Royal Peacock Lounge

The Royal Peacock Lounge is a small, two-story brick building on Auburn Avenue that has operated as a music venue since the late nineteen thirties. Originally opened as the Top Hat Club, the site was rebranded in nineteen forty-nine by Carrie Cunningham, a former circus performer who purchased the property and introduced an Egyptian Revival aesthetic. It became a premier stop on the Chitlin Circuit, a string of venues where Black artists could safely tour and perform across the segregated South.