Saint James Hotel Selma (Alabama)

Selma isn't really a destination town. After all if you want an old southern town with old architecture, haunted charm, ghost stories etc., it would be more wise to stop off in Savannah, Georgia or New Orleans, Louisiana, and have a more populous community with established areas for travelers i.e. restaurants, galleries, inns, shops etc.

However if you were stopping over, Selma has some charm left in her, like an old Madame with new lipstick. As in the old bones are preserved and have been somewhat restored but she's still worn and left behind in an abandoned town.

St. James Hotel is set right next to the Mississippi river, a great view if you are lucky to get a room overlooking it. There is plantation style furniture, and large overhead fans. There are also creaky pipes, occasional flickering of lights, both things that aid the continuation of "ghost sightings."

One night, when my friends and I were trying to sleep we heard knocking coming from our closet. Armed with umbrellas and rolled up magazines, we timidly approached the closet and swung the door. *Sigh of relief* an old pipe. Supposedly, the old Confederate outlaw Jesse James stayed there. We didn't appeal to him enough to warrant a visit however :D.

The interior of the hotel is really lovely antebellum style that slave labor built...with hardwood floors, elegant rugs, antiques and antique replicas. There are also lots of staircases that don't connect to each other. For ex. if you are on the 3rd floor, the staircase MIGHT access to the 2nd floor and then all the way to an EXIT outside on the 1st floor but NOT connecting to the 1st floor to the lobby or courtyard. Or some staircases on the third floor will only lead you to exit out the hotel on the 1st floor, not connecting to the other floors at all. It's a strange layout, probably to serve the original guests: men visiting the prostitutes, as St. James was a brothel at one point. Thus lots of discreet exits :). One of the staff members told us it was also to confuse the ghosts so they couldn't find their way around...

The best part, the saving grace of the hotel is the courtyard, which is lovely at night, with the light flickering off the water from the fountain. The second floor rooms all open and overlook the courtyard. Unfortunately, there wasn't any company to share the night with besides my friends. We just chatted with each other, with not so much as a peep surrounding us...dead silence. It didn't seem like there were ANY other guests while we were there, again emphasizing that abandoned, isolated feeling. The bar is cool, much like what you see in Old Western movies. It's saloon-style, however it was never really open or manned, as there were really no guests to speak of.

The town itself is small. Lots of boarded up, abandoned homes. Almost a ghost-town. This relates back to the period of around the 1960s in which a lot of businesses were abandoned and most people moved on to bigger cities.

Selma is def. a walking city. You can visit the Voting Rights Museum, and get a walking tour from Joanne Bland. Bland is a civil rights activist who pushed for desegregation in the 60s on Bloody Sunday on nearby Edmund Pettus Bridge, and got beaten for her efforts ;/ blah, racism.

You may also walk over the bridge to the park on the other side. There is an ancient-Greek style open air stone platform overlooking the river. The park, as all parks are, is leafy, green, quiet, isolated. Commune with nature or what have you...

St. James is a lovely hotel with historically accurate furnishing, old curled iron gates, great balconies. The surrounding town isn't much to speak of. No est. nightlife, few museums/galleries in the area, few restaurants, just a few barber shops, etc. The few locals who remain are very friendly however, lots of how are you's? and how y'all doing? They are as sweet as the sweet tea that's typically served in southern parts of America...warning: the water tastes odd in this area.

I think St. James would be awesome as a wedding locale, since most of the rooms seemed vacant, and it IS a very pretty spot, with reasonable rates, and/OR as a site for a murder mystery weekend. That might be fun to combine the two, no?

Warning: at night sometimes a sweet odor might waft through your room, it's not a question of the hotel's cleanliness. The smell is from a nearby wood processing plant, or something like that.

My first impression of the St. James Hotel was a phone conversation. I was on the line for a while before anyone picked up...long enough to wonder if I had the right number. Eventually I was connected with the receptionist who presented herself as...read entire review at TravelPost.com

I have only one dislike no micro-wave. I had a very comfortable stay I had a water front room, I could open the patio door and sit on the balcony and watch the boats go by, and the traffic from the Edmond Pettis bridge. Will stay there againread entire review at TravelPost.com

THE FOOD SERVICE IS GETTING BETTER...SERVICE SEEM A LITTLE SLOW AND THEN SEEM TO BE TO FAST,,,,NEEDS TO GET THEIR ACT TOGETHER.... ROOMS WERE CLEAN AND COMFORTABLE IF YOU STAY ON WATER FRONT......read entire review at TravelPost.com

Beautiful, historic, and very comfortable all describe this jewel of a hotel. It is in a central location to historic Selma and at the top of the list of great places to stay in the area.read entire review at TravelPost.com

The St. James, where I have stayed twice, is a wonderful, atmospheric old hotel in Selma's historic district. There are period antiques in the reception and common areas and many of the rooms open onto a veranda overlooking the Alabama River....read entire review at TravelPost.com

The St. James Hotel offers a comfortable room with a great river view. They have a restaurant and lounge on their premises that we ate breakfast at one morning and the food was good and the prices were reasonable. It is an old hotel though so expe...read entire review at TravelPost.com