Royal Palm Hotel (Havana)
The Royal Palm Hotel is a hotel in Havana, Cuba, on the corner of San Rafael and Industria. It was designed by the architect Horacio Navarrete in 1926 as reflected in the Magazine of the Colegio Nacional de Arquitectos de Cuba. History. This property is located on the corner of San Rafael and Industria. It was inaugurated as “Edificio Luis. E. del Valle ”, named after the sugar magnate who owned the building. It was soon sold to Canadian Wilbur E. Todgham, who turned it into the Royal Palm Hotel. The building had two elevators and a  fire-protected staircase, all the rooms had a private bathroom with hot running water. In the 1930s, the hotel was bought by Pascual Morán Pérez, a businessman of Spanish origin who stood out in the field of hospitality in Cuba. Morán was very skilled in marketing matters and knew how to take advantage of the brand built by a previous owner to position himself in the market. He advertised his hotel as the best and most centrally located in the city. The hotel was owned by Todgham until it passed into the hands of Pascual Morán Pérez, perhaps through a  buying and selling business in the 1930s. Pascual Morán was Spanish, a native of the province of León, and on several occasions, he was President of the Círculo Spanish Republican from Havana. According to the book "Las Empresas de Cuba - 1958" by Guillermo Jiménez Soler, P. Morán had been one of the most notable leaders of the hotel and tourism sector during the 1930s and 1940s, and at the beginning of that last decade, he was considered the oldest host in the country as it was the only one that had not transferred its capital from the hotel sector. Morán  was president of th:e National Association of Hotels and Tourism Restaurants from 1938 to 1940, and of the Cuban Hotel Association from 1940. In 1941 he was elected as a member of the Galiano and San Rafael Merchants Association. The Royal Palm Hotel in the 1950s was registered under the corporate name Hoteles Morán S.A., because in addition to this, P. Morán had under his command the Hotel Florida on Obispo Street. The Royal Palm for its location was a very sought after site. Morán himself, who did not change either the name or the coat of arms, even  leaving the motto of how good the hotel could be in English, described it on the promotional postcards as THE BEST and most central hotel in Havana, just one block from the National Capitol and some of the best theaters. The hotel, as its postcards showed, was a member of the AAA (American Automobile Association), having the A-1 category at the time. Expropiation. In the 1960s, like many other properties in Havana, the Royal Palm Hotel was confiscated and nationalized without any compensation. There is no exact reference to how and when, but the building gradually became family homes. The  practice of expropriating hotels and converting them into multi-family buildings was one of the strategies of the revolutionary state to solve the housing problem in Havana. Architecture. The building was initially designed with 18 rooms per floor, bathrooms with hot and cold water service, and a restaurant on the upper floor. Its construction typology is the one that prevailed in this type of building in the 1920s: vertical towers of more than 6 levels, rectangular floor plan - in this case taking advantage of the corner - and rooms with exterior views. Like almost all hotels of that time, the Royal  Palm had a shield that is used in its promotion. In its design, it praised the Cuban Palma Real and included the phrase "It's Good" as a slogan for its service. The commercial function of the ground floor has been preserved to date, taking advantage of its excellent location on Boulevard de San Rafael. Taking into account the architectural values ​​of this building and its socio-cultural importance within the urban landscape in which it is located, the building received a major restoration in the year 2000 with the support of the Provincial Council of Seville, Spain. Guests. The  Royal Palm Hotel was linked to the tourism industry from the United States, its distinguished guests include the Italian entomologist Filippo Silvestri and the Argentine singer Mercedes Simone, known as “La Dama del Tango”.