The Newtown bee., 1890-03-07
THE HOTEL PONCE DE LEON.

No one who visits Florida should fail to see the famous Ponce de Leon. It is called the finest but not the largest hotel palace ill the world. Is imposing in mag nitude, graceful in proportions, beautiful in design and exquisite in the prOfusiOn and richness of it's decorative details. | The main structure is built on three sides of d quadrangular court, on the fourth side of which extends one-story portico, with q gateway in the center. The front age on the Alemeda is 3S0 feet, the depth on COrdOva street 520 feet. The inclosed court is l50 feet square. The main build ing with the court covers an area of four and one half acres, the dining hall and the other buildings one and one half acres more. The towers rise 165 feet against lhe sky. The hotel has 450 rooms. These are figures of magnitude; and yet, so beautiful is the composition, so true the proportions, so varied the outlines, that the vast size is not at first compre- hended nor thought of. Only after fa- miliarity do we gain conception of the magnificent distances. Moreover, sim ply to regard it as a great inn, even though as one unsurpassed for elegance and luxury, is to take an inadequate view of the Ponce de Leon. As we approach the hotel, attention is first attracted to the graceful towers, then to the great dome and it's copper lantern and then to the broad roofs with their red crinkled tiles and their dormer windows, the DOT ticoes, loggias and the corner turrets car ried'up into low towers with overhang- ing roofs.
 The main material is the shell concrete and the hotel partakes of the monolithic character of concrete buildings. Brick is used in the arches and window lambs and the corbels, balconies and ornaments are of terra cotta.
 The color effects are in the highest de- gree pleasing. The prevailing tint is the delicate pearl gray of the concrete, which turns to blue in the shadows, and serves most admirably to set off the red brick work, the bright salmon of the terra cot tn and the glowing red of the Spanish roof tiles. It is worth while, too, to note the entire absence of paint and that the color effects of the exterior are all secur- ed by the inherent shades of the mater ials of construction. This rule likewise prevails in the court, which, in keeping with the Spanish renaissance style, is more highly decorated than the outer walls and again in the marble and wood work of the interior. The effects vary with the hours. All day long, the chang ing lights and the play of the shadows reveal new combinations of beauty and, when Illuminated at night, the hotel is d delight to the eye. For the Ponce de Leon is d true work of art and, like every creation of cultivated taste, it improves with study.
 The dream of the protector of this pa. latial structure did not end with richly appointed aud luxurious hotel; his pur- pose reached beyond this and demanded that, as the shell material of the walls was to be found here on Anastasia island and the hotel was in it's very structure to be of St. Augustine, so in their decor ation the walls should speak as with d thousand tongues of Spanish St. Angus tine and it's storied past. The architects and artists spent two years in perfecting