Don Cesar: against the odds

St. Petersburg Beach had a lot of empty space 
when the Don Cesar opened in the 1920s.
Photo credit: Florida Memory

The Great Depression swept across the nation in 1929. In Florida, it started earlier -  in 1926 with the collapse of the Florida Land Boom. So I was surprised to learn that the famous Don Cesar resort in St. Petersburg Beach first opened its doors in 1928.

Developer Thomas J. Rowe was already building the massive hotel when the Florida boom crashed. He'd also sold lots in a subdivision he was creating around the hotel and had started building the Spanish-style houses so popular then. But he wouldn't admit defeat.

In June Hurley Young's The Don Ce-Sar Story, she describes Rowe as a man of poor health but an astute businessman with a high tolerance for risk. He had to be, to continue pursuing such a dream in a time of shaky finances. A combination of savvy business dealings, partnerships, loans and mortgages saw him through.

The 300-room hotel was completed in December 1927. It featured towers and wings and other Mediterranean and Moorish design elements.

The official opening took place January 16, 1928 with a gala attended by 1,500 people. Hurley provides details about the event, the kind that add color to dates and other numbers. Picture a Gatsby-style evening:

• Women in gowns and men in tuxedos arrived in LaSalles, Chryslers, Marmons and other upscale cars. 
• The entrance was canopied in red fabric.
• Dancing in the large ballroom cost $2.50 per person. I guess people were able to skip the dinner and attend just the dancing portion of the evening.
• No word on the type of food or cost of the dinner, which was served in the fifth-floor dining room and eaten on Black Knight china from Germany. 
• Flowers filled the rooms.
• The Don Ce-Sar Orchestra provided music.
• Nella Erickson and Helen Ford sang a Brahms duet.
• Guests toured the rooftop gardens. 

Guest rooms contained mahogany furniture and the best horse-hair mattresses of the era. Some rooms even featured private baths - which wasn't a given at the time, the way it is today.

St. Petersburg Beach back then was still a semi-wilderness, as the photo with this post shows. The Don Ce-Sar (later renamed the Don Cesar without the hyphen) started as a seasonal resort that opened for only January and February each year. People flocked to the resort for those two months in 1928, 1929 and even 1930.

In fact, in 1930, hotel guests included F. Scott Fitzgerald and Zelda Fitzgerald. Hurley writes that they stayed for the season. Nightly rates that year ranged from $12 for a single room to $30 for a suite (roughly $214 to $535 today). The price included meals.

The grand resort had its ups and downs through the years and was almost demolished in the 1970s. Hurley was a leader in the successful effort to save the historic landmark. It was restored by hotel magnate William Bowman Jr.

Since the early days, the massive structure has had several owners and multiple uses including as a government office building. Today, it remains a gem worth visiting. 

Read the Don Cesar's full history on the hotel website and in Hurley's book, which has gone through seven printings since being published in 1974. It's available via several outlets online. I found my copy at a local independent bookstore. The hotel also has a tribute to Hurley on its blog. She died in February 2024.

Past meets future

Am posting a bit earlier than usual this month for time reasons. This post has updates about two places I've written in the past:

• One has a time element: The Mary S. Harrell Black Heritage Museum in New Smyrna Beach is having a heritage festival this Saturday - February 24, 2024. I hope you can make it.

• The other is about the former St. Benedict the Moor Catholic School in the Lincolnville neighborhood in St. Augustine. Many thanks to historian and author David Nolan for alerting me to the good news about a community project in development in that building. I hope you can support it. 

Mary S. Harrell Black Heritage Museum
(Photo credit: Peter Bauer)

MARY S. HARRELL BLACK HERITAGE MUSEUM

The Black Heritage Museum is housed in the historic former Catholic church, St. Rita's, that served the Black community in the midcentury years of the 20th century. Those earlier days are the focus of my 2016 post. 

Both past and present are featured in the excellent exhibits on view at the museum today. You can learn a great deal about the life and times of the community from its early days through today. Guided tours are part of the 31st annual Black Heritage Festival, which takes place from 9 a.m. to 6 p.m. February 24 in Pettis Park, adjacent to the museum building. Many other activities are also part of the festival.

Guided tours offer insights and context to exhibits that a visitor otherwise wouldn't know. I remember, during my visit, being shocked to learn that the community had protested the impending closing of their Black school during integration days. Shocked, because I had been taught otherwise, had been taught that Blacks applauded the school moves.

I was young during school integration days, and attending an already integrated Catholic elementary school in New York City. My (erroneous) knowledge was gained later, via the prevailing narratives taught in public high schools in my time. The older I get, the more I understand how much history contains nuanced and sub-surface levels, and shifting perspectives that depend on time and place of the telling. 

Of course I digressed.... Try to attend the festival and tour and support the museum. You'll be glad you did.

A blessing ceremony for a restoration and
transformation into a neighborhood center took
place at the former St. Benedict the Moor School 
building. (Credit: First Coast News/Jessica Clark)

ST. BENEDICT THE MOOR SCHOOL

I was again shocked - this time in a good way - to learn that the 1800s building that housed St. Benedict the Moor School in St. Augustine is being restored! When I wrote about the former school in a 2017 post, I wasn't even sure the actual building even stood any longer. I couldn't find any then-current photos of it.

So imagine my delight to learn that the Sisters of St. Joseph - who taught Black children at the school many decades ago - have launched a restoration project. Their goal is to restore the building and use it as a neighborhood center. Among other services, the St. Joseph Neighborhood Center will provide single mothers with education and job skills training. 

First Coast News featured a January 2023 article about a blessing ceremony at the project site as restoration got under way. What the Sisters of St. Joseph need right now is your support to keep the ministry project moving forward. Learn more and donate via the St. Joseph Neighborhood Center's website. (And, fellow Catholics among readers, consider it a good way to boost your Lenten almsgiving.)

CLOSING THOUGHTS

I didn't plan this, but both my updates involve historic former schools in which Catholic sisters defied social norms by serving Black communities in a Jim Crow South. I know there are challenges that need fixing within Catholicism. But there is also so much good within the faith. Catholic sisters are past and present proof of that.

Punta Rassa: small size, big history

Punta Rassa may be small, but it's history is large.
This image shows a structure there from the late
1800s. (Credit: WGCU Public Media)

Punta Rassa is a small, flat piece of Florida with a big history. The waterfront land near Fort Myers in Southwest Florida has seen everything from cattle drives to cowboys, military troops and blockade runs to and from Cuba.

For a while, Punta Rassa was diverse before diversity. During the Civil War, troops stationed there came from all across the United States. They sometimes had trouble communicating because of their regional accents. The white New York City soldiers couldn't understand the Black soldiers from Virginia who couldn't understand the Black soldiers from Louisiana. As one historian says in the video linked in this post, at least they all knew they were on the same side.

According to Wikipedia, the name Punta Rassa evolved from the Spanish phrase Punta Rasca, which means smooth or flat point. It's an apt description for this sliver of Florida lowland. 

Only about 1,500 people live in Punta Rassa today, on land that's less than five square miles in size. The area's big back story makes up for it. Enjoy this history video from Florida Gulf Coast University's WGCU Public Media: Punta Rassa, Untold Stories.