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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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