Mr. Flagler’s St. Augustine

14. Hotel Life in Paradise, 1891

245 14 ∑ Hotel Life in Paradise, 1891 The Ponce de Leon had more pretty girls in it than any hotel I ever saw in my life. —Editor Charles A.Dana, quoted in Times-Union, March 24, 1891 The 1891 season began at the Hotel Alcazar with a traditional Thanksgiving Day dinner. The Alcazar would have the early arrivers all to itself for a week longer than in previous years because Flag­ ler decided to open the Ponce a week later than usual. Experience had shown him that the first week’s bookings were not enough to justify welcoming guests; moreover, the New York vestibule trains did not start running to Florida until mid-January. Although the opening was scheduled for January 19, some eager “Ponce de Leon regulars” were permitted to leave the Alcazar on January 17 and go into their rooms in the larger hotel. Everyone else showed up on the scheduled day for the customary mass rush into the building by the general community for open house. At three in the afternoon fireworks went off on the rooftop, the portcullis rose, Brooks’s band struck up “Hail Columbia,” and everyone pushed in to be greeted with cheery fires in the Rotunda fireplaces. That evening trumpets from the towers announced the beginning of a fireworks display for the people gathered in the Alameda.1 Joseph White, a patron of many resorts, left a short account of his first registration at Flag­ler’s hotel: “I had heard that one of the most interesting features of the Ponce de Leon . . . was an elegant cushioned sofa, located just in front of the office, the object of it being to catch guests who fainted on the presentation of their bills.” He was disappointed to observe no such sofa. He reported that the cost of the Ponce de Leon was in line with other first-class hotels, five to twentyfive dollars a day. Mrs. Marcotte turned this observation into a complaint: “It is a pity that a false impression of the prices charged at this princely hotel should 246 · Mr. Flagler’s St. Augustine get abroad through the love of show on the part of some of the guests, who come once and remain a short time; but it is so. In reality, the prices asked here for ordinary rooms are not in advance of those charged at other houses.”2 Some guests attempted to elevate the grandeur of the hotel by pronouncing every syllable of its name and giving it a Castilian lisp: “Ponth-a-da-lion.” But most fell into the habit of calling it “the Ponce.”3 Across King Street the Hotel Cordova stood on trial. It had been a miserable failure under Franklin Smith’s ownership and lagged behind the Alcazar and Ponce de Leon during its first two years under Flag­ler. He hoped to attract more patrons in the coming year. Flag­ler wrote to manager E.N.Wilson in December: “This winter will be the test of the question, and it is of the greatest importance that you so administer the Cordova that we shall get the very best results possible . I do not favor the holding of a cent so close to the eye that we lose sight of the dollar beyond, but I do favor the most rigid economy consistent with a proper administration of the house.”4 The Cordova opened on January 28, but an “advance guard” of about a dozen repeat residents moved in a week earlier. One, a Mrs. J.D.Lyon, came with a lady friend, two manservants, a maid, and a pet poodle. Dogs normally were forbidden , but a very few women received special dispensation for special dogs. At the end of its first week the Cordova had registered one hundred guests—not a great start, but not bad either. To attract visitors inside the building, Flag­ler scheduled the hotel band to give concerts in both mornings and afternoons in the Sun Parlor . In the evenings many guests socialized over games of whist and euchre in the parlors, suggesting that the hotel appealed to a more sedate clientele.5 The Cordova had an excellent opportunity to expand its house count because up North in New York City the talk about “gayeties in Florida” had reached unheard of levels. “Never before has there been so much interest in Southern trips as this year,” asserted the New York Times. Beginning the last week in February the Florida Specials ran every...