American Beach

Renovations are proposed for the Evans Rendezvous Club, an abandoned jazz club in American Beach. Click here to view the designs presented by The Trust for Public Land last week, which include a 1,900-square-foot museum, a multi-purpose room and an oceanside open pavilion.

By MATT COLEMAN,
The Times-Union

AMERICAN BEACH - The walls of the Evans Rendezvous Club pulsed with live performances from Ray Charles, Cab Calloway and Duke Ellington in its heyday in the 1940s and 1950s.

About that same time, a lively business owner named Martha Hippard was throwing house parties and dances - and some say high-stakes card games - at her secluded home a few miles away.

But when segregation was abolished, development in the predominantly African-American beach community tailed off.