Music Walk at McCollum Hall

Music Walk at McCollum Hal

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Date: November 15, 2024
Time: 6:00 pm – 10:00 pm
Location: McCollum Hall
2701 Dr Martin Luther King Jr Blvd – Fort Myers, FL 33916

Expand your Music Walk experience to include a trip to McCollum Hall!

Join us for Music Walk at McCollum Hall featuring the Night Market, where live music, history, shopping and delicious food collide. Discover the soul of Fort Myers and experience a night to remember.

The evening’s entertainment:

  • Brandon Robertson Quintet
  • FGCU Jazz Ensemble
  • Naples Philharmonic Youth Jazz Orchestra

Free to attend, free parking. Enjoy dinner with jazz from a food truck or pack your own basket. No alcoholic beverages permitted. Seating provided or bring your own chairs or blanket. Easy parking and event access is available for individuals with disabilities and seniors.

Join us for this free performance at McCollum Hall, celebrating Buck McCollum’s vision and advocacy for his neighbors – and the power of community.

Presented by the Fort Myers Community Redevelopment Agency. Powered by HAPCO Music Foundation. Made possible with partnerships from: Fort Myers Council Member Teresa Watkins Brown, Ward 1; City of Fort Myers; River District Alliance; Lee County Black History Society; FGCU Bower School of Music & the Arts; Thirty8 Collective; Art Walk; and Collaboratory.

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Event Details

Brandon Robertson, an Emmy®-nominated music director and accomplished upright/electric bassist, composer and educator, has led tours throughout the US and Europe. He is the John & Dorothy Guigon endowed director of jazz studies at Florida Gulf Coast University, where he was nominated for an Emmy Award for Best Documentary focusing on the FGCU Jazz Ensemble.

The FGCU Jazz Ensemble explores a diverse range of jazz styles under Robertson’s direction. It is one of the premier collegiate groups in the Florida Gulf Coast University’s Bower School of Music.

In the 2024-25 season, the Naples Philharmonic Youth Jazz Orchestra proudly marks its 10th anniversary, with nearly 25 students from Lee and Collier counties honing their jazz skills in a big band environment, also under Robertson’s direction.

Built in 1938 by Clifford “Buck” McCollum, Sr., a black businessman and entrepreneur, and his wife Gertrude, McCollum Hall was the centerpiece of commerce, music and entertainment in the Dunbar Community. A popular stop for touring black entertainers on the Chitlin’ Circuit of the 1930s-1950s, its second-floor dance hall jumped to life when musicians took to the stage, including Duke Ellington, Ella Fitzgerald, Louis Armstrong, Count Basie, B.B. King, Dizzy Gillespie, Otis Redding and other jazz and blues greats. It was named to the National Park Service’s National Register of Historic Places on April 18, 2022. It is a site on Florida’s Black Heritage Trail. It is a catalyst renovation project in promoting redevelopment in the Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. Blvd. redevelopment area.

The Fort Myers Community Redevelopment Agency is celebrating 40 years of work revitalizing Fort Myers communities. Since 1984, it has spearheaded programs and policies designed to reverse deterioration, create jobs, revitalize the business climate, increase property values, and encourage active participation and investment by citizens. For more information: https://fortmyerscra.com

This concert is the first in a series, presented by the FMCRA, powered by HAPCO. Future events will be on quarterly third Fridays from 6-10 pm: Feb 21, May 16 and Aug 15, 2025.

HAPCO’s educational programs help disadvantaged young people in Florida, Georgia and Texas build their better futures. They use their musical, culinary and artistic talents to fund their college education or to pursue professional careers. Its community advocacy series Echoes Thru Time: Icons of the Black American Experience celebrates the people who have championed initiatives that have nurtured the growth and success of generations of Black musicians and artists. For over a century, these advocates for equality and unity defied convention, building opportunity for others. They helped shape our culture and society, ensuring the Black American creative voice was heard.

For more information contact:
Fort Myers CRA
Email: fmcra@cityftmyers.com
Phone: 239-321-7100
Website: https://fortmyerscra.com


About McCollum Hall

The Dunbar Community’s Entertainment Hub

For decades, the sounds of jazz and blues music filled McCollum Hall. Built in 1938, it was the centerpiece of commerce, music and entertainment in the Dunbar Community. It was a popular stop on the Chitlin’ Circuit, a touring circuit that provided employment for hundreds of Black musicians in the segregation era.

Its second-floor dance hall jumped to life when musicians took to the stage, including Duke Ellington, Ella Fitzgerald, Louis Armstrong, Count Basie, B.B. King, Dizzy Gillespie, Otis Redding and other jazz and blues greats.

Packing the dance hall were Dunbar community residents, black professional baseball players visiting during spring training and white patrons who defied segregation laws to attend the shows. As the music filled the air and people started to dance, briefly, there was integration in Fort Myers when the rope separating the races mysteriously disappeared.

The first floor was home to thriving local businesses including, over the years, a shoe store, a men’s clothing store, a barbershop, a coffee shop, a grocery store and a liquor store. There was also a gas station.

McCollum Hall was built in 1938 by Clifford “Buck” McCollum, Sr., a black businessman and entrepreneur, and his wife Gertrude. McCollum came to Fort Myers when he was 30 years old, and ran gambling bolita games, akin to the lottery. He then used his winnings to invest in land, housing and commercial buildings on Florida’s east coast. He later financially backed men’s and women’s baseball teams.

McCollum was committed to improving the lives and livelihoods of the Dunbar community’s residents. By day, residents enjoyed the convenience of local shopping at McCollum Hall. At night, they enjoyed entertainment by top musical talents in the dance hall.

In its heyday, McCollum Hall also attracted boxing matches. During World War II, it served as the U.S.O. (United Service Organization) to black servicemen from the nearby Page and Buckingham Army Air Fields. Buckingham Gunnery School and Page Field. When it dwindled in popularity in the mid-1980s, the dance hall became a rooming house, and McCollum Hall eventually fell into disrepair.

In the Jim Crow era, Black Americas did not have access to hotels, hospitals, public restrooms, entertainment venues and many other facilities. Black travelers relied on word-of-mouth referrals for places to stay, often at private homes. From 1936-66, they relied on The Green Book, an annual publication which listed hotels, restaurants, gas stations, and other businesses that served African Americans. McCollum Hall was listed in The Green Book.

McCollum Hall was named to the National Park Service’s National Register of Historic Places on April 18, 2022. It is a site on Florida’s Black Heritage Trail.

It is a catalyst renovation project in promoting redevelopment in the Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. Blvd. redevelopment area, spearheaded by the Fort Myers Community Redevelopment Agency.

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