St Augustine Collection 2

by John Anderson

Title

St Augustine Collection 2

Artist

John Anderson

Medium

Photograph - Enhanced Photography

Description

Times! If you ever passed through this town. This Auto is a bit Special, partial to the Collection
of the Casa Monica Hotel.:A member of Historic Hotels of America since 2001, the Casa Monica Resort and Spa is St. Augustine’s most historic holiday destination. It first debuted in 1888, following a year of arduous construction work undertaken by Franklin W. Smith. Smith himself was a noted Civil War-Era abolitionist and social activist, who happened to possess a deep interest in Victorian architecture. A native Bostonian, he had originally decided to build such a magnificent building due to the rise of Florida’s nascent tourism industry toward the end of the 19th century. The great Henry Flagler—who played a significant role in the state’s Gilded Age commercial development—sold the land to Smith as soon as he founded a spur to one of his local railways through St. Augustine. Smith immediately went to work on his new structure, relying on the historically inspired design principles established in Moorish Revival and Spanish Baroque Revival architecture. He had long held a passionate fascination with Revivalist architectural forms, specifically Moorish Revival style. In fact, Smith’s nearby winter residence—Villa Zorayda—was the first Moorish Revival edifice in St. Augustine. The construction material consisted primarily of poured concrete, of which Smith was a leading experimental authority. Inside, the resort hotel’s magnificent Sun Parlor room was its most celebrated space, as it was filled with all sorts of fine architectural details.

Franklin W. Smith opened the Grand Dame as the “Casa Monica Hotel” on New Year’s Day. Yet, in just four months, Smith had somehow managed to put the whole enterprise in serious financial trouble. Overwhelmed at the prospect of keeping the business afloat, he reached out to Flagler for relief. The railroad magnate subsequently purchased the entire facility from Smith for a sum $325,000. Franklin W. Smith was incredibly desperate, selling to Flagler, “all fixtures, furnishings, silver, hardware, linen, bedding, parlor, hall, dining room, and kitchen furnishings and all other chattels.” Renamed as the “Cordova Hotel,” the business prospered under Flagler’s stewardship. It came as no surprise, either, for Flagler was also one of the nation’s most successful hoteliers. Alongside his close friend John D. Rockefeller, Flagler already owned two other destinations in St. Augustine—the Ponce de Leon Hotel (now Flagler College) and the Hotel Alcazar (currently the Lightner Museum). But he also owned and operated several other successful hotels and resorts throughout Florida, having financed their construction as a means to encourage travel along his various railroads. For the better part of the next three decades, the Cordova Hotel hosted all sorts of exciting fairs, galas, and charity events. Soon enough, the building became just as recognizable in St. Augustine as the iconic Castillo de San Marcos. Its renown even inspired the legendary travel agent, Ward G. Foster, to establish the headquarters of his soon-to-be-famous travel agency, “Ask Mr. Foster,” inside the building!

The subsequent success of the business inspired Henry Flagler to connect the Cordova Hotel to the nearby Hotel Alcazar via a bridge in 1902. Uniting the two ventures together into one business, the Cordova Hotel soon became known as the “Alcazar Annex.” The Hotel Alcazar and the Alcazar Annex continued to remain in his family for the next several years, even after Flagler’s death in 1913. But the Hotel Alcazar soon became a victim of the Great Depression, with Flagler’s descendants foreclosing on the entire destination in 1932. The Alcazar Annex itself then fell into a state of dilapidation, with much of its historical architecture deteriorated. Flagler’s historic bridge was even torn down. Having sat dormant for 30 years, the St. Johns County Commission voted to purchase the facility for use as the county courthouse. The renovations to restore the ailing structure took nearly six years to complete, finally opening as the St. Johns County Courthouse in May of 1968. Serving in that capacity for the next three decades, the revitalized historical structure stood once again as a cherished local landmark. A notable feature included inside the courthouse involved murals painted by the artist Hugo Ohlms, whose work also appeared in the Ponce de Leon Motor Lodge and the neighboring St. Benedict Catholic Church. Another fascinating aspect was the stained-glass door panels at the front entrance that displayed the scales of justice.

In February 1997, Richard Kessler—who had previously worked with the Days Inn hotel chain—had stared setting up his own brand of lodgings called the “Kessler Collection.” Falling in love with the building’s gorgeous historical architecture, Kessler subsequently purchased the entire building from the St. Johns County government for $1.2 million. He immediately began remodeling the historic structure, transforming it back into a magnificent resort hotel. Kessler hired architecture Howard W. Davis to spearhead the entire redesign, which focused on saving the building’s fantastic Moorish Revival-style architecture. Taking two years to complete, the brilliant structure opened as more as the “Casa Monica Hotel” during the winter of 1999. It has since been relaunched as the “Casa Monica Resort and Spa,” and continues to serve as one the main destinations within the Kessler Collection. The Casa Monica Resort and Spa is now once again one of St. Augustine’s most celebrated holiday destinations. Its spectacular service and stunning amenities have clearly separated this remarkable resort hotel from its competitors. Dozens of illustrious guests have since stayed at the reborn Casa Monica Resort and Spa, including South African civil rights activist Desmond Tutu, King Juan Carlos I of Spain, and former U.S. President Bill Clinton. Few places in Florida are as spectacular than this wonderful, historic resort.

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May 19th, 2022

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