A final tourist day and this time we went to the luxury Hotel Ponce de Leon. It was built by Henry Flagler and opened in 1888, becoming the flagship of several hotels he built in Florida. When plans to demolish it were mooted in 1968, Lawrence Lewis Jr. (one of Flagler’s principal heirs) decided to found Flagler College and gifted the hotel to them. It is now a liberal arts college specialising in training teachers for the deaf - and maintaining and restoring the building. He was the Chairman of the Board of Trustees until 1988.

Fascinating construction facts include:

It was the first poured concrete construction in the US, using Portland cement from Germany. It took 2 years for 300-400 workman working around the clock to build at a cost of $2.5 million dollars. It was also one of the first hotel with electricity, needing 8 tons of coal a day to feed its 4 boilers and 4000 light bulbs. These included the gargoyle looking dragon heads that had red bulbs to give the impression of breathing fire.

Hotel facts:

It was only open from December to March and guests had to be invited by Flagler himself. When they arrived they had to pay the whole $4000 cost upfront – in cash ($100,000 at today’s prices). On entering the rotunda/foyer, the men turned right to the reception whilst the women were escorted left to the Ladies Parlour as it was thought that if they saw that amount of money they would either faint or go blind!

 With little entertainment in the hotel, Flagler built another hotel across the road - The Alcazar that boasted a casino, bowling alley, sauna, and swimming pool. They did however have 2 minstrel galleries in the dining room so when one group of musicians got tired the other could take over seamlessly.

Art facts:

Flagler considered himself a patron of the arts and filled the hotel with examples of work by successful artists of the time. The rotunda has huge oak caryatids surrounding the structural supports, hand carved by craftsmen from New York; the gilded dome is painted by George Maynard and the 79 stained glass windows were designed by Tiffany. They make up the largest collection of Tiffany original glass still in its original location anywhere in the world.

The dining room chairs are a mixture of original and replicas. Amusingly, the replicas have a cherub in the back that is grumpy rather than the smiling face in the originals!

For clock enthusiasts there are also two Edison clocks in the building although only this one in the Ladies Parlour is accessible to visitors. Sadly it is broken and because it is encased in the largest single piece of carved white onyx in the western hemisphere, is likely to remain so. As the guide pointed out though, it does say the correct time twice a day!

Outside is this extraordinary fountain, made to represent a sword sticking into the ground to stake Flagler’s claim to the land. It has 12 frogs around the base which represent the months of the year (and the disciples). The turtles represent the four seasons (and presumably the apostles).