Golden's
Known Name(s)
Golden's
Address
Golden-Thompson Road Colton, MD
Establishment Type(s)
Hotel
Physical Status
Extant
Detailed History
Owners Mary V. (1870-1945) and John E. Golden (1868-?), her husband, were residents of the District of Columbia, where during his lifetime, John was a driver and then a railroad porter. They purchased the sixteen-acre tract on the west side of St. Patrick’s Creek north of Colton’s Point St. Mary's County in 1913. During the first half of the twentieth century, it was fashionable for people to leave the cities during the summer months for times of respite and leisure. Although wealthier African Americans could afford to build waterfront cottages such as at Highland Beach near Annapolis, others chose to be paying “guests” of local homeowners. Those homeowners with rooms in countryside houses such as Colton, provided opportunities for middle class African Americans to board for a week or a month at rural locations. Services provided included meals and some recreational opportunities to boat, fish or swim. The Golden’s boarding endeavor became popular and in 1915, they constructed a two-story hotel on the property. In addition to the hotel, in 1923, the Goldens subdivided the surrounding land (approximately 10 acres) into lots which they sold for residential or commercial development. Ewell Conway purchased one such lot to construct the Shirley K Hotel. In addition to the advertised swimming, sailing, and fishing, guests could play sports games (baseball or football), and Golden’s was popular with professional groups for annual outings. Some would stay, but others would drive from Washington DC for the event.
Mary Golden died in 1945, and the property passed to the Goldens’ daughter, Josephine Golden Morton, who was a librarian at the Howard College Medical School Library. Harry “Coach” Graves took over the management of the hotel in 1946 and purchased it in 1956 with Mildred B. Graves.
Harry “Coach” Graves came to Washington, DC after spending nine years as the Head of Athletics at the Wilberforce College (now University) in Ohio from 1924 to 1933. He was a teacher at the Armstrong Manual High School on M Street N.W. as well as the school’s basketball coach. In 1946 he took over managing the Golden Hotel in Colton, a year after Mary V. Golden had passed away. By 1956, he and Mildred B. Graves purchased the Golden Hotel known as Lot 1 of Block A of the Golden Subdivision. The Graves attempted a campaign to advertise the hotel and cabins by having D.C. photographer Robert McNeill take photos for postcards in 1953, they did not list in the Green Book after 1949. The Hotel was renamed the Graves Hotel and Graves did advertise in the Afro American newspaper in the 1960s. One issue that guests experienced was the discrimination from the local white community. While they could sail in St. Patrick’s Creek, they were told they could not visit the town’s post office. African Americans seemed to have distinguished the towns where they experienced discrimination by calling the town a single word such as "Colton" not "Colton's Point" or "Marlborough," not "Upper Marlborough."
