FLORENCE, S.C. — A historical marker on a Florence street corner is keeping alive the story of Richmond Rest, a tourist home that gave Black travelers and railroad workers a place to stay during segregation.
The marker stands where Griffin and East Cheves streets meet. Former railroad workers pressed for years to get it installed, and two of them, Bryant Moses and Elder James Williams, said it honors people whose work long went unrecognized.
Lillie Richmond opened the home by 1948, and it appeared in the Green Book travel guide. Many of its regular guests were overnight crews from the Atlantic Coast Line rail yard close by.
Black railroad unions also met there. A railway employees union lodge got its start in 1950 at Ace’s Grill, another Green Book stop.
Richmond Rest moved to her home on East Evans Street around 1958 and likely closed in the early 1960s.
