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By Carey Reeder | Managing Editor

Homegirl Industry is seeking the help of the Chilton County community to acquire photos of the historic Hotel Wilson in Clanton to aid in the nonprofit’s historic rehabilitation of the building.

Executive Director of Homegirl Industry Sallie Higgins, a longtime Clanton resident while spending time in California as well, founded the nonprofit organization in 2021. It supports girls and young women who are aging out of foster care, providing housing, education and employment to help them during their transition out of the program.

The same year, Higgins acquired the Hotel Wilson building with the goal of renovating it to become a facility to house the young women that Homegirl Industry helps. Additionally, Higgins and the group renovating the building want to preserve its historic value, and are doing their renovations to keep the building as close to original as possible.

“At one point, it was a vibrant place, and we want to bring it back and make it that way again,” Higgins said.

The Wilson family had a hotel that burned down in the early 1900s, and the family rebuilt another hotel at the same location which has withstood the test of time and still stands in Clanton today. The building was a hotel up until the 1970s, and it changed periodically as different proprietors came in. By the late 1970s, it became more of a long-time boarding facility called Hotel Willingham.

The building has been on the Alabama Register of Landmarks & Heritage since 2008 as Hotel Wilson. The Alabama Historic Commission visited the building last August to assess it to see if it qualifies to be placed on the National Register of Historic Places.

“We are very close in keeping with what the original hotel was,” Higgins said. “They went through the hotel and said it has so many of the original features that it is eligible for the National Register. Now we have to renovate it, and we cannot screw it up while doing that.”

The plan for the rehabilitation of the building is to put housing on the top two floors of the building to house the young women the nonprofit assists. The bottom floor will have an economic development aspect, a restaurant, keeping the original layout of the hotel like it was in the 1900s. Higgins has worked with contractors who recommended tearing things down and replacing them, but in order to stay eligible for the National Register, everything must be original, or as close to original as possible.

“The whole point of the rehabilitation is to serve a whole new purpose, and it will never be a hotel again, but it is going to have similar things going on so that we do not have to change it that much,” Higgins said. “Any changes we make will be in accordance with the Secretary of the Interior’s Standards for Rehabilitation, so that we have all of the compliances of keeping the originality, feel and flavor of the entire 1915 era, but it will be modernized to meet all of the codes and standards necessary.”

Photos of the building from the community will help the nonprofit in their historic rehabilitation in keeping the building as original as possible both inside and outside. Higgins learned about many different events that were held at the building over the years, and the photos will help the group immensely keep the traditional look of the building.

“So much stuff took place there, and I am sure there are some photos out there, maybe in someone’s photo album,” Higgins said. “Maybe a wedding took place there, I know people have told us they had parties there after graduating high school … Any event, we want to see.”

Anyone with photos of Hotel Wilson can submit them to directly to the nonprofit at info@homegirlindustry.org. If someone has photos they cannot submit by email, they can be brought to The Clanton Advertiser officer to be scanned, sent to Homegirl Industry and returned to the owner.