page_title: Ponce de Leon Hotel
section_title: Operation
hierarchical_section_title: Ponce de Leon Hotel / Operation
caption_attribution_description: English: Flagler College (former Ponce de León Hotel), 74 King Street, St. Augustine, Florida.
context_page_description: The Ponce de Leon Hotel, also known as The Ponce, was an exclusive luxury hotel in St. Augustine, Florida, built by millionaire developer and Standard Oil co-founder Henry M. Flagler and completed in 1888. The hotel was designed in the Spanish Renaissance style as the first major project of the New York architecture firm Carrère & Hastings, which would go on to gain world renown.
  The hotel was the first of its kind constructed entirely of poured concrete, using the local coquina stone as aggregate. The hotel was also one of the first buildings in the country wired for electricity from the onset, with the power being supplied by DC generators installed by Flagler's friend, Thomas Edison.
  The original building and grounds of the hotel are today a part of Flagler College.
context_section_description: The Ponce de Leon Hotel opened on January 10, 1888. It was an instant success, and within two years, Flagler opened another hotel in St. Augustine, the Alcazar. Just across the street, it absorbed guests that the Ponce could not accommodate and eased the massive demand. A year later, in 1888, he purchased Franklin Smith's troubled Casa Monica Hotel, renovating it and reopening it as the Cordova. The success convinced Flagler that Florida was viable and ripe for development, and it encouraged him to continue development south along the state's east coast, as he attempted to create an "American Riviera".
  With the success of the Ponce de Leon, Flagler realized the need for a sound transportation system to support his resorts, and he purchased short-line railroads to form what would later become known as the Florida East Coast Railway. He modernized the existing railroads for them to accommodate heavier loads and more traffic, allowing guests to reach the hotel from New York and other northern cities. Over the next two decades, Flagler expanded the system further south, until it reached Key West.
  Noted personalities that stayed at the hotel during its operation included President Grover Cleveland, Mark Twain, President Theodore Roosevelt, Somerset Maugham, Babe Ruth and Babe Didrikson.
  The headwaiter of the Ponce in the 1880s and 1890s was Frank Thompson, who was a pioneer civil rights advocate and an organizer of the professional black baseball team that became the Cuban Giants.  One member of the team, Frank Grant, was elected to the Baseball Hall of Fame.
  The hotel saw declining visitor numbers throughout the 1910s and 1920s. A major cause of this was the continuous extension of Flagler's railway, which allowed tourists to vacation in the warmer, tropical climates further south, giving rise to cities like West Palm Beach and Miami. However, even as the Alcazar and Cordova Hotels closed, the Ponce remained open and was one of three Flagler hotels in the state to survive the Great Depression and operate into the mid-20th Century.
caption: The front facade of the hotel, facing King Street in downtown St. Augustine.
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