There was no shortage of emotion at the Quality Life Center in Fort Myers on Sept. 30, as the Fort Myers Community Redevelopment Agency hosted one of its input sessions to hear from nearly 40 community members, harkening back to special times they and their relatives experienced in historic McCollum Hall.
For decades, McCollum Hall was owned by the McCollum family and served as a vibrant community hub where residents of the segregated Dunbar area of Fort Myers could congregate, feel safe, and let loose. Its legacy and historical significance are notably identified by its music hall, one stop on the “Chitlin’ Circuit” that hosted many renowned performers such as Louis Armstrong, Ella Fitzgerald, Duke Ellington, Count Basie, and B.B. King. As time progressed, however, community members say interest and popularity faded while the building itself deteriorated, ultimately left on the community’s back burner—until now.
“It’s what…2025, and we still haven’t gotten it done?” Bryttoni McCarter, a chef and yoga instructor who has lived in Dunbar her entire life, said. “I feel like, honestly, it’s a slap in the face.”
After nine years and three developers failed to draw plans for the site, the city’s Community Redevelopment Agency decided to take the lead on the McCollum Hall historic preservation and redevelopment project in early August. Since then, the agency has worked to engage the community, aiming to hear what people want for the building’s future and to deliver on those desires once and for all, precisely what the Sept. 30 meeting tried to accomplish.
“The whole point of this is to give the community what it wants,” Michele Hylton-Terry, the executive director of the agency for the past seven years, said. “We want to hear from the public because this is for them. The only way it is going to be successful is if they support it and they will support it if they build it.”