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Rosedale Beach Hotel & Resort: Preserving the Legacy

Delaware State Parks’ Cultural Resources Unit worked to track down and record oral histories related to the Rosedale Beach Hotel & Resort with the intention to preserve the legacy of this historic venue and retreat for Black Americans, Indigenous Americans, Moors and other peoples of color during the period of segregation. Rosedale Beach Hotel & Resort: Preserving the Legacy shares first-hand accounts and interviews with scholars on the location to ensure that Rosedale’s story continues to be told as a place of importance in our community – and the greater nation. View the documentary now, and share with family or friends to carry on the legacy of the Rosedale Beach Hotel & Resort.

Once the premier travel and entertainment destination, the Rosedale Beach Hotel & Resort in Millsboro hosted jazz and blues legends such as Ray Charles, Aretha Franklin, Ella Fitzgerald, James Brown and Thomas “Fats” Waller. Boasting a hotel, resort, boardwalk, beach picnic area and campground, Rosedale operated from the early 1900s to the 1970s. In the pre-integration era, there were very few locations along the east coast where Black Americans, Indigenous Americans, Moors and other people of color could go for entertainment or hotel accommodations. Because of this, people would travel far and wide to Rosedale for the opportunity to rest, recreate and enjoy time and occupy space safely. Once Delaware integrated its beaches, hotels and other recreation spaces, visitation and use of the hotel began to decline until it’s sale to Gull Point, Inc. in 1983.

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