AFRICATOWN Hall and Food Bank – “THIS must be Africatown”

The design of the building says it all, this IS Africatown. Not Chinatown, not Germantown, not Irishtown but Africatown. No direction signs are needed, no arrows pointing the way or no boy scouts giving out directions. The colors of the building represent the African Country of Benin, the point of no return, the place where 110 captured Africans were purchased and placed aboard the last known slave ship, The Clotilda, and transported via The Transatlantic Slave Trade Route to Mobile, Al. The design of this building might be the first of its kind constructed by a government entity in Mobile County. However, it should not be the last. A construction of this type is what tourists want to see. The Africatown Hall has 5 office spaces, a large meeting room that can be divided into 2 smaller meeting rooms, a kitchen, a large freezer to freeze food for the food bank and a large warehouse with shelving to store food. It also has a drive thru for those picking up food in their cars. Before the Africatown Hall opened, I would drive by on Sundays and notice visitors looking thru the glass doors. They would ask me if this was the Africatown Welcome Center. I would tell them no but to stay tuned, it should be opening soon. The designer of The Africatown Hall and Food Bank is Ms. Renee Rotan, owner of Studio/Rotan located in Birmingham, Alabama. She is also the person that orchestrated the very successful Africatown International Design Competition and raised the funds necessary to pay the winners of that contest.