On a recent visit in December, the Don Cesar Hotel and Resort, Resort Group met with our host and Certified Porter, Ronald MacDougall. As guardian, Mr. MacDougall sure that every guest has the best possible experience during their stay at the Don Cesar. In his role as caretaker, who has many celebrities, the historic pink hotel maintains the Gulf of Mexico to St. Petersburg, Florida visited. Guests have a Mariah Carry, Carole King, Mick Jagger and containJimmy Buffet, and many of the President visits.
Our private tour started in the bar and the main dining room is beautiful this time of year, prepared for the Christmas season. make the stately dark wood bar, leather sofas and armchairs make it the perfect place to sit, relax and imagine another time, the glory days of early Pink Palace.
The history of the Don Cesar Hotel or Pink Lady, as Thomas Rowe, call the hotel has fallen, starts at the beginninghow to do all the good stories. It 'been a vision of J. Thomas Rowe, a monument to a lost love to create.
This part of the story begins in London, where the voice is that the young Thomas Rowe, while attending college, she attended the opera "Maritan" where you love the female lead did was Lucinda, a beautiful opera singer in Spain. They met the night after his performance in addition to a well in London.
Plans were made to burn. The night he left, had Lucindanot show, and Rowe was waiting near the fountain. His parents were forced during the upcoming wedding and Lucinda go home in Spain. Lucinda has been reported to have died at a young age, but sent this letter to Thomas in this passage. "Time is infinite, I'll wait to share with the fountain to our timeless love, our destiny is time ...." Well, if not, it should be.
Back in the United States, Thomas Rowe built commercial buildings in New York.He then moved to Norfolk, Virginia, where he met Maria Lucia, the daughter of a wealthy landowner. Thomas married Mary, and began the life of a celebrity.
At the age of 47 declined with his health, Thomas Rowe elected to transfer a friendly environment. Leaving his wife in Virginia, has opted for Florida and especially St. Petersburg, Florida, which has experienced a housing boom has been. Getting Started with $ 21,000.00 Rowe buying a property.
Real estate development was hotin the early years of 1920 and Thomas Rowe, a partnership with another former Norfolk and celebrity real estate developer, Mr. Page. He and Page formed the Boca Ciega Land Company for the purchase of land.
Mr. Page has developed the land on the north side of Johns Pass and the family still lives in Madeira Beach.
Rowe amassed a small fortune to visit an isolated stretch of undeveloped beach in the area as Pass-A-Grille known. Pass-A-Grille was the 18th century "grilleurs" which have been designated dryFish on the white sand beaches. This was a very remote and wild landscape. Access from the mainland was a wooden bridge. This white sand beach beside the gentle waves of the Gulf of Mexico, Thomas Rowe Resort be provided to dream. Against the advice of many in his circle, Thomas Rowe bought 80 acres on these shores. Soon a residential area was built and every street was named after a character in the work Maritan.
In 1926, he began to build his dream resort.Rowe hired architect Henry DuPont for the project design. An obstacle that had to overcome was the massive structure would sit on the sand. A floating foundation is designed and its success in the fact that the Foundation has not moved in the last 82 years otherwise.
Another obstacle has been the transport of construction materials. The bridge was previously mentioned as the oldest and most bridge guarded by a goalkeeper who is not always reliable, the opening of the bridge when he was in the mood.Material was placed on a barge and brought to the site, bypassing the bridge.
A railway strike this year drove up the cost of construction and after completion of the exterior and interior of the place where Thomas Rowe ran from the hotel provides the money. The move was necessary to save the company. HP Churchill would have the money, but he had a destiny. Would have the name of the manager. It was agreed, and Don Caesar had its inauguration in 1927, with some ofrichest people in America visited.
E 'is lush and plush in the Grande Lobby. Thomas Rowe was a replica of the fountain, built as one in which a student, rendez-vous with the beautiful Lucy. The fountain solution would be the first thing visitors would see up the stairs in the lobby and entry was the heart of des Modeled after the Royal Hawaiian on Waikiki Beach, Don Cesar Resort is a vision, standing onSands of Pass-A-Grille. Thomas Rowe liked the hotel called the Pink Lady.
The main entrance was in Gulf Blvd. Two statues of lions and a sign "Come All Ye who seek health and recreation. For them, here is abundant." The original staircase hidden, but where the ice is now on the first floor.
As luck would have, the timing could not have been worse, the economy has entered what is known as the Great Depression.Fortunately for the hotel, according to the New York Yankees baseball team has been connected to a docking station for players of spring training, which helped the resort to remain solvent.
Thomas Rowe moved to one of the two penthouses in the Don Cesar. Every day, Rowe would station himself in an armchair in the lobby, talking with visitors and employees and an inventory of the guests. Guests who do not meet a certain standard of dress and customs and language were asked to leave the hotel. It was notan era of political correctness.
Then, in 1940 Thomas Rowe broke in the lobby. He refused to be hospitalized, he was transferred to adjacent rooms 101 and 102. He stayed there until his death. Rowe has been trying to get one is visited by his testimony sisters, but she refused. That would have left that Will the Pink Lady in the hands of staff. As it happened, he won the wife of Thomas Rowe, Mary, the control of the Don Cesar. The resort fell out of favor. Then in 1941after the attack on Pearl Harbor a seaside holiday was not as attractive. People were not afraid to get more attacks from the sea and soon the guests. The U.S. government has purchased the Don Cesar Resort and converted for use as a center retirement home for members of the U.S. Army Air Corp suffering from shell shock and injuries from the war.
A victim of transfer of ownership was the fountain in the lobby. The head of the house was rebuilt concerned that a visitor would drive past the fountain and ordered him removed.
Later, Don Cesare was used for the government and was finally abandoned and left to decay. A movement started from that and have leveled Resort. A lead counter-movement by local residents and activists in June Hardy boy began to restore the Don Cesar. The latest move was successful and the new owner of the resort was one. William Bowman bought> Resort and in 1973 the site was reopened. During the renovations, a replica of the original well on the fifth floor has been laid.
Our tour included the penthouses, which at the time of our visit, and the Presidential Suite, where he served every president since 1940. The penthouses have spectacular views of St. Petersburg, Gulf Beaches and the Sunshine Skyway Bridge. Of course, if you decide to stay in the penthouses, which will lead you back$ 3,500.00 per night.
The Don Cesar is a beautiful resort with two pools, a gym and a new spa. Recently opened, the 11 000 m² Spa Oceana is a state of the art spa. Guests can enjoy a massage you get in the tub whirlpool and sauna, and then have a lunch on the roof of the spa overlooking the Gulf of Mexico.
If you go, ask the reservationist if there are special offers. During our visit we received a record season and were verysatisfied with our stay.
The resort is jointly owned and operated by Loews Hotels chain.
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