Shaking up Shake Rag: The Southern Queen Hotel under restoration

BOWLING GREEN, Ky. – The Shake Rag district, a historic black community in Bowling Green, is undergoing some changes.

The city of Bowling Green has recently acquired the Southern Queen Hotel as well as some surrounding properties and are currently exploring options for the building. They’ve been cleaning out the hotel turned house previously owned by the Moses family, as well as stabilizing the house to prevent more structural failure.

In that process, Bowling Green’s Downtown Development Coordinator told News 40 that they’ve uncovered all kinds of history and memories of Shake Rag.

Coordinator Telia Butler said while most of the place was in bad shape, they will be auctioning off some items from inside and soon down the line, the city will be giving away the property to who they deem to have appropriate plans for the property.

Butler said there’s been talk about converting it to affordable housing but some rumors are circulating that there might be someone out there wanting to revamp the hotel to reclaim hotel status once more.