Restoring the Casa Blanca hotel
THE CASA BLANCA HOTEL in IDLEWILD MICHIGAN "Black Eden"
The Historic Casa Blanca Hotel was known for hosting African American celebrities, politicians and scholars in its heyday.
Casa Blanca hotel one of America’s
Discover America's 11 Most Endangered Historic Places for 2025
Hotel Casa Blanca played a significant cultural role in the historic Black resort community of Idlewild, Michigan. Designed and built by Black architect Woolsey Coombs in 1949, Hotel Casa Blanca served as a premier lodging site for African American travelers, entertainers, entrepreneurs and thought leaders during segregation, and was included in The Negro Motorist Green Book. Known as “Black Eden,” by the 1950s Idlewild drew thousands of annual visitors, and Hotel Casa Blanca hosted performances by legendary African American artists like Louis Armstrong, Count Basie, and Aretha Franklin.
After integration, like many formerly segregated Black resorts, Idlewild experienced lower visitation and economic disinvestment. Today, the historic resort community has a population of around 700 residents, and Hotel Casa Blanca has been vacant and deteriorating for over 30 years.
With hopes of saving the building, the previous owner of Hotel Casa Blanca sold it to 1st Neighbor LLC, a Black woman-led nonprofit. 1st Neighbor plans to rehabilitate the hotel into a bed-and-breakfast including overnight suites, meeting spaces, and a heritage and learning center, and has taken crucial steps towards restoration, including removal of hazardous material and developing architectural plans for reuse. Grants from the African American Cultural Heritage Action Fund of the National Trust and others have provided seed funding, but an additional $5 million is needed to complete rehabilitation so that the Hotel Casa Blanca can serve its community by providing much needed lodging, event space, and economic opportunities.
Help restore historic Casa blanca hotel
Your support and contributions will enable us to meet our goals and restore the hotel. Your generous donations will assist with funding our mission. 1st Neighbor is a 501c3 nonprofit organization.
Have questions or ideas to help support this effort?
Contact 1st Neighbor at contact@1stneighbor.org
