Fox hunting at the Biltmore, Coral Gables, ca 1928
Hotels are the centerpieces of a tourist economy, and Miami
has seen some of the most opulent and innovative grace its landscape. From
Henry Flagler’s Royal Palm Hotel on Biscayne Bay (1897) to Carl Fisher’s
Flamingo Hotel on Miami Beach (1920), South Florida architects hired some of the
nation’s preeminent architects to design their hotels and provide guests with
all the latest modern amenities.
The Biltmore Hotel, the centerpiece of George Merrick’s
Coral Gables, featured Mediterranean Revival architecture from one of the
leading firms designing Jazz Age hotels in America, Leonard Schultze and S.
Fullerton Weaver. They made the hotel, with its loggias, open-air courtyard
and fountain, and copper-clad central tower modeled on the Giralda Tower in
Spain, a tourist attraction in and of itself. Merrick attracted well-heeled
guests by luring high-profile actors and athletes to the hotel and its
recreational facilities. Polo tournaments and fox hunts, pictured here,
attested to the Biltmore’s status as one of the leading resorts for the
wealthy in America.
Another claim to fame was its million-gallon swimming pool,
reportedly the largest in the world. The pool highlighted Merrick’s
intention of making the Biltmore "the center of sports and fashion." The
hotel hosted prominent figures from the professional sports and
entertainment crowd, including Gene Sarazen, Ginger Rogers, Bing Crosby, and
Babe Ruth. Olympian swimmer Johnny Weissmuller actually served as the
swimming instructor at the Biltmore before landing the film role of Tarzan.
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