The Don CeSar: The Pink Palace That Refused to Die on St. Pete Beach

It rises from the white sand of St. Pete Beach like a giant strawberry cake, ten stories of bubblegum pink stucco that has been stopping traffic on Gulf Boulevard since 1928. The Don CeSar is not subtle. It was never meant to be.

A Developer’s Obsession

Thomas Rowe was a real estate man with a flair for the dramatic. He purchased 80 acres of beachfront in 1924 and hired architect Henry Dupont to design a Moorish-Mediterranean resort inspired by the Royal Hawaiian Hotel. The project ran 300 percent over budget. Rowe named it after the hero of his favorite opera, Maritana, and threw open the doors on January 16, 1928, with a party that drew society from Tampa to New York. F. Scott Fitzgerald, Lou Gehrig, Clarence Darrow, and Al Capone all checked in during the early years.

From Playground to Military Hospital

The Depression nearly killed the hotel, and Rowe’s death in 1940 left it without its champion. The U.S. Army purchased the building in 1942 and converted it into a hospital for wounded airmen returning from combat. The chandeliers came down, the ballrooms became wards, and every surface was painted over in military green. After the war, the VA used it as a regional office until the 1960s, when the building was abandoned and left to decay.

Saved from the Wrecking Ball

By the early 1970s, the Don CeSar was headed for the wrecking ball. A local developer bought the entire property for $460,000 and then spent millions more bringing it back. A painstaking restoration brought back the pink exterior, the original lobby details, and the resort’s glamour. It reopened on November 23, 1973, and was added to the National Register of Historic Places two years later. Today it operates as a luxury resort where a poolside cocktail comes with a direct view of the Gulf and nearly a century of stories.