215. Pensacola's San Carlos Hotel 1909

One hundred and ten years ago, Pensacola built one of the finest hotels the South had ever seen. The San Carlos Hotel quickly became the epicenter of social life in Pensacola. It was constructed in 1909 upon the site of the First Methodist Church on the northwest corner of Palafox and Garden Streets. The church sold the lot for $75,000 and moved to Wright Street next to the Perry House. The building was the brain child of the lumber tycoon James Michael Muldon Sr. and Frasier Franklin Bingham. Stocks were created under the name of the Pensacola Hotel Company and the race was on. A contract for $500,000 was given to the local company of Charles H. Turner with construction beginning in April 1909. By the following year, the hotel, containing 156 rooms opened for business. Given the time period, the hotel sported its own well connected to a rooftop cistern with its own purification system. The two financiers turned over the operation to the Hervey Brothers, Charles B. and George H. out of Mobile, Alabama. Another lease followed in 1922 before being sold to another lumber tycoon William Byrd Harbeson Sr. and managed by his son-in-law Lee Conner Hagler. The two men added another 246 rooms together with a ballroom, newer lobby, offices, and shops. It was lavishly decorated to such an extent that it became a showcase for the coastal city. Its walls were adorned with massive mirrors with a huge spiral staircase flowing down to the lobby floor. Located inside on the ground floor were the Esquire Barber Shop, a coffee shop, Green’s shoeshine center, and even WCOA’s radio studio. Their fine southern cuisine was prepared in an immense contemporary kitchen that comprised its own bakery that turned out hundreds of delicious chocolate cream, banana cream, and coconut cream pies for its patrons. Many older Pensacolians still remember their hard rolls that were served with many of their meals. Their dining area was very sophisticated with huge arched doorways and hand painted murals on the walls. There were white crisply starched linens on each table complete with matching napkins. It is said that during World War II whenever a troop train passed through Pensacola, either day or night, that the San Carlos Hotel staff called in their cooks to prepare food for the soldiers and sailors at the depot. Everywhere there was white marble decorating the doors, windows, floor molding, and elsewhere. In the exquisitely decorated rooms on the seventh floor, there were many a meeting held by the Kiwanis, Rotary Club, and other civic organizations. In their ballroom strode most of the young high school girls of the day as they held on to the arms of their bashful beau’s for the school proms and parties. Wedding receptions were continuously held throughout the years as the blissful couples stood nervously in their reception lines. Close by was the San Carlos Bar frequented by almost every naval aviator that passed through the pearly gates of the Naval Air Station. The San Carlos Hotel remained the most majestic structure of its era for eighty-three years until the city fathers decided it had outlived its usefulness. The San Carlos Hotel closed its doors in 1982 where it remained vacant until 1992. Sadly, the grand lady of Pensacola was demolished in 1993. The property was acquired by the U.S. government whereupon the new United States Federal Courthouse was built on the site in 1998.