Baker’s Flamingo Bar & Grill
900 13th Street, Fort Pierce
Baker’s Flamingo Bar & Grill was the primary chitlin circuit venue (during the 1950s and 1960s, established by Levie Baker) in Lincoln Park. During its heyday, the property included a rooming house allowing bands not allowed in local white-owned hotels to stay overnight. Despite legalized segregation, performers such as James Brown and the Famous Flames and Billie Holiday still attracted integrated crowds.
Bradfordville Blues Club
7152 Moses Ln, Tallahassee
The Bradfordville Blues Club was located off a rural dirt road where occasionally after closing time, musicians playing in Tallahassee would then head to this one-room juke joint and keep the party going until sunrise.
A place where the likes of B.B. King, Chuck Berry, Bobby “Blue” Bland, Son Seals, Little Milton, Jimmy Rogers, Bobby Rush, and Sandra Hall.
Club Eaton
426 E. Kennedy Blvd., Eatonville
Popular among Chitlin Circuit musicians for having rooms upstairs where they could stay overnight, national acts associated with the club include Sam Cooke, Chuck Willis, Tina Turner, Etta James, Duke Ellington, Aretha Franklin, Cab Calloway, the Drifters and the Platters.
For several years, the club was owned by E.L. Bing, a family neighbor and principal of the all-black high school my parents attended in Plant City. Bing’s son Harry, eventually served as mayor of Eatonville. One of the nation’s first incorporated African-American towns, Eatonville is the newest Florida Main Street community. However, the historic venue closed its doors for good in 2008.
Deep Water City Lodge 751 (The Elks)
304 North Coyle Street, Pensacola
The Elks, a lounge in Belmont-DeVilliers, the historic center of Pensacola’s black community.
The Elks is a historic venue still in operation. Built in 1937, The Elks was one of the few places people of color could congregate in a social setting. Famed Chitlin Circuit musicians that have performed at The Elks include Dizzy Gillespie, Ella Fitzgerald, and Roy Brown.
Evans Rendezvous
5512 Gregg Street, American Beach
In 1948 William Evans built an oceanfront club providing entertainment, food, and liquor called Evans Rendezvous. During its heyday, it hosted famed musicians such as Louis Armstrong and Ray Charles.
In operation until 1980, the property was acquired by the Trust for Public Land with the intention for restoration as a cultural and community center.
Lyric Theatre
819 Northwest Second Avenue, Miami
The Lyric Theatre opened its doors in 1913. The 400-seat theater was once described as “possibly the most beautiful and costly playhouse owned by Colored people in all the Southland.”
Operating as a theater until 1959. Added to the U.S. National Register of Historic Places on January 4, 1989 and houses the Black Archives Historic Lyric Theater Cultural Arts Complex, and African-American research and welcome center.
Manhattan Casino
642 22nd St S, St. Petersburg
Nicknamed “The Home of Happy Feet,” the Manhattan Casino was the heart and soul of the Deuces (St. Petersburg historic 22nd Street Corridor). Developed by local black entrepreneur Elder Jordan, the Manhattan operated from 1925 until 1968. Both white and black music lovers went to the Manhattan to see the likes of Fats Waller, Count Basie, Lionel Hampton, Nat King Cole, Sarah Vaughn, Fats Domino, and the Ink Spots.
Recently restored by the City of St. Petersburg, the venue lives on as a mixed-use facility anchored by a jazz restaurant and special event space.
Ritz Theatre
829 North Davis Street, Jacksonville
Jacksonville emerged as Florida’s premier Chitlin’ Circuit destination during the formative years of vaudeville, ragtime, jazz, and blues. In September of 1929, Neil Witschen opened the Ritz Theater. Designed in the Art Deco style the 970-seat theatre quickly became LaVilla’s primary Chitlin Circuit performance venue.
After the Civil Rights Movement of the 1960s, the Ritz declined along with the community around it and closed. In 1999 the theatre was partially razed and rebuilt into a new theatre and black history museum.
Douglass Theatre
355 Martin Luther King Jr Blvd, Macon, Georgia
Charles Douglass opened the Douglass Theatre in 1921. Douglass sat on the board of T.O.B.A., and through the circuit, he brought Black performers to his Macon theater. In 1958, the Douglass Theatre began having live talent shows that helped launch the career of singer-songwriter Otis Redding. It also hosted Georgia music icons James Brown and Little Richard in the early 1960s.
The theater still hosts musical performances today.
Minnehaha Nickelodeon Theater / Ben’s Chili Bowl
1213 U St NW, Washington DC
Minnehaha Nickelodeon Theater opened in 1910. Three years later Sherman Dudley, who created the Dudley circuit, bought and managed the theater. In 1958, the building was converted into the popular D.C. restaurant Ben’s Chili Bowl, and it is one of the oldest continuously open businesses on U Street’s old Black Broadway.
The Lincoln Theatre
1215 U St. NW, Washington DC
The Lincoln Theatre is located next to Minnehaha Nickelodon. The Theatre opened in 1922. Duke Ellington, Billie Holiday and Lena Horne all performed at Lincoln Theatre, along with many other prominent African American musicians.
In 1983, the theatre closed, but it to reopened in 1994. Now the venue hosts contemporary artists and has taped specials with legendary artists such as Gladys Knight and Smokey Robinson.
Ballroom and Walker Theatre
617 Indiana Ave, Indianapolis
Entrepreneur Madam C.J. Walker originally built her Walker building in 1927 to be a manufacturing hub for her hair products. The building’s use expanded to much more: a beauty salon and school, a ballroom and a Walker theatre.
The entire building was added to the National Register of Historic Places in 1986. Today, the building preserves the legacy of Walker and the story Indiana Avenue. Information inside the building also aims to tell the story of Indiana Avenue, the historic district that was once full of Black-owned entertainment businesses.
Dreamland Ballroom,
800 W. 9th St., Little Rock, Arkansas
The story of Dreamland Ballroom is a three-story, red brick building called Taborian Hall. It was the most expensive construction project in Little Rock at the time. An African American organization called the Knights and Daughters of Tabor finished constructing the building in 1918.
The building served as a service hub for African American soldiers during both world wars, but afterward it turned into a regular stop on the chitlin’ circuit.
Jazz greats including Ella Fitzgerald, Duke Ellington and Count Basie all performed at Dreamland. Today, the theatre has been renovated into an event venue, but the owners offer tours of the theatre.
100 Men Hall
303 Union St., Bay St. Louis, Mississippi
The 100 Men Hall building was constructed in 1922 by a local African American civic group called the Hundred Members Debating Benevolent Association. The group originally organized to help community members, but their building quickly turned into a music venue for the chitlin’ circuit.
Blues legend BB King, rock ’n’ roll pioneer Fats Domino and singer Etta James all performed here. The small venue on Mississippi’s Gulf Coast was almost lost to Hurricane Katrina in 2005, but a family bought and restored the building the following year.
100 Men Hall celebrated its 100th anniversary in 2022 and still hosts musical acts to this day. The venue is listed on the Mississippi Blues Trail.
