The Royal Palm Hotel, built by railroad tycoon Henry M. Flagler in 1897, represented the height of luxury hotels in Florida during the Gilded Age. Built on an ancient Tequesta American Indian site, the Royal Palm offered Miami its first electric lights, elevators, and swimming pool, and drew elite visitors from across the country, according to The Miami Herald.
Henry M. Flagler was born in Hopewell, New York, on January 2, 1830. The Henry Morrison Flagler Museum recounts that Flagler made his fortune in the oil business as a partner in Standard Oil which, by 1872, was the leader in American oil refining. Trips to Florida led Flagler to recognize its potential for tourism, particularly since there was a lack of hotels and transportation. In 1885 Flagler began building his first Florida hotel-the Hotel Ponce de Leon in St. Augustine-and then bought what would become the Florida East Coast Railway. Flagler continued to expand both his railroad holdings and his luxury hotels, including the Royal Palm Hotel which opened in Miami in 1897.
The Royal Palm opened in Miami in January 1897. At 680 feet long, 267 feet wide, and six stories high, it was an enormous F-shaped structure. A rotunda in the center was surrounded by an observation deck around the sixth story. An orchestra played in the rotunda each night and, according to Nathan Shappee's article, "Flagler's Undertakings in Miami in 1897," the orchestra even offered "sacred music [concerts] for guests and townspeople alike" on Sundays. The hotel had 450 rooms with 100 private bathrooms featuring hot and cold water. Shappee notes that the hotel maintained an ice plant, electrical plant, laundry and elevators.
Another of the wonders of the Royal Palm was its swimming pool. Shappee reports that the pool measured 140 feet long and 50 feet wide with 300,000 gallons of water heated to 78 degrees. Even more exotic for the time were two slides-one 25 feet long and one 75 feet long-that were "flushed by streams of water for better sliding." In the evenings, the pool was open to the public for a 25 cent admission fee.
Beginning in March 1897, Flagler's hotel underwent massive landscaping efforts. Shappee's article recounts that "hundreds of coconut palms were planted on the grounds and in the early form of present Bayfront Park." A crew of 120 men planted roughly 60 trees a day. The grounds included a large flower conservatory, as well as an octagonal " 'rockery' [...] fitted with curving paths, grottoes, and fountains filled with fish."
The Royal Palm Hotel was badly damaged by a hurricane in 1926 and eventually demolished in 1930. Never rebuilt, the site was ultimately paved over as a parking lot. In 2003, the site generated renewed interest from developers. However, as the South Florida Sun-Sentinel reported, "before any new construction [could] begin, the city required a survey by archaeologists from the Archeological and Historical Conservancy." The newspaper recounted that hotel artifacts were uncovered more than two feet below the surface and, using ground-penetrating radar, were able to uncover the footprint of the formerly glorious hotel.
