page_title: Lindsey Hopkins Sr.
section_title: Roosevelt Hotel (Lindsey Hopkins Technical College)
hierarchical_section_title: Lindsey Hopkins Sr. / Business life / Miami / Roosevelt Hotel (Lindsey Hopkins Technical College)
caption_attribution_description: English: Postcard, Lindsey Hopkins Vocational School
context_page_description: Lindsey Hopkins Sr. was an American businessman and philanthropist. He was both a major stockholder and a director of the Coca-Cola Company. In addition, he was a director at The Sperry Corp., North American Aviation, the Reynolds Metal Company, and several banks and insurance companies. His Metropolitan Miami real estate included business and hotel properties in Miami, Coral Gables and Miami Beach.
context_section_description: The construction of Roosevelt Hotel was started by Fred Rand, who far out on the other end of his Second avenue business strip, at Fourteenth street, founded the Roosevelt Hotel. At the time of its construction it was slated to be a $2,750,000 hotel, and was supposed to have 560 rooms. However, the Roosevelt Hotel Project was left unfinished in 1926, and its unfinished walls and rude interior furnished a haven for hobos and the homeless of 10 years, while two hurricanes did their unsuccessful best to ruin it.
  The structure was bought in January 1936, for $38,000 by Lindsey Hopkins, Sr., and his associates, Oscar E. Dooley and his son, Lindsey Hopkins, Jr., to both repair and finish. Over one million dollars was spent to complete the Roosevelt Hotel.
  Upon the passing of Lindsey Hopkins Sr., the building was sold for only $225,000 dollars to the Miami Dade Public Schools by Lindsey Hopkins Jr. in honor of his father and thus was named Lindsey Hopkins Vocational School. It is now known as Lindsey Hopkins Technical College.  At the time of the sale, the Roosevelt Hotel had an appraised value of one million dollars.
  “Dad was a farm boy, from Reidsville, NC., and his first job brought him 50 cents a week.  He wasn’t a college graduate, though he studied a little at Chapel Hill, at the University of North Carolina.  He was a self-made man, and a self-educated man.  He did a good job, because I have met few men who had, a better education – he read widely – he did it himself.  The school that carries his name would have made him very proud.” 
  — Lindsey Hopkins Jr.
caption: Postcard, Lindsey Hopkins Vocational School
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