 60-year-old parents Ross and Ida Harmon.  Melvin’s draft registration and military records provide some insight into his young adult life. Hutt registered for the military draft in February of 1942 and his registration lists him as living on Route 4 in Salisbury, the same address he lists for Ella Hutt. The same document also reveals that he is working for Maurice Sadick, a Polish immigrant who owned and operated Eastern Shore News in Salisbury.  A month later, Hutt’s name was drawn in a draft lottery.  His enlistment record confirms that he was a newsboy and shows his education level as “grammar school” and that his service was to last the duration of the war, plus six months afterward. 

Melvin Clifton Hutt's Military Draft Card
FamilySearch
​1942

When Melvin Hutt returned from his service, he married Addie Donzelle Fant (1921 – 1970) from South Carolina in 1946.  At the time of his marriage, Hutt had been living on 510 East Church Street, but a few years later in 1951, Hutt purchased a home on 219 East Church Street for $8,000.  Addie, usually referred to as Donzelle, came to live in Salisbury with Hutt and became a teacher in Somerset and then Wicomico County.  Having a background in education after attending Temple University and Bowie State Teachers College, she began a teaching career in Wicomico County.  Donzelle spent a considerable amount of time tending to special education needs in the county and helped special education children secure job training for full-time employment after graduation. After teaching for twelve years, Donzelle was assigned to be the assistant supervisor of special education at the State Board of Education. 

A year after Hutt’s marriage to Donzelle, he opened the Veterans Service Station alongside David G. Jones on Lake and Gordon Street. Hutt and Jones extensively advertised their service station in newspapers such as The Salisbury Times and while some troubles did arise, such as a break in in 1952, the station seemed to be a successful business in the district.  At some point, Hutt appears to have stated his own service station, as noted by an advertisement for a Texaco Station operated by Hutt on Main and Fitzwater Street in 1954.  Hutt’s Texaco likewise appeared in several newspaper ads, including one in 1960 promoting the free Texaco Fire Chief Hats for children.  Hutt’s service station was involved with the surrounding community and participated in a series of talks on community helpers with Salisbury Elementary School in 1958.
 
Besides his service station, Melvin Hutt is also remembered for opening the Franklin Hotel, an important step towards integration in Salisbury. The hotel, named after Donzelle’s father Benjamin Franklin Fant, was opened on June 12th, 1955 in the Mainlake Building when the Black business and entertainment district was reaching its climax.  Boasting 23 rooms equipped with modern amenities such as air conditioning, TVs, radios, telephones, tiled floors, carpeted halls, and 24 hour service, Hutt took great pride in the Franklin Hotel and saw it as a symbol of integration, stating that “we worked together, lived together, played together, men who were black, brown, yellow, and white, and we soon found there need be no trouble if you make up your mind about it.”  While it is often referred to as a “hotel for negroes” or a hotel catering specifically towards Black patrons, Hutt makes it apparent that it was a hotel for everyone.

Others also looked towards the Franklin Hotel with hopeful eyes. A 1957 article from The Baltimore Afro-American by Elizabeth Oliver begins by recalling the lynching of Matthew Williams in the courthouse lawn only 26 years earlier, but then transitions to the present, stating that “Today, it’s a different story” where there is now peace and intermingling between races in Salisbury.  Oliver uses the Franklin Hotel as proof that times have changed and suggests that the opening of this hotel is a stride towards integrating society.  Additionally, the Franklin Hotel appeared in the The Negro Travelers' Green Book, a guidebook listing locations nationwide that served African Americans, from 1956 to 1964 as a safe place for Black travelers to seek lodging. 

Franklin Hotel Listed in the 1956 Green Book
The New York Public Library Digital Collections
​1956

​Hutt continued to operate the Franklin Hotel through the late 1950s and early 1960s, with some incidents like a small fire in the boiler room, a federal narcotics investigation, rowdy patrons, and declining business in the district posing challenges.  Despite these hiccups, Hutt continued to operate the hotel, even opening the Franklin Hotel Beverage Store selling an assortment of alcohol in 1966.  That same year, Hutt married Florine Victoria Hall at the Mt. Zion Methodist Church in Laurel, Maryland, seemingly having parted ways with Donzelle.  A few years later, Melvin Hutt began operating the Miami Hotel in North Salisbury. In 1969, a notice in The Daily Times informed readers of Hutt’s application for a permit to operate the Miami Motel on 1804 North Salisbury Boulevard.  This move was likely prompted by the decline of the business district owing to several factors, one of which was the construction and opening of the Salisbury Mall in October of 1968 and police harassment of residents.  Hutt operated the Miami Motel until he passed from an apparent heart attack on Christmas day, 1986 while at Peninsula General Hospital.  

Miami Motel - Salisbury, Maryland
The Cardboard America Motel Archive

Salisbury MD Miami Motel Antiques Shop US Maryland Vintage Postcard

Melvin C. Hutt Funeral Service
The Daily Times
December 28, 1986

​While Melvin Hutt is remembered for his business endeavors such as his Texaco station and the Miami Motel, the Franklin Hotel was his most influential. It was one of the few locations, if not only locations, that provided boarding to Salisbury visitors without regard to race prior to the passage of the Civil Rights Act of 1964. The hotel was so memorable that the City of Salisbury made efforts to preserve the building as the last vestige of a once flourishing Black business district. When Hutt moved on to his next venture, the Miami Motel, Larmar Corp. sold the building to Earl Church in 1972. After Church’s death in 1985 the city bought the property from Church’s widow, Gladys, to have greater control over redevelopment of the area before deciding to sell the property. However, before putting the Mainlake Building back on the market, Salisbury imposed restrictions to preserve the building for generations to come.  A building once constructed to house white only businesses was turned into a space open to all people regardless of their color by Melvin Clifton Hutt.  It is this dream that this building has been remembered by.

                                                                                         References:
Primary Sources:
“Director.” The Salisbury Times, June 10, 1954.
“Florine Victoria Hutt, Melvin C. Hutt Are Wed.” The Daily Times, August 24, 1966.
“Guns Stolen in Bureau’s Store: Loss Estimated at $300 by Manager.” The Salisbury Times, March 28th 1952.
“Hotel Franklin Opens In Md. on Mixed Basis.” The Pittsburgh Courier / The Baltimore Afro-American, 1955.
“Jury Awards $20,000 for Road Property.” The Salisbury Times, January 21, 1959.
“Narcotics.” The Salisbury Times, October 1, 1960.
“New! Just Open Franklin Hotel Beverage Store.” The Daily Times, July 14, 1966.
“Notice.” The Daily Times, June 1st, 1969.
“Make the Youngsters Happy with the New Texaco Fire-Chief Hat.” The Salisbury Times, August 5th 1960.
"Maryland, World War II Draft Registration Cards, 1940-1945", , FamilySearch (https://www.familysearch.org/ark:/61903/1:1:Q29H-JXNP : Thu Mar 07 14:28:34 UTC 2024), Entry for Melvin Clifton Hutt and Ella Hutt, 1942.
"Melvin C. Hutt." The Daily Times, December 28, 1986. 
Oliver, Elizabeth. “There’s A Small Hotel.” Afro-American, August 10, 1957.
Pirnazar, Zhila. “Donzelle & Melvin Hutt.” Archive for Racial & Cultural Healing Exhibit. Charles H. Chipman Cultural Center. June 18, 2023. https://www.chipmancenter.org/residents/donzelle-and-melvin-hutt
“Policemen Help Put Out Fire Here.” The Salisbury Times, March 1, 1957.
“$75,000 Hotel for Negroes to Open Here.” The Salisbury Times, June 11, 1955.
“School Group Hears Service Station Man.” The Salisbury Times, March 31, 1958.
“Teacher Here Given State School Post.” The Daily Times, July 14, 1967.
“These Advertisers Wish You & Yours A Very Merry Christmas.” The Salisbury Times, December 24th, 1954.
"United States Census, 1930", , FamilySearch (https://www.familysearch.org/ark:/61903/1:1:X3H3-XP2 : Sat Mar 09 09:07:41 UTC 2024), Entry for Harrison Hutt and Ella Hutt, 1930.
"United States Census, 1940", , FamilySearch (https://www.familysearch.org/ark:/61903/1:1:K7FY-32K : Sat Mar 09 00:46:50 UTC 2024), Entry for Ross Harmon and Ida Harmon, 1940.
"United States Census, 1950", , FamilySearch (https://www.familysearch.org/ark:/61903/1:1:6F96-ZHLQ : Tue Oct 03 09:34:19 UTC 2023), Entry for Melvin C Hutt and Donzelle F Hutt, 19 April 1950.
"United States World War II Army Enlistment Records, 1938-1946," database, FamilySearch (https://familysearch.org/ark:/61903/1:1:K8TM-JZ5 : 5 December 2014), Melvin C Hutt, enlisted 20 Jun 1942, Baltimore, Maryland, United States; citing "Electronic Army Serial Number Merged File, ca. 1938-1946," database, The National Archives: Access to Archival Databases (AAD) (http://aad.archives.gov : National Archives and Records Administration, 2002); NARA NAID 1263923, National Archives at College Park, Maryland.
"Washington, Naturalization Records, 1850-1994", , FamilySearch (https://www.familysearch.org/ark:/61903/1:1:QGPL-Q8LK : Mon Apr 29 18:56:33 UTC 2024), Entry for Moisha Or Maurice Sadick and Cecile, 1935.
“Wicomico Names Drawn in Draft Lottery.” The Salisbury Times, March 19, 1942.
“Youth Arrested on Disorderly Charge.” The Daily Times, September 8, 1967.

Secondary:
“Franklin Hotel,” The Architecture of The Negro Travelers' Green Book, University of Virginia, accessed June 3, 2024. https://community.village.virginia.edu/greenbooks/content/franklin-hotel
Ian Post on behalf of Edward H. Nabb Research Center for Delmarva History and Culture. "The Entertainment District." Clio: Your Guide to History. January 24, 2022. Accessed June 10, 2024. https://theclio.com/entry/142091