The Flamingo Hotel
Imagine a bone-chilling, snowy January day in Manhattan. Looking up, you see a billboard promoting Miami Beach, “America’s Winter Playground,” complete with images of palm trees, tennis, boating, and polo. This was one of the tactics Carl Fisher used to entice people to visit Miami Beach. Fisher was the mastermind behind Miami Beach becoming a tourist destination for wealthy Easterners and Midwesterners.
Fisher had acquired significant land in what would become Miami Beach. He began promoting the sunshine and warm weather, and it had the desired effect. The problem soon became where to house the visitors.
In 1916, Fisher built the Lincoln Hotel in response to the need for rooms. There were some other choices, including the Brown Hotel, the Breakers Hotel, small hotels, rooming houses, and campgrounds. Still, there wasn’t enough available to meet the demand. Without additional rooms, the sale of real estate would be negatively impacted. Fisher decided that a large, luxury hotel was needed.
In April 1919, preliminary work on the hotel site began with soil borings. It was anticipated that construction of the 11-story hotel would begin in September. Lodging for an estimated 2,000 mechanics and laborers was built nearby.
Jim Allison planned to join Fisher as an investor in the hotel when the estimated cost was $1 million. When a shortage of labor and materials caused the cost to rapidly escalate to $2 million, Allison withdrew. Instead, Allison decided to build an aquarium. Fisher knew the increased cost might make the project unfeasible and paused construction.
In December 1919, Fisher solicited bids to build the Flamingo Hotel with 200 guest rooms, each with a private bath. The central part of the hotel was 11 stories high with twelve rooms on each floor. Flanked on either side of the main tower was an eight-story section, to which a four-story section would be added, followed by two lower floors, each 100 feet long. This exterior design would provide outside seating on numerous terraces and balconies with views of Biscayne Bay.
The hotel was designed by Rubush & Hunter of Indianapolis. Formed in 1905, Rubush & Hunter designed over 250 buildings throughout Indianapolis, the Midwest, and Florida. The contractor for the Flamingo Hotel was Alton Beach Realty Co., which was owned by Fisher. Fisher turned to Indianapolis resident C. B. Floyd as the construction manager.
The main floor was anchored by an entrance hall. The dining room had both east and west views. The ground floor would also have a “buccaneers’ den” where men could gather. There would also be several shops including: New York jeweler Black, Starr & Frost; Fifth Avenue ladies’ clothier Bonwit, Teller & Co.; Miami men’s haberdasher Don Ferris; New York and Chicago stock exchange member Thomas & McKinnon; purveyor of linens and laces Max Littwitz of New York; hairdresser and manicurist Isabel Spencer; and barber and chiropractor Jacob A. Opladon. The hotel had a pier extending into Biscayne Bay. The hotel rates began at $15 per person per day, including meals.
Additionally, twenty bungalows were planned on the Flamingo grounds. The occupants would have their meals at the hotel. The guest cottages ranged from three to five bedrooms.
Another amenity for the Flamingo Hotel was a telephone exchange for the 200 guest rooms. The telephone company, based in Miami, planned to lay a cable with 100 wires across the causeway connecting Miami Beach and Miami. At the time, Miami Beach had only six wires crossing Biscayne Bay for 100 telephones. To support the growth of telephones on Miami Beach, a two-story building was constructed.
Fisher hired Charles S. Krom, a former manager of the Bellview Hotel in Bellaire, Florida, and the Griswold in New London, Connecticut.
Celebrated bird artist Louis Agassiz Fluertes was commissioned by Fisher to paint murals of flamingos for the hotel. Prior to starting work on the murals in his studio in Ithaca, New York, he had studied the bird on Andros Island.
Construction began on January 10, 1920. Over the next 193 days, 1,400 piles would be driven into the earth to anchor the hotel, and 60,000 bags of cement would be used to construct the 11 floors. It took only 193 days to complete the concrete work.
Indianapolis landscape architect A. W. Brayton, Jr. designed the hotel’s landscape. Tropical trees and flowering shrubs lined the approach to the hotel. On the west side of the hotel was the Oriental garden, including a Japanese tea house, outdoor dance floor, and a wide terrace overlooking the bay.
Fisher planned a special New Year’s Eve dinner for Flamingo Hotel stockholders and Miami and Miami Beach socialites. The next night, the hotel hosted a public dinner with guests paying $6 per plate.
Carl Fisher chose a suite of rooms on the 8th floor of the hotel.
Carl Fisher wanted to entice President-Elect Warren Harding to the hotel in early 1921. Fisher told Harding, “Mr. President, I’d like to build a cottage for you on the hotel grounds, and call it ‘The President’s Cottage.’ It will always be available for your use.” Harding replied, “All I ask is that you give it a big living room, and beds big enough for a large man.” The cottage was Florida’s first “Little White House.”
One of Fisher’s strategies for attracting tourists to Miami Beach was to offer multiple recreational opportunities, ranging from polo to golf. In March 1919, Fisher announced that a nine-hole golf course would be built adjacent to the Flamingo Hotel for the exclusive use of guests. Fisher obtained a long-term lease from Miami Ocean View Realty. He also arranged for eleven horses for the Flamingo Hotel guests' riding pleasure. They were stabled at the polo grounds horse barns.
During World War II, the hotel was used by the military. After the war, it was sold to Gordon Makin & Co. Since it was opened only during the winter season, it was never air conditioned. In August 1959, the Flamingo Hotel was sold to Omaran Corp., a New York developer who planned to build a 1,200 unit apartment complex. In January 1960, crews began dismantling the Flamingo Hotel.