GAINESVILLE, Fla. (WCJB) -It’s the last weekend of black history month, and TV20 is highlighting a historic restaurant in Gainesville, The Dunbar, a once historically black hotel opened in 1936 by Jack and Sophriana Dunbar, that’s now reopened as an immersive restaurant in one of Gainesville’s oldest historically black neighborhoods.
After desegregation, the Dunbar Hotel began to lose clientele, and it eventually closed.
In 1995, the city of Gainesville bought and restored it and turned it into a pleasant place, a home for teenage mothers. Pleasant Place operated from 1999-2013…