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| Governors Club circa 1940 Florida State Archives |
The Governors Club, located on Las Olas Boulevard, was built by Robert Hayes Gore, Sr., owner of the Fort Lauderdale News. For decades after its 1937 opening, the hotel was a Fort Lauderdale landmark and gathering place for politicians, socialites and national notables.
Gore (RHG) bought the Wilmar Hotel, an unfinished eight-floor steel skeleton in 1936 for $20,000. The original owner, William H. Marshall, first mayor of Fort Lauderdale, stopped work on the building during the 1920s when he ran out of money. Gore hired an architect and construction firm to resume the project and opened it as the Governor’s Club in December, 1937. (Gore was once governor of Puerto Rico.)
A Fort Lauderdale News story lauded its "eight floors of sheer beauty and convenience." Furnishings of the building afforded guests "facilities on par with any in the United States." Charles Haight of Carson, Pirie, Scott & Co. in Chicago planned the interior of the hotel. Its lobby was decorated in soft blue and Van Gogh yellow with modern paintings and blue leather furniture. Each floor presented a different color scheme.
The Governors (the apostrophe was deleted) Club operated from Thanksgiving until Easter each year until 1947 when it was opened year round. In its early days, the hotel hosted singer Kate Smith, broadcaster Lowell Thomas, film maker D.W. Griffith and other celebrities who enjoyed its privacy. The Governors Club also became a popular spot for holiday dining, special occasions, and as refuge during hurricanes. State politicians often chose it as a site from where their key speeches were delivered.
The hotel faded over the years as competition for rooms shifted to the beach. For more than a decade, the Governors Club lay vacant until it was demolished in 1995. A bid to preserve the hotel as a historical landmark failed.
Of legal note about the Governors Club is a Florida law holding builders responsible for their work. RHG successfully sued builder Fred Howland, Inc., shortly after construction began on the hotel, for shoddy workmanship (leaking windows and joints during storms), providing precedent for a Florida law. Copyright © 2011, 2020 All rights reserved. Jane Feehan.
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| License 1938-1939 (apostrophe removed ...) |
Sources:
Burghard, August and Weidling, Philip A. Checkered Sunshine. Gainesville: University of Florida Press, 1966
Fort Lauderdale News, June 30, 1937
Broward County Historical Commission
Tags: Fort Lauderdale history, Fort Lauderdale hotel history, Robert H. Gore, Sr.
