Opened in 1925, the Lorraine Hotel was originally known as the Windsor Hotel, and then as the Marquette Hotel, before being purchased by Walter Bailey in 1942, subsequently being renamed the Lorraine Hotel by Walter for his wife, Loree Bailey, as well as the song “Sweet Lorraine.” The hotel catered to blacks traveling to Memphis, and hosted various notable black cultural figures and entertainers during its history. In 1964, owing to increased competition due to desegregation, the Bailey family expanded the hotel with a new wing to the south, which featured an exterior balcony, exterior staircases, motel-style rooms with exterior entrance doors and large windows, a Googie-style neon sign, and an outdoor pool. Upon the completion of the new wing, the establishment was rebranded as the Lorraine Motel.
On April 4, 1968 the Motel was the site of the assassination of Civil Rights leader Martin Luther King, Jr., while he was standing on the second-story balcony outside Room 306. King, who was in Memphis to organize a strike by sanitation workers seeking better working conditions, and had been staying at the motel during his visit to Memphis. Following his assassination, Room 306 became a shrine and museum dedicated to Martin Luther King, Jr., and a plaque dedicated by Coretta Scott King was placed outside the motel. The motel saw a decrease in business throughout the 1970s, leading to financial difficulties for the Bailey family. In 1982, the motel was purchased by the Martin Luther King Memphis Memorial Foundation from the Bailey family, and continued operating the museum as a Single Room Occupancy (SRO) apartment building until 1988.
In 1988, the motel was closed to the public, leading to the eviction of residents. One of the residents, Jacqueline Smith, protested the decision, and has camped out across from the museum since her eviction, seeking for the building to be converted into housing to benefit the local black community, rather than being turned into a museum primarily catering to tourists. Between 1989 and 1991, portions of the motel were demolished, and a Contemporary museum, designed by McKissack and McKissack, was constructed on the east side of the building, with portions of the historic hotel and motel being incorporated into the museum.
The oldest section of the building is an Arts and Crafts-style structure with a buff brick facade, with features one-over-one windows, shed blue terra cotta tile awnings, stone trim, a concrete base, and two neon signs mounted to the exterior. To the south is a Modern two-story motel wing, featuring large windows, blue-painted doors, decorative metal railings, metal exterior stairs, and cantilevered canopies over the second-story balconies, with several significant portions of this wing having been removed during the conversion of the site into a museum, and the construction of a pedestrian plaza to the west of the building, which replaced part of the parking lot, the pool, and a one-story annex building. The museum wing features a stucco-clad exterior, very few windows, and a sloped roof with a large skylight that accentuates the main entrance.
The building is a contributing structure in the South Main Street Historic District, listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1982, and expanded to its present size in 2013. The building was most recently renovated in 2012-2014, and today, remains in use as a civil rights museum, dedicated primarily to Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.
