Vinoy In-house Magazine

Natural Wanders…
exploring the natural world through writing

The Vinoy
Story by Linda Lee Rathbun, (most) Photos by Steven David Miller
Renaissance Vinoy Resort
(Magazine issued to all guest rooms, 2000)

 Images: Copyright Steven David Miller, protected by international copyright laws.
Do not copy or reproduce in any manner. All rights strictly reserved.
Text: Copyright Linda Lee Rathbun, protected by international copyright laws.
Do not copy or reproduce in any manner without the express permission of the author.
All rights stricly reserved.

The Venerable Vinoy
by Linda Lee Rathbun

As we stand on the cusp of the third millennium, it is only natural that we look to the future. Yet, much of what we yearn for lies in the past. Our traditions, our history, our stories, our values; all these must be held dear as we venture forward. At the Renaissance Vinoy Resort, the past has been preserved to perfection, giving this grand hotel a depth of atmosphere and grace that would be impossible to reproduce today. The Vinoy has accomplished what we all must accomplish: it has embraced the future while holding to the past.
From the moment the salmon-pink facade of this Mediterranean Revival structure is glimpsed, it is clear that the Vinoy is special. The hotel is stunning, from the octagonal tower festooned with white carved archways, to the equally exquisite threshold which beckons you inside. Built in 1925, the Vinoy has since been the landmark of St. Peterburg's sheltered waterfront, in fact, the tower used to be included in Tampa Bay navigational charts. Over the decades, the hotel fell into decline, yet the citizens of the town would not let it die. A $93 million renovation project has restored it to its former glory. At today's Vinoy, everything old is new again, and at the same time, everything new is old again.
There are certain things one expects from a luxury hotel, and indeed one needs if staying there on business. The Vinoy provides all this and more. It is the "more" though that is distinguishing. In the courtyard, notice the tiled fountain, and spare a thought for the towering Washingtonia palm trees that have grown with the hotel for 75 years. Think of the guests they have shaded, the storms they have weathered, the good and the bad times they have stood over. Consider the craftsmanship that went into the palatial entryway, and if the details of the bas-relief portal impresses you, walk around to the southeast exterior of the Terrace Room window for another decorative masterpiece. Don't ignore the terra-cotta colored frescos that surround the top of the building like a necklace of cameos.
In the lobby, there is much to admire: the original features so lovingly restored, and the new fixtures and furnishings that blend in as if they had always been there. The handmade-tile floor is inlaid with smaller pieces which recall designs from French heraldry. The ceiling is still graced with hand-stenciled pecky cypress beams, all of which were removed and replaced during the staggering task of renovation. Notice the molded designs set into other sections of the ceiling, and don't ignore the decorative disks along the upper walls: a Medusa head, a lyre, a trident.
Back out in the lobby, the small historical gallery is worthy of a visit. The photographs illustrate the hotel's past, and the old silverware is all the more precious for being the only remnants of that more sedate and glorious time. When the hotel went into her "dark age", almost everything that could be carried away vanished, and when a few mementos were found in a hidden safe, they became the keepsakes on display. Notice the elaborate dinner plate featuring a lovely mermaid, it is one of only a few left. The plates were reproduced, and when you dine in the Terrace Room, take a closer look at them before they are whisked away to bring on the 'everyday' china.
In the Terrace Room and Marchand's Bar and Grill, are other gifts from the past. Above the main window, the hand-painted frescos have been restored to their former artistry, recalling the frescos of Pompeii. A close look shows that just below the ceilings are panels of framed cloth, beneath these are even more frescos waiting for the day when they too may be revived. It is this reverence and attention to detail that gives the Vinoy its character: always elegant, always refined, but never stuffy or pretentious. After all, when you are the real thing, there is no need to pretend.
Not content to rest on its laurels, the Vinoy renovation incorporated numerous modern conveniences and amenities so that it could join not the just the 20th, but the 21st century. The guest rooms and suites were entirely redone, and all 258 rooms now meet the needs of business guests and vacationers alike. A new wing with 102 rooms was added, each with its own terrace, and some with their own spas. From the outside, the facade of scalloped balconies overlooking the water stands in perfect symmetry with its older surroundings. And as for the amenities, well....where to go first?
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If the bathroom scale under the sink in your room indicates that your diet has been hopelessly thwarted by the wonderful food, then throw on your gym shorts and streak over to the fitness center for a workout. There is an aerobics room where you can "work it" with a fearless fitness leader, and an equipment room where you can pump, step, walk, run, and cycle on a number of machines designed to whip you into shape. If you need a bit of guidance, trainers are on hand. When the hard work is over you can soothe away any sore muscles with a whirlpool, a sauna, a steam bath, or a relaxing massage. Now, doesn't all that hard work deserve to be rewarded with a cappuccino out on the front verandah?
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If tennis is your preferred path to fitness and relaxation then there are 12 championship courts to choose from, including a surface for everyone with grass, red clay, HarTru, and Deco-Turf II. Eleven of the courts are lit for games in Florida's balmy summer nights, and if you want to invite all your friends and relations to watch you play, the center court has spectator bleachers and an observation deck. The pro shop will match you up with a partner if needed, give you private or group lessons, repair your tennis racket, and provide you with the latest in tennis fashions.
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No Florida resort would be complete without a golf course, and the Vinoy Golf Club offers one of the best, with the state's longest Par 4 hole. The course was recently restored under the direction of golfing architect, Ron Garl. It challenges the serious golfer, while still providing an enjoyable round for the casual player. The 18-hole, par-70 championship course is set among nine lakes, narrow fairways, beach bunkers, pine valleys, two double greens, and a signature island green. There are also target greens, a driving range and practice putting green, and a bunker and chipping area. If you would like to cool off after your round, there is a swimming pool, and for those who have worked up an appetite and a thirst, there is a restaurant and bar overlooking the fairway. The pro shop carries all the necessary supplies a golfer could need, along with lessons for those who want to improve their game.
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Sometimes one has to devote some attention to maintenance, and the Eclips Day Spa/Salon is the perfect body shop. A Total Eclips Day can include a mineral spa, manicure and pedicure, facial, waxing, massage, scalp treatment, and full hairdressing service. You'll feel like a pampered movie star after a visit here.
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Lounging by the pool is an important way to spend some of your time at the Vinoy. The tiered swimming pools linked by a cascading waterfall, and the three heated spas provide an oasis for relaxation. For those who want to be a complete chaise-lounge potato, a flick of the wrist will summon a pool attendant who will bring you a drink, a cold towel, and even a refreshing spray of cool water.
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The Marina is one of the Vinoy's special features. Guests can sail or motor in on their own yachts, and stay onboard while still enjoying all the hotel's amenities, including room service. For those who love to stroll along marinas and dream of the ultimate boat on which to sail away, the 74 slips provide a feast of 'window shopping'.
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If the shimmering view of Tampa Bay draws you down to the sea, then the V*Y*C Charter & Sailing School will set you sailing on a full or half day charter where you can relax as a passenger, or help hoist the sails as an apprentice sailor. Watch the setting sun light up the front of the hotel as you return from an afternoon of watching dolphins swimming in the bay.
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For those who would like to learn more about the Vinoy's history, complete with juicy stories about guests sunbathing in the all together in private solariums (remember, it was the Roaring Twenties), please join the history tour & luncheon. There is so much about the Vinoy that is fascinating: her famous guests, her rise and fall and rise again, and her beloved standing in the St. Petersburg community. Anyone who appreciates architecture, and who senses the history in the Vinoy's atmosphere, will enjoy this tour.
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Children are not forgotten at the Vinoy. While the adults are away enjoying all the amenities, the Kid's Club offers art and craft lessons, junior golf, field trips, and other activities designed just for them.
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Finally, if you can tear yourself away from the Vinoy, there is much to see in St. Petersburg. There is shopping and dining along the city waterfront and pier, there are wonderful museums including the Florida International, the Holocaust Memorial, the Salvador Dali, the Historical, and the Museum of Fine Arts. During the baseball season you may be able to catch the Tampa Bay Devil Rays playing at Tropicana Field. Most of this is within walking distance, or you can take the complimentary Vinoy limo, or the trolley.
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Any questions concerning car rentals, restaurant reservations, flight schedules, touring the area, and anything else a guest might need, can be directed to the Concierge Desk. The concierge service prides itself on its willingness to tackle any request, no matter how outlandish. Just try them, they will undoubtedly be able to help...in almost any language!
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The Vinoy offers a number of Breakations that center around special museum exhibits, golfing, tennis, or a romantic getaway. Vinoy Club memberships are available for those lucky enough to live in the St. Petersburg area.

A Look Back in Time....
According to Greek legend, the Phoenix was a dazzling Arabian bird, unique in all the world, whose destiny allowed it to live for only a certain number of years. When its life was ebbing, the Phoenix would build a nest of spices, sing a funereal lament, and fan its wings till it and the nest burst into flames. When nothing was left but ashes, the Phoenix would rise once again...restored to a life of glory. And so it is with the Vinoy.
Like most good things, the Vinoy began with an idea. In a home that still stands across the street from the hotel, a Mr. Amer Vinoy Laughner was chatting with his friend, Mr. Gene Elliot, while they both watched a third friend, the famous golfer Walter Hagen, teeing off from the face of a pocket watch (without breaking the crystal), and driving the balls onto the property across the way. Now wouldn't that property, Mr. Elliot suggested, make a swell site for a hotel? Indeed. The next morning the idea was proposed to the property owner, a Mr. Williamson. Mr. Williamson agreed to sell the land, and the deal was signed and sealed on the back of a paper bag.
Like most good ideas, money was required to make it a reality. Mr. Laughner, a Pennsylvania oil man, raised $3.5 million, and construction began amidst a land boom era in Florida. Mr. Laughner also gave his middle name to the project, Vinoy, the name of an Arabian chieftain. Construction of the 375 room hotel began, with the architect, Henry Taylor, gathering a group of craftsmen and artisans to create the infinitesimal details that turned the Mediterranean Revival building into a masterpiece. A railroad embargo forced the shipment of many materials by sea, but in spite of this, the massive project was completed in ten months...a construction miracle in any time!
The Vinoy Park Hotel opened on December 31st, 1925, it is said to the big band sound of the Paul Whiteman Orchestra. It was the beginning of an era. At the start of each season, a red floodlight in the wedding-cake tower of the Vinoy would be lit, and from December to March it would glow like the sunrise. The residents of St. Petersburg came to view the hotel as the heart of their town, and guests would arrive from around the country to stay for a week, a month, or the entire winter. The room rate was $20 a night, and this included three lavish meals served in the Pompeii Room (now The Terrace and Marchand's Bar & Grill).
Word of the Vinoy spread, and soon it was attracting celebrities, the social set, and even a few presidents. Joel McCrae, Jimmy Stewart, Babe Ruth, F. Scott Fitzgerald, Alf Landon, Herbert Hoover, Calvin Coolidge. Entire families would arrive: the Pillsburys, the Fleischmanns, the Biddles of Philadelphia, and the Smiths (as in Smith-Corona typewriters for those of us who still remember what a typewriter is).
Because the Vinoy had become such a popular place with the seriously rich, it was not touched by the Depression. Warmed by steam heat in the evening, and Florida sunshine through the day, the Vinoy offered guests a number of activities: tennis, croquet, the bayside beach and pier, the Vinoy swimming pool, and private solariums. Guest could enter these, (a shocking two at a time, mind you), divest themselves of all clothing, and lie in their birthday suits while the cabin was rotated by staff so the open roof could capture the full rays of the sun. The hotel rooftop afforded an excellent view to curious boys with binoculars.
Parties, weddings, gatherings. Meeting on the verandah to watch the sunset, dancing, falling in love. A walk along the waterfront after dinner (with the chauffeur following discreetly in case one became tired). This was life at the Vinoy, but not even she could ignore the great storm sweeping the world, and soon the hotel bowed to the needs of World War II. Everyone did their bit for the cause, and Mr. Laughner leased the hotel to the United States Army. The kitchens which had once served the guests so lavishly, became a training ground for army cooks and bakers. Troops marched the tiled halls, and bunked in the rooms that had once housed millionaires. Though relatively unscathed, the war took its toll on the Vinoy, and she was closed briefly for repairs before opening again for guests in 1946.
Through a change of ownership, and the post-war boom, the Vinoy took her place once again as the heartbeat of St. Petersburg, and a favored winter destination of the social set. Rumor has it that Marilyn Monroe was a guest while visiting her fiancee, Joe DiMaggio, during spring training. By the end of the 1950's, the Vinoy was open year round, but lack of air conditioning made her less popular during the warmer months.
As the Vinoy entered her forties, she went into a decline. Time takes its toll on everything, and the Vinoy slipped into a middle-age slump in the 1960's. By the early 1970's, rooms were selling for $7 a night, and the Vinoy Grand Ballroom which had once seen glittering parties, was the sad site of volleyball games with a sagging net strung across the hardwood dance floor. In 1974, the Vinoy closed.
For 18 years, the Vinoy sat like a decaying, pink palace that no one could revive, yet no one had the heart to bury. She was scheduled to be demolished, but a voter referendum by the loyal citizens of the town would not allow her to die. While the Vinoy still stood, so did hope for her resurgence.
By the late 1980's, the Vinoy was in a sorry state. Vagrants and vandals made her their home, and bonfires were lit in the lobby on cold winter nights. Water damage had all but destroyed the structure, leaking down from the roof, along every floor, and seeping up from the basement. Broken windows let in the elements, along with local wildlife. Every fixture and feature that could be removed was sold or plundered, along with all the guest books, the chandeliers, the furniture, the wood floors...everything.
Like Mr. Aymer Vinoy Laughner, Mr. Fred Guest was a man of vision. Others had thought of restoring the Vinoy, but the task had become to great. Not for Mr. Guest though. When he visited the hotel in the late 1980's, he saw beyond the decay to the grand lady that lay underneath. The Pompeii Room, which had once served gourmet meals at tables set with silver and elaborate china, was now a giant pigeon coup, the hand-painted swans and griffins fading and forgotten. The basement was flooded, and when Fred Guest stood in the stream of water rising above the steps, he was cautioned not to proceed for fear of alligators. Mr. Guest did proceed though, and spearheaded a partnership between the Renaissance Hotels and Resorts, and the Vinoy Development Company to restore the Vinoy.
It took two years and a mere $93 million to bring the Vinoy back to her former splendor. And what a grand lady she is again. The attention to detail, and the intense regard for the past, saw that everything which could be preserved was. The pecky cypress beams, which had survived the extensive water damage, were removed for the re-building, and then replaced. The glazed quarry tile floor was restored, as were the Augusta blocks paving the front courtyard. The Washingtonia Palms were up-rooted, cared for at a nursery, and re-planted. Craftsmen and artisans were once again brought in to work on the frescos around the outside of the building, and in the Grand Ballroom, and in the dining salon. The bas-relief portals and archways, and many other ornamental plaster castings, were repaired. Old guest rooms were gutted, creating two new rooms for every three that had been before, air conditioning and heating was installed. The task seemed endless, and was far more complicated then just building a new hotel. A new wing was added, and in 1993, the Renaissance Vinoy Resort was opened once again. Fred's Bar, and indeed all of the Vinoy, is a tribute to Mr. Guest.
Though many treasures have been lost, everything that could be retained from the past, was. In the hallway that now leads out to the Tea Gardens, is a vestibule devoted to the hotel's history. Old photographs illustrate the hotel's early days, and a wonderful selection of silverware is all the more precious for being the only remnants of that more sedate and glorious time. These few mementos were found in a hidden safe during the renovations, and they have become the keepsakes on display. Perhaps the most lovely is an elaborate dinner plate featuring bathing mermaids, it is one of only a few left. The plates were reproduced, and are now featured as a dinner setting in the Terrace Room.
And so the Vinoy is indeed like the Phoenix, for she has risen from the dead, more opulent and glorious than ever.

Timeline....
-1880's: The bayside land where the Vinoy now sits is purchased for private use for the sum of $35.
-1923: the idea for the Vinoy is born. February 1925: construction begins, and the grand opening is held on New Year's Eve of the same year. Through the rest of the decade the hotel attracts America's rich and famous, and wins the heart of St. Petersburg.
-1930's: the Vinoy continues to offer the best to the brightest, largely untouched by outside events like the Great Depression. Everything a guest could want is provided, including a cigar booth, and a telephone and cable office in the lobby's shopping arcade.
-Early 1940's: the Vinoy is given over to the war effort. 1945: she is closed for repairs, and then opens to guests again. 1946: Mr. Laughner sells the Vinoy for $700,000.
-1950's: the Vinoy is as popular as ever, the shining star of St. Petersburg, and a favorite destination for visitors from around the country.
-1960's: the Vinoy begins her mid-life slump due to lack of repairs, and a decline in guests who turn to hotels offering more modern conveniences like air conditioning.
-1974: the Vinoy is closed and is left to vagrants and the elements. Ironically, the hotel is placed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1978.
-1980's: the Vinoy sits abandoned, but not forgotten. Several entrepreneurs dream of reviving the hotel, but the dream is not realized. The Vinoy is scheduled to be destroyed, but a voter referendum by the citizens of St. Petersburg spares her from the wrecking ball.
-Early 1990: the Vinoy meets her savior, Frederick Guest III, and a two year renovation restores her to the great, pink palace on the bay. In 1992, she has her second opening, complete with a new wing of guest rooms. Soon after, the hotel becomes one of only 75 to be included in the Historic Hotels of American Program, run by the National Trust for Historic Preservation.
-2000: The Vinoy celebrates her 75th birthday. A new addition is born, the Palm Court Ballroom, destined to take its place along side the Vinoy Grand Ballroom where galas and balls and parties will be remembered for years to come.

And....
Prudy Taylor Board is the official "biographer" of the Vinoy, commissioned to write the Vinoy's 75th Anniversary Book. As a prolific freelance journalist, travel writer, magazine editor, published novelist, and a keen advocate of preserving Florida's historical landmarks, Ms. Board was drawn to the Vinoy for its history and its standing in the community. Her extensive research, her attention to detail, and her ability to lift what is most interesting in a story, means the Anniversary Book is sure to be a hit. Guests who would like more details of the Vinoy story, and would also like a perfect souvenir with which to remember their stay, will want to go home with a copy of Ms. Board's book. Other historical works by Ms. Board include books on Lee County, historic Fort Myers, and Venice (Florida).
Mr. Christopher Still is the artist commissioned to paint the Vinoy's 75th portrait. Those expecting to see a simple rendition of the hotel's facade will have to look elsewhere, for Mr. Still is far more interested in creating an impressionistic portrait: the events and mementos that make up the character of the Vinoy. Mr. Still studied at the Pennsylvania Academy of Fine Arts, and was an apprentice in traditional techniques in Florence, Italy. His paintings hang in museums and private collections, including the Governor's Mansion of Florida, the Smithsonian, and the White House.

THE END