The Don Cesar: A Beautifully Pink, Historic Beachfront Hotel on St. Pete Beach (on Film)
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Surrounded by the bright white sand of St. Pete Beach, the historic Don Cesar Hotel stands tall, pink, and proud. This massive 1928 hotel, also known as Florida’s Pink Palace, was one of the first developments on the island.
The Don Cesar was built by Thomas Rowe as a tribute to his lost love. The story behind it is actually very beautiful and something straight out of a Hollywood Classic. Within twelve years, Thomas Rowe suffers from a heart attack in the lobby of his hotel (and, apparently, his ghost is still there). His estranged wife inherits the hotel and, only two years later, sells it to the U.S. Army to be used as a sub-base hospital, then a recovery center for airmen returning for World War II. After World War II, the hotel became the VA Headquarters. The U.S. Government moved out in 1969 after the building slowly fell into disrepair. By 1971, the hotel was under threat of demolishment until the local community voiced concern and helped pave the way for restoration. The next year, the new owner, William Bowman, began a $3.5 million restoration of the hotel, which reopened in 1973. In 1974, the Don Cesar was added to the National Register of Historic Places. Throughout the 80s and 90s, the Pink Palace can be seen in many movies and TV shows. In multiple waves, the Pink Palace undergoes renovations to extend its event space, improve guest rooms, and add spa services. The Don Cesar is an award-winning, historic hotel.
I stumbled upon the Pink Palace while researching historic hotels on the East Coast. After seeing the Don Cesar, I was obsessed. It is a perfect Mediterranean and Moorish architecture mesh with a pink stucco exterior, clay tiled-low pitched roof, porticos, balconies, arches, and towers. The Don Cesar was designed by architect Henry H. Dupont. The contractor, Carlton Beard, improved the design by adding a floating concrete pad and pyramid footing foundation to help with the shifting sand. Almost a century later, the hotel still has no structural damage.
I knew the next time I was in Florida, I had to make my way to St. Pete. When I visited my aunt in Punta Gorda in mid-March, I convinced her to join me in seeing The Pink Palace. A long drive and a toll later, we arrived. Let me tell you, this hotel makes its presence known. After walking through the interior, I made my way to the beachfront side and felt transported back 90 years. The landscaping, colorful umbrellas, and lamp posts create such a cinematic atmosphere.
I was not disappointed when I walked to the beach to get the full view. Even though the hotel was bustling with snowbirds, it was quite peaceful, with the ocean as the only background music. We ate lunch in the restaurant (I had fried green tomatoes) and headed back to Punta Gorda. Besides having to pay way too much for parking, it was a nice afternoon.
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The Don Cesar Hotel’s style is clean with light ornamentation. The exterior of the building is adorned with clean lines, repetitive patterns, and a two-toned paint of pink and white. The scalloped trim along the roofline is set off the exterior just enough to create a crisp shadow on the pink wall. This effect adds dimension and another color (the shadow) to break up the light pink and white hues. This scallop trim also references the larger arches scattered throughout the Don Cesar, a classic element of Spanish architecture.
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A grand staircase surrounded by palm trees and other tropical plants leads out to the pool. At the top of the stairs, the main floor’s glass doors are covered with a pink and white striped awning, adding a three-dimensionality to the exterior and breaking up the repetitive nature of the window grid on the floors above. The sidewalk leading from the bottom of the staircase to the pool is lined with tall white lamp posts, mimicking the shape of the palm trees behind them.
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The Don Cesar is so beautifully symmetric from a view that is directly between the Pink Palace and the Gulf of Mexico. From this perspective, we can appreciate the balance and order of the hotel. On the beach, empty beach chairs are prepped for guests.
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Directly in front of the Don Cesar are St. Pete Beach and the Gulf of Mexico. The sand is sugar-fine white, and the water is an inviting sea green. There are no large, crashing waves or sounds of shells rolling against the sand. Instead, a gentle, continuous sound of water hitting the shoreline is the background music for this peaceful beach.
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A stark contrast to the Pink Palace, bright green tropical plants fill the in-between spaces of the exterior. The grand staircase can be better seen from this angle, highlighting the slight curve each step has on the bottom tier, the shadows the handrail casts even at high noon, and the garden boxes planted on the interior of the stairs along the handrail. This perspective highlights the variety of scales the landscaping occupies and how juxtaposing it can be against the clean face of the Pink Palace.
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When visiting the Don Cesar in St. Pete Beach, Florida, guests arrive at the back of the hotel. The front of the hotel faces the Gulf of Mexico as guests used to arrive by boat. The back of the Don Cesar is almost identical to the front; it lacks a clock, giving more space for windows. The center block is composed of three different sized windows, breaking up the repetition that runs along the wings to either side of the center. Half-circle balconies give the face dimensionality while four porticos sit atop the Pink Palace, reaching for the clear blue skies.
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The sand of St. Pete Beach is so fine, the beach is almost seamless. Little plants grow along the beach, creating dancing shadows and a pop of color.
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Even with four-story tall palm trees, the Don-Cesar still towers over them easily, establishing the historic hotel's massive scale. The plants also help give privacy to the rooms on the lower stories. On the top floor, there are arched windows that reference the arches on the portico on the ground, ending the repetition of the large rectangular windows on the same floor. The silhouette of clay roof tiles can be seen on the edge of the roof line, creating an almost scalloped edge.
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As I leave, I pass through the lobby that has been recently renovated (2012). The swanky bar is empty, ready for the guests to trickle in at any time.
The Don Cesar, or Pink Palace, was a beautiful place to visit and have lunch. I appreciate the design of the hotel as well as the care the community has taken to preserve it after almost 100 years. If you are looking for historic hotels to visit on the East Coast, I would definitely add the Don Cesar to the list!
Resources:
Caudill, R. (2021, November 11). The don cesar. Stanton Architects, Inc. https://stantonarch.com/the-don-cesar/
Our history: Historic st. pete beach hotel: The don cesar. The Don CeSar - Florida. (2024, April 27). https://www.doncesar.com/our-history
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Each image was created with a Hasselblad 500 C/M on Kodak Porta 160 120mm film. The film was processed and scanned by Pro Camera in Charlottesville, Virginia.