Description

The Hotel Brame held many fond memories for residents of Floyd and elsewhere, not only for lodging and dining, but also as a gathering place for dances and other social functions. Constructed in 1904 by Samuel R. Brame, the building was being used as a grand hotel by 1912. The hotel was purchased and managed by Susan Harris Hall from 1916 to 1929.

The hotel was located where Hylton Real Estate now stands, on the southwest corner of the intersection of Routes 8 and 221. An advertisement in The Floyd Press offered rooms for $2.00 with hot and cold running water, private baths, gas lights, and hot-water radiators. For $0.50 more, a guest’s horse would be stabled, watered, and fed out back.

Besides the hotel and restaurant on the main floors, the lower level of the building housed Namon Brammer’s butcher shop and the People’s Bank. The Floyd Telephone Company and switchboard, established in 1903, also occupied part of the Brame building, and Mr. Brame served as manager. Some of the other businesses in the building, at one time or another, were a jewelry shop run by Marvin Owens, a bookstore run by W. A. Compton, and a pool parlor run by W. H. Blackwell. At one point, Luke Cox operated a ladies’ and men’s clothing store on the main floor and sold furniture out of the basement. The last basement occupant, Waitman Slaughter, ran a grocery store and hotdog stand—the forerunner of today’s Slaughter’s Supermarket. The Brame building was razed in 1965.

This photograph is from the Harris/Akers Collection of the Floyd County Historical Society, Inc. image archives.