Selma ยท Water Avenue Historic District
The St. James Hotel
Selma's riverfront hotel, reopened in October 2026; the hotel identifies it as the one Benjamin Sterling Turner managed while enslaved.
- Built
- 1837Standing since 1837 per the hotel and Alabama Tourism, which gives the original name as The Brantley; Alabama Public Radio says first opened 1836. Not a hotel from the 1890s to 1997; restored and expanded since.
- Style
- Lacework balconies and Creole-influenced architecture, per the hotel
- Type
- Boutique hotel
- Rooms
- 55
- Area
- Water Avenue Historic District
- Credentials
- Inside a National Register historic district
The story
The hotel has stood on the Alabama River in Selma since 1837. Benjamin Sterling Turner, born into slavery and sold at 20 to W. H. Gee, managed Gee’s hotel and livery while enslaved; the hotel identifies this as the St. James and says he later bought it. After emancipation Turner became Alabama’s first Black member of Congress, serving from 1871 to 1873. Union troops burned much of Selma in 1865, and the hotel says Gen. James H. Wilson used the building as his headquarters. It stopped operating as a hotel in the 1890s, and it was in commercial and industrial use, not hotel use, when police attacked Black voting-rights marchers at the nearby Edmund Pettus Bridge in 1965.
The ghost story
Alabama Tourism says guests have reported paranormal and ghostly activity. The hotel's own legend tells of Lucinda, a longtime resident linked to Jesse James, whose presence is known by the scent of lavender.
Source: alabama.travel
Good to know
- Pets welcome
- Address: 1200 Water Avenue, Selma, AL 36703
Sources (5)
- https://stjameshotelselma.com/our-story/history
- https://npgallery.nps.gov/AssetDetail/NRIS/72000160
- https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Benjamin_S._Turner
- https://www.hotel-online.com/news/iconic-st-james-hotel-reopens-in-selma-alabama-following-renovation-and-expansion
- https://www.apr.org/news/2021-01-30/historic-st-james-hotel-reopens-in-selma
Last verified October 2026. Details change; confirm with the inn before you book.