SARASOTA — For the past two decades, Kristin Kitchen has been restoring historic buildings and converting them into heritage accommodations that preserve and tell the African-American story.
But what she treasures most are the conversations that take place around the breakfast tables.
“These facilities are more than just places for guests to stay. They are gathering places for the community,” she said. “Our tag line at Six Acres (the B&B she opened in Cincinnati, Ohio) is: ‘Let’s share life over breakfast.’ We get a huge cross-section of people, and it’s all about sharing our commonalities. We let the breakfast table be a safe place for dialogue.”
And now Kitchen is watching the fate of the historic Colson Hotel in the former Overtown section of Sarasota. Developers want to tear it down, and the Sarasota City Commission is considering the proposal on Sept. 3.
“Communities are losing intangible assets when historic buildings are demolished and replaced with modern, high-density structures,” Kitchen said. “If we don’t save these structures, they can’t continue to tell their history and stories, and we lose our ability to connect people with their past.”