Royal Palm Hotel (Miami)

from Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Royal Palm Hotel from the Miami River

The Royal Palm Hotel was a hotel in Miami , Florida, in the United States of America . It was built in 1896 by Henry Flagler's Florida East Coast Hotel Company . Together with the construction of the Florida East Coast Railway from St. Augustine , it laid the foundation for the city of Miami and the tourist development of the region. The hotel was completely demolished in 1930.

location

location of the hotel

The hotel was located at the southern end of what is now Downtown Miami, directly on the Miami River and Biscayne Bay . It comprised the current blocks between Southeast 2nd Street and South Biscayne Boulevard and Southeast 2nd Avenue and Biscayne Boulevard .

A siding (hotel track) led directly to the hotel from the Florida East Coast Railway.

Buildings and facilities

Entrance area
swimming pool

The hotel building was designed by architects James McGuire and Joseph McDonald , who were also responsible for other hotels on the Florida East Coast Railway.

The building was oriented in an east-west direction. The hotel was built as a timber frame construction . It was around 213 meters long and had five floors. The central part of the building had six floors. Two wings protruding to the north were attached to the western part of the building. The hotel was kept in the so-called "Colonial Revival" style. A viewing platform was located on the roof of the central part of the building. Around the east end of the hotel was a 175-meter porch . The red roof had attics . The facade of the hotel was painted in "Flagler Yellow".

The hotel had 350 rooms and could accommodate 400 to 600 guests. The rooms had an average size of 3.65 meters by 5.50 meters. 100 rooms had their own bathroom. Another 100 rooms were available for the staff. The hotel had several large halls paneled with light wood. The dining rooms, reading rooms and other lounges opened directly from the central rotunda . The largest dining room had a capacity of 500 seats. There was also a special dining room for the children and private dining rooms. The hotel also had a 14-by-15-meter ballroom, a typing office and a billiard room. The hotel had its own power station in the far west wing to supply the building with electricity, the first in Miami. This part of the hotel also contained the laundry rooms, the kitchens and the ice-making rooms. Access to the upper floors was made easier by elevators.

A seawater swimming pool with a water surface of 12 meters × 45 meters was located in the north-west corner of the site. It had 100 changing rooms. In the summer, outside the hotel season, the swimming pool was open to the residents of Miami.

The Royal Palm Park was laid out on the riverbank. To the north, the one-block entrance area was designed as an open space with a roundabout and two fountains . Initially, the later built-up blocks on SE 1st Street and Flagler Street were also included in the design. In the grounds of the hotel, many of the eponymous were royal palms (engl. Royal palm) planted. The park was created by Henry Coppinger Sr.

There was a clock golf facility in the park . The park was open to the public on Sundays and Chautauqua Sunday schools were held. William Jennings Bryan spoke at times to an audience of 5,000. Public concerts were also held there.

The hotel had around 300 employees, including around 16 cooks.

history

Henry Flagler was looking for a suitable resort as the end point for his company's railway line . He found the right place at the mouth of the Miami River. However, the area belonged to Julia Tuttle . She had the vision of building a flourishing city on her property. He reached an agreement with her and the other landowner in the area, Mary Brickell , to develop the area and acquired 50% of the property from Julia Tuttle. The contract of October 24, 1895 stipulated that he had 18 months to complete the railway line and hotel.

Construction of the hotel began on March 15, 1896. At the location of the hotel was an earlier, around 2000 year old settlement of the Tequesta Indians. When a burial mound was removed, the found bones were simply reburied in an area outside the building site or later sold as souvenirs.

Up to 1100 workers were involved in the construction, equipment and design of the outdoor facilities. Miami had around 2000 residents compared to that time. The construction cost was around $ 750,000

The opening gala took place on December 31, 1896. The hotel started operating on January 16, 1897. One of the first guests was John Jacob Astor with his family, who arrived before Christmas 1896.

During the Spanish-American War in 1898, the hotel was used as accommodation for officers and the press.

Up until the First World War , the hotel was a popular vacation spot for wealthy industrialists in North America. The season started in early January and ended at Easter . Outside of this time, the hotel and all of Miami fell into a downright slumber. During the tourist season, the hotel was exempt from the ban on alcohol sales.

From 1906 to 1928 the hotel was run by Joseph P. Greaves.

During the hurricane on 17./18. September 1926 the hotel was badly damaged. The hurricane with wind speeds of up to 200 km / h destroyed parts of the roof and devastated the park. The building, which was getting on in years, was only poorly repaired. In the 1927 season it could not open and in 1928 it was only opened to tourists for a short time. However, it did not attract many customers. In the same year construction of the Brickell Avenue Bridge began . For this, the west wing of the hotel had to be demolished. A new hotel building requested by the city administration did not materialize due to the economic situation of the company and the beginning global economic crisis . After the building was settled due to the inadequate clean-up work in the Hotel Termiten , the city administration ordered its demolition. In March 1930 the hotel was demolished and burned as far as possible. The foundations remained, however, and were not removed until the 2000s.

After the demolition, the site remained unused for many years and was used as a car park from the late 1940s. Only with the construction of various high-rise buildings from the beginning of the 1980s did this parking area gradually decrease. The Dupont Plaza Hotel was built in 1957 on the site of the former Royal Palm Park, directly on the riverbank . After its demolition in 2004, the EPIC Miami Residences and Hotel has been located here since 2008 .

Furthermore, the Southeast Financial Center was built on the site in the northeast corner and the Met1 residential high- rise to the south of it . The Met Square lifestyle center is planned next to this building . To the west of it are the Met 2 (now Wells Fargo Center ) and the JW Marriott Marquis Miami . The construction area for the planned Met3 high-rise of the MDM Group is located in the northwest corner.

Web links

Commons : Royal Palm Hotel Miami  - Collection of pictures, videos and audio files

literature

Individual evidence

  1. ^ The St. Augustine Record May 13, 2013: Remnants of ancient Indian village found
  2. ↑ Helen Muir: Miami, USAS 65
  3. ↑ Florida's Grand Hotels from the Gilded Age p. 70
  4. ↑ http://miamiarchives.blogspot.de/2012/05/henry-flaglers-royal-palm-hotel.html

Coordinates: 25 ° 46 ′ 18.2 "  N , 80 ° 11 ′ 20.1"  W.