Hollywood Beach Hotel and its descent from splendor

 

Hollywood Beach Resort 2024

By Jane Feehan

Joseph W. Young planned a whole community for land he purchased north of Miami in 1920. Hollywood-by-the-Sea would include a broad boulevard to the ocean from a 10-acre landscaped circle, a train depot, schools for year-round residents and several hotels for visitors.

Ground was broken in 1920-21 for his town. The boulevard he promised was reportedly the widest in the state at 120 feet. He built 25 bungalows for “regular” residents and later a tent camp near Dixie Highway for winter visitors.

Perhaps the building with the widest impact on publicity for the town was the Hollywood Beach Hotel. Construction began at Young’s request in early 1925 for the impressive 500-room beachside structure. Its architects Rubush and Hunter had also designed Carl Fisher's Flamingo Hotel on Miami Beach.

The $3 million plus, seven-story hotel, featuring fireproof, “Spanish-type” architecture would also hold a shopping arcade of 28 stores to draw both guests and customers from the street. A large, $30,000 pipe organ from Chicago’s W. W. Kimbell Company was installed, thousands of pieces of Bavarian dinnerware were purchased, and a driveway for “motor cars” (an unusual hotel amenity at the time) was built. The structure spanned 525 feet along the ocean front.

According to news accounts at the time, 100 trucks were spotted on the project one day and workers “labored day and night” on the project in December 1925 to complete it for the opening event in January 1926. Not to be hindered by building supply shortages due to inadequate rail capacity throughout South Florida, Young set up a “private fleet of boats” to do the job, which included delivering boatloads of cement made in Norway.

Lower rates than those at other hotels were promised. “This is the rather humanitarian idea of Mr. Young, believing in its business-building effect,” reported The Miami Herald.

Opening night – a date later than originally planned—was an informal affair in early February attended by a few hundred guests. Reservations for the entire winter season were already booked by residents from “up North.” It promised to be a busy first tourist season. It was the Roaring 20s after all. The roar, however, turned into a whimper months later with the Great Hurricane of September 1926.

Many structures fell with that storm, but the Hollywood Hotel remained standing. Damage to the hotel was estimated to be about $400,000. They were insured for $1.2 million. But, within a few months, pages of local newspapers were again filled with reports on hotel visitors and social events.

Hollywood Beach Hotel
1930 State Archives of Florida

The Hollywood Hotel, “Grand Lady,” became a fixture of South Florida tourism for decades. Unfortunately, its tale is one of a slow descent from splendor. According to accounts, tourists, including notorious mobsters, stayed there until at least the early 1940s, when it became a naval training school during World War II. It transitioned back to a hotel and tourists rediscovered it during the 1950s and 60s. During the 1970s it was home to Hollywood Bible College.

From the 1980s to today, the hotel (renamed Hollywood Beach Resort) has come under an assortment of owners – some at the same time—who converted hotel rooms into timeshare units and condos on some floors while re-making the street level floor into a shopping center and food court. Ramada Inn reportedly operated parts of the Grand Lady at one time. 

Because of concurrent multiple owners, efforts to place the property on the National Register of Historic Places failed. News accounts indicate residents considered the hotel an eyesore by 2002. Electricity was turned off in parts of the building in 2003.

Today, the 368-room property, with parts demolished, seems to be in legal limbo. A law firm is listed in property records as owner of most of the Grand Lady. Construction fencing circles the hotel and parts of its lot serve as fee-based public parking. With old beachfront properties falling to developers, this sliver of South Florida hotel history may be nothing more than a memory or a page in history books. A condo, no doubt, will eventually sit on this prime property.

Stay tuned for updates …

Entrance from Hollywood Blvd., circa 1926
Florida State Archives

Copyright © 2024. All rights reserved. Jane Feehan.

Sources:

The Miami Herald, Jan. 28, 1923

Fort Lauderdale News, April 8, 1925

The Miami Herald, July 26, 1925

Miami Tribune, Sept. 25, 1925

The Miami Herald, Nov. 8, 1925

Miami Tribune, Nov. 17, 1925

The Indianapolis Star, Dec. 16, 1925

The Miami Herald, Dec. 27, 1926

Fort Lauderdale News, Feb. 4, 1926

The Miami Herald, Dec. 31, 1926

Miami News, Sept. 30, 1926

The Miami Herald, Jan. 9, 2000

The Miami Herald, Jan. 9, 2000

The Miami Herald, May 24, 2002

The Miami Herald, Dec. 18, 2004

The Miami Herald, June 5, 2005

The Real Deal, May 22, 2022

Commercial Observer, May 13, 2022

The Miami Herald, Nov. 26, 2023

Tags: Hollywood Beach Hotel, Hollywood Beach Resort, Hollywood history, Joseph W. Young,   

The Biltmore Hotel in early Coral Gables: Florida's perfect kingdom of beauty and pleasure

 

Biltmore Hotel rendering 1924, State of Florida Archives

By Jane Feehan

Much has been written about the Biltmore Hotel in Coral Gables since it was proposed in 1924. Its story reflects an uneven timeline of openings and closings, owners and renovations, to its current state of world class elegance and hospitality.

This post focuses on its provenance and concludes with a brief synopsis of its history to current status.

George E. Merrick, developer and real estate promoter, established Coral Gables as a planned community—one of the first in the United States. His vision included a hotel at the town’s center.

That vision transformed to reality through the efforts of world-renowned hotel magnate John McEntee Bowman. Bowman headed the Bowman-Biltmore Hotels Corp. A booming Florida, and especially the Miami suburb of Coral Gables, held high promise for an elegant hotel. On Nov. 25, 1924, Bowman and Merrick announced plans for developing the Biltmore Hotel in Coral Gables.

The following month, land was platted for the hotel at the south end of Esplanade Columbus. A golf course and its country club sat adjacent to the project. The dominant architectural feature of the hotel was a tower, the Giralda Tower or campanile, inspired by the Giralda bell tower at the Seville Cathedral in Seville. Some suggested the hotel be named The Giralda.

The hotel was expected to hold about 400 rooms and would cost $10 million. To ensure a ready date of January 1926, a $40,000 surety bond, the largest of its time in Florida, was purchased through Aetna Casualty and Surety Company to guarantee several million dollars for the project. Thompson-Starret Company of New York was tapped as builder and Schultze and Weaver, also of New York, chosen as the new hotel’s designer. The structure was completed in only 14 months.

Biltmore dining room,
State Archives of Florida

This Biltmore Hotel in Coral Gables, a massive, but elegant structure, was lauded as the finest, perhaps largest Biltmore. On January 15, 1926, it opened its doors to an eager crowd of 1,500 elegantly attired party goers. They hoped to see if the hotel lived up to its maxim, “nothing is too good for a Biltmore.”

According to news accounts, those hopes were met. An elevated ramp off Anastasia Avenue brought visitors to a main entrance flanked on each side by six smaller entrances. All led to a lobby 400 feet long and wide. Flood lights from the hotel roof illuminated the entire building, including the Giralda Tower, featuring a sculpted figure of the Roman goddess, Faith, carrying “the triumphant banner of Constantine.”

An exceptionally tall three-sectioned ceiling twinkled with stars against a “liquid blue sky.” Upon entering, visitors experienced a Spanish motif, accented with “rare” Spanish and Italian furnishings and design elements from Persia, Egypt and the Mediterranean. The lobby opened to a large patio noted for tiles imported from Seville, Spain, an ornate Italian fireplace, two elegant chandeliers and heavy formal drapes that produced an “old world” ambiance. 

The dining room held a dance floor lined with small Spanish tables. Chef Durand, brought in from the Westchester Biltmore, reportedly once served as chef to President Woodrow Wilson.

A 250-foot pool sat between the golf course and hotel. Fifteen feet deep at one end, the pool held 1.25 million gallons of water. Colonnades graced the pool’s perimeter. Nearby, a playground and small pool welcomed future children guests.

About 600 employees were brought in from a few of the New York Biltmore hotels to ensure a smooth grand opening. Some sailed in on the Robert E. Lee, a Clyde Co. liner. Later news accounts indicate a permanent staff of about 300 worked at Biltmore Coral Gables. The hotel expected to be busy with a booked winter season.

Bowman (L) and Merrick
State Archives of Florida

 

At the opening party, three orchestras played as patrons strolled through a staged fashion show in the dining room. Manikins donned with colorful evening wear, including jewels and furs, drew excited comments. Elevators were available to take guests to each floor on rugs and carpeting covering floors equal to a path 38 miles long.

The next day, newspapers were abuzz about the grand opening affair. The hotel “is a poem of architectural beauty.” It opened “amid a blaze of color” and the event was “formal to the extreme.” It would “usher Miami, its finest suburb, Coral Gables, and entire state of Florida, into a new era of magnificence” and be known as "Florida's perfect kingdom of beauty and pleasure." The Biltmore Hotel and Country Club in Coral Gables pointed to a stellar future.

It was not to be—at least not for decades.

The Great Hurricane of 1926 hit South Florida on September 18. Its 150 mph winds devastated much of Miami and surrounding areas. Stepping up to the emergency, the Biltmore housed and fed about 2,200 made homeless by the storm; it escaped major damage.

By early January 1927, the Biltmore in Coral Gables was back to reporting or advertising its activities. Though the hotel was ready for a busy tourist season, the Miami area was not. It was the beginning of the end of Miami’s first building boom. Biltmore Coral Gables never fully recovered. The Great Depression soon followed. 

In 1942, a year of war, the U.S. Armed Forces used the hotel as a military hospital; the Veterans Administration ran the place until 1968, when the General Services Administration assumed control.

Ownership reverted to the city of Coral Gables via a federal act and a National Parks Program. In 1972, it was placed on the National Register of Historic Places.

In 1992 Coral Gables leased the Biltmore Miami Coral Cables to the Seaways Group, headed by Gene Prescott, for 99 years. Under Prescott’s guidance, the hotel has been restored to its once former glamour.

An interesting (to me!) side note: George E. Merrick died when he was nearly 56 years old in 1942; John McEntee Bowman died in 1931 also at 56.

Biltmore after the 1926 hurricane,
State Archives of Florida

See index for William Jennings Bryan and his role in promoting Coral Gables.

For more on Gene Prescott, seeCoral Gables Magazine archives, Passion of Prescott

Copyright © 2024. All rights reserved. Jane Feehan.

Miami News, July 27, 1924

Miami News, Dec. 11, 1924

Miami News, Aug. 9, 1925

Miami Daily News and Metropolis, Jan. 15, 1926

Miami News, Jan. 16, 1926

Miami Tribune, Jan. 16, 1926

Miami News, Jan. 11, 1927

Tags: Biltmore Hotel Miami Coral Gables, Coral Gables history. George E. Merrick, John McEntee Bowman

Discrimination on Miami Beach and the first kosher hotel

Nemo Hotel 

Collins and 1st 

Miami Beach

 

By Jane Feehan

During the 1920s, Miami Beach’s first boom era, covenants in land deeds prohibited sale of lots to Jews. Hotels of the time advertised having “restricted” clientele, meaning Gentiles only were allowed. Until 1925, Jews did live on Miami Beach but only from Fifth Street south to the southern tip of the barrier island.*

Nemo Hotel, built in 1921 by New Yorkers Sam Magrid and Joseph and Harry Goodkowsky, was the first Miami Beach hotel to cater to kosher Jewish guests.  Others, such as the Seabreeze Hotel at Collins and Second, soon followed. A law was passed in 1949 by the Florida legislature to end discrimination in real estate and hotels.

Miami Beach 1922
Florida State Archives/
Fishbaugh

Years later the Nemo was considered to be an Art Deco gem of a building. Ownership of the hotel has changed several times during its history. At one time it was owned by the Hotel Astor Corporation headed by Herman Schatzberg (who may have owned part of another hotel  in Miami). In 1949, the Hotel Astor in Atlantic City (at Pacific and Connecticut avenues) was sold to Schatzberg, then listed as owner of Nemo Hotel in Miami Beach.

Like many of the hotels and apartment buildings on Miami Beach, Nemo Hotel hit hard times after the 1950s. By the 1980s it was a known crack house. South Beach’s revival and movement to save art deco buildings generated a renewed interest in the Nemo. Myles Chefetz bought it in the early 1990s, and, with Chef Michael Schwartz, operated a popular restaurant on the site, known as Nemo. They kept many of the old accents of the building including a picturesque archway, courtyard and tiled floors.   

At this writing, Nemo appears to have recently closed. I expect the building may transition to another purpose and rise again, like a phoenix from the ghosts of its Art Deco past.

For an old postcard photo of the hotel, see: http://tinyurl.com/p8qu4kv

*For an excellent history of the Jewish community in Miami-Dade County, visit www.jewishvirtuallibrary.org.

Sources:

New York Times, April 9, 1949

New York Times, June 21, 1995

www.jewishvirtuallibrary.org.

Tags; Miami Beach history 1920s, Miami Beach hotel history, Nemo Hotel, Hotel Nemo, Art Deco buildings, historical researcher South Florida

Back to the future of hotels: Conveyor belts, pneumatic tubes and some laughs

Fort Lauderdale's beach hotels

By Jane Feehan

Hotels were springing up all over South Florida during the 1950s, a decade it was deemed one of the most popular vacation stops in the country.  A front-page story in the Miami Herald (Jan. 16, 1956) about a hotel exposition in New York City probably caught the eye of “vacationists” and hoteliers alike. It offered a glimpse into  hotels of the future.

The future is here and some of the predictions were right on the mark … and some may make us laugh.

Hotels would be run by“automatic service controls” or electronic technology. With it:

• Guests would be assigned their room by a computer-staffed registration desk.
• Luggage will be delivered to rooms via conveyor belts.
• Guest rooms will be a “science fiction dream.” A bedside console, nerve center for countless robotic aids, will be used to control temperature and lighting. It will also serve as a control center for radio, TV and a hi-fi sound system. From the console, a guest will  read stock quotes or morning news summaries, including the weather. There, a guest will also retrieve messages, make phone calls and handle dictation, select a time to be awakened, and automatically arrange room service.
• Pneumatic tubes will be used to deliver standard items like ice and food.
• Staffers will still be needed to add an element of friendliness; there will be plenty of that because they won't be overworked, overtired. 

Most of this technology has become part of standard hotel operations but, thankfully for staffers looking for tips, not everything has materialized. And  those pneumatic tubes … perhaps a food replicator is in store?

The American Hotel and Lodging Association sheds light on some actual hotel milestones. Some were anticipated in that 1956 exposition; others never made it to the first rungs of speculation. Reality may be more interesting:

1950s - Quality Courts becomes the first to offer innovations such as wall-to-wall carpeting, daily change of linens, 24-hour desk service, and in-room telephones.

1950s - The first black and white television sets were placed in hotel lobbies or other common areas.

1958 - Sheraton created the first automated, electronic reservations system.

1969 - Westin is the first hotel chain to implement 24-hour room service.

1970 - Sheraton pioneered an 800 number for toll-free reservation calls.

1975 The first extended-stay property, the Residence Inn, was built in Wichita, Kansas.

1991 - Hotel Triton in San Francisco opened doors to the first celebrity suite.

1994 - Promus becomes the first hotel company to provide hotel information via the Internet.

1995 - Choice Hotels launches Choicehotels.com, the first website in the lodging industry to offer real-time access to a CRS.

And no replicators ... yet.

Copyright © 2013. All rights reserved. Jane Feehan.

Tags: Hotel history, South Florida history, hotels of the future, hotel technology, historical researcher, Florida history