This was once the finest hotel in the county
Hotel Blanche, Lake City Florida
Lake City's growing prosperity at the turn of the century encouraged David W. Brown, a local landowner, to secure the services of Frank Pierce Milburn, the architect of Lake City's new courthouse and the state capitol's 1902 additions, to design the largest and most substantial brick building in town, the Hotel Blanche. On April 29, 1901, he purchased a block just north of the town square, on the diagonal, for his new hotel. He paid $5,000 for the land.
The Hotel Blanche was under construction by the spring of 1902. Henry W. Otis, the contractor who built the new courthouse was also the contractor for the Blanche. Upon completion, it was the only three-story building on North Marion Street, and presented an imposing appearance. The center of the hotel block was occupied by the hotel itself, with a spacious dining room in the rear and a large salon to the south of the hotel lobby. The salon was converted into a soda fountain and stationery store in 1905. A cypress-lined swimming pool was added around 1910, and was used by guests for about ten years before it was removed to make way for heating equipment. The north half of the dining room was used as a reading room by 1912. The Blanche was the most luxurious hotel in the county, and was highly regarded throughout the region.
The building immediately became the center of activities in town because of the services offered in its storefronts, as well as the social life offered by the hotel. One of the attractions of the building was the post office which leased the southernmost storefront from 1902-1916. The 1902 Sanborn map shows that there was also a barber shop located in the shop north of the post office, and that the three shops to the north of the lobby were a ary goods store, a millinery, and possibly a boot and shoe store.
D.W. Brown, the builder of the Hotel Blanche, came into dire financial straits in 1914, and committed suicide on May 14, leaving insurance money for his wife to pay off the mortgages. This was not enough, however, and although a 1910 lease valued the hotel at $60,000, his widow was forced to sell it to the N.G. Wade Investment Company of Jacksonville in October 1919, for $35,000.
The Wade Investment Company acquired the Blanche just as Lake City was coming into a new era of prosperity based upon an influx of tourists who came to Florida via the new highways that passed through Lake City. In early 1924, an addition to the south, along the Madison Street side, was started. This wing contained office space on the first floor, and twenty-four new guestrooms on the second and third floors. It became apparent that this small addition was not enough, and in June 1924, ground was broken for a larger addition on the north side of the hotel. This addition contained five storefronts on the first floor, and thirty-two hotel rooms, and twenty-six bathrooms on the second and third floors. The identity of the architect for the additions is unknown. The tenant of the first-floor storefront at the corner of Marion Street and DeSoto Street, as of March 1925, was a dry goods store owned by Gelberg and Stein. Bruce's, a derivative of the original store, continues to occupy the space.
To meet the needs of the influx of motoring tourists, a storage garage was built for the Hotel Blanche's guests on the block immediately west of the hotel in 1925. The outlook was so good that the Wade Investment Company planned to build a one-hundred-room addition to the Blanche and raise the height of the present buildings to six stories. This never came about, however, for the collapse of the Florida Land Boom in 1926 signaled the end of the great prosperity and the tourist trade.
In spite of the general collapse of Florida's tourist industry, the Hotel Blanche remained an important social and business center for Lake City; and, in fact, attained its highest level of prominence after 1924, when it came under the management of O.K. Holmes and his sister, Rebecca Morrison. From the beginning, the hotel proper had had a spacious dining room, famous for its gourmet food. Even after the onset of the Great Depression, local townspeople continued to patronize the Blanche on Sunday afternoons when church services were over. The dining room was also the scene of the weekly Kiwanis and Rotary Club meetings, as well as the local sorority meetings through and beyond the 1930s. Other social events held at the Blanche at this time were weddings, receptions, coffees, teas, dinner parties, and high school graduation parties. The most outstanding social event involving local citizens, as well as people from out of town, was the annual Christmas party put on by Holmes and his sister. As many as four hundred people attended the party, with some coming from as far away as Jacksonville. There were some permanent hotel guests, including Governor Fred Cone and his wife, who lived at the Blanche after the governor retired in 1941. The hotel remained a regionally important social center until Holmes and Morrison retired in 1955.
In addition to recreational activities, the hotel was also the site of political gatherings and business meetings. John Martin of Jacksonville, who was Governor of Florida from 1925-1929, reportedly established his state campaign headquarters for the gubernatorial race at the Blanche in 1924. New occupants of the storefronts in the 1920s and 1930s included City offices, and the Florida Bus Line Company which served the area around Lake City.
Lake City and Columbia County
Alligator, the name by which Lake City was known until 1859, was first settled by Americans in the 1820s, shortly after Florida became a United States territory. At that time, the settlement consisted of two white households and the ruins of a former Indian village. Because the Second Seminole War (1835-1842) hindered the area's growth, it was not until after the war and after Florida achieved statehood in 1845, that the community began to thrive.
Although Columbia County did not have extensive cotton plantations, as did Leon and Jefferson Counties, its economy in the nineteenth century was dominated by cotton growing. Other important cash crops were tobacco and vegetables, including corn, oats, sugarcane, potatoes, and rice. A good transportation system was needed to get produce to market. The Jacksonville and Alligator Plank Road Company began a road in 1853, but it was not successful because of competition from developing railroads that were coming to the forefront.
The first railroad to propose Lake City as a terminus was the Florida Atlantic and Gulf Central Railroad, chartered in 1851. State incentives for railroad building were already in place. In addition, the citizens of Jacksonville and Columbia County voted for $50,000 and $100,000 bond issues, respectively, to raise money to purchase capital stock in the Florida Atlantic and Gulf Central Railroad in the spring of 1855. Construction did not really get underway until 1859, and the railroad between Jacksonville and Lake City was officially opened with great fanfare on March 13, 1860. A special excursion train carried 800 people to Lake City for the celebration. The Pensacola and Georgia Railroad, chartered in 1853, connected Lake City with Tallahassee by November 1861. Lake City prospered as the major junction for the two railroads which linked Florida's capital, Tallahassee, and the Atlantic Ocean. The Civil War brought an end to this prosperity. Although the town escaped destruction, the railroads were severely damaged.
After the war, tourists, invalids, carpetbaggers, and former soldiers looking for farmland came to Columbia County to start a new life. Lake City was the main focus of the politicians since it was the county seat, and the site where all land transactions were recorded. It was the largest town between Pensacola and Jacksonville, and travelers from Jacksonville often spent the night at a hotel in town after their sixty-mile journey. In 1875, it was reported that Lake City had three thirty-room hotels. The first brick commercial building was erected in 1876, and within ten years, four more were constructed.
Lake City's first real boom occurred between 1880 and 1900, partly due to its increasing importance as a transportation hub. The new Savannah, Florida & Western Railroad was completed in 1888, and took travelers from Lake City to Fort White in the southern part of the county. By 1895, the Georgia Southern and Florida Railway allowed Lake Citians to travel to Macon, Georgia, and connected them with the cities of Gainesville and Palatka, Florida. The Seaboard Line enabled travelers to go from Lake City to New Orleans in less than twenty-four hours by 1901. Lake City was also becoming more accessible through county roads which led from new settlements to the county seat.
The impact of tourism and new settlers had resulted in the establishment of many new businesses and institutions in the 1880s. These establishments included an Opera House, a fire department, the first bank, a skating rink, and the first county fair. The J.P. Coats Company operated the Lake City Ginning Company, which purchased Sea Island cotton produced by the local growers. It employed about one hundred people by 1887.
The institution that had the most impact on the town, and probably was most responsible for doubling Lake City's population in a decade, however, was the Florida Agricultural College, established in Lake City in 1883. The first classes were admitted in 1884. The campus was only a half mile south of the town center. Lake City's role as an educational center was further evidenced by the establishment of the Peabody High School and the Lake City Institute, which provided education for white children; and the Finley High School, which provided education for black children. A second state agency, the Florida Agricultural Experiment Station, was inaugurated at the Agricultural College in 1888.
The influx of new citizens to Lake City continued throughout the 1890s; the town's population doubled from 2020 in 1890 to 4013 in 1900. The future looked even brighter for the town when Henry Flagler, the Standard Oil and railroad magnate, donated $10,000 to the college for a new gymnasium, and when the Florida legislature changed the name of the college to the more prestigious "University of Florida" in 1903.
A severe blow was struck to the economy of Lake City in 1905, however, when the state legislature passed the Buckman Act which consolidated the state's eight public educational institutions into three schools. An academy for white women (now Florida State University) and a college for blacks (now the Florida Agricultural and Mechanical University) were located in Tallahassee. The site of the college for white men was hotly contested, and Lake City lost the University of Florida when it was moved to Gainesville in 1906. Although the campus buildings were re-occupied by the Columbia College from 1907 through 1917, the new school did not have the same prestige or the number of students that the University of Florida had had. As a result, Lake City's population dropped by over 30% between 1910 and 1920.
Although Lake City's prominence as an educational center declined with the loss of the schools, the campus gained a new occupant which brought prosperity again. The city owned the old University of Florida/Columbia College campus, and in 1920, it transferred the property to the United States government for the establishment of a veterans hospital. Lake City once again had a major employer located downtown.
Another decline, that of the railroads, was also turned to Lake City's advantage as the community became a major crossroads in Florida's new road system, which was developed in response to the rise in use of the automobile. Automobiles became a major mode of transportation after the state and federal governments initiated several road building projects. The Florida State Road Department was created in 1915, and assistance for road building was provided by the Federal Aid Road Act of 1916. The state also passed legislation authorizing the use of convicts to build highways in 1917, and in 1919 acquired surplus World War I equipment for highway construction. In 1921 the Federal Highway Act was passed, providing funding for highway construction. The first major project, the extension of State Road No. 1 (U.S. 90) from Jacksonville to Pensacola, resulted in the opening of the first concrete highway in the State of Florida on July 12, 1923. It ran between Jacksonville and Lake City. The north-south artery, known as State Road No. 2 (U.S. 41) was paved in 1924, and included Marion Street, the main street of Lake City.
Due to its central location in North Florida, Lake City became a regular stop for "tin can tourists" on their way to South Florida during the 1920s Land Boom. An August 1925 survey taken by the Lake City-Columbia County Chamber of Commerce estimated that 426 people spent the night in Lake City, in addition to those who stayed at tourist camps. The survey also found that on one August day, 1121 out-of-state cars passed the intersection of Duval and Marion Streets (U.S. 90 and U.S. 41), with thirty-two of the forty-eight states represented.
This unprecedented flood of tourists into Lake City created great optimism in the business community. In one week alone, $650,000 worth of land reportedly changed hands there. The Lake City Reporter repeatedly carried stories about investors' dreams for more and bigger hotels and resorts. The former First National Bank was converted to a hotel in 1924, and other hotels were expanded.
Building Description
The Hotel Blanche is a massive, three-story, masonry eclectic building occupying an entire block in downtown Lake City, the county seat of Columbia County in North Florida. It consists of the original 1902 hotel and two annexes, built in 1924 and 1925. The 1902 building is T-shaped.
The two annexes are attached asymmetrically to the ends of the cross bar of the T so that the building is now E-shaped. The main facade of the hotel fronts on North Marion Street, the main street in downtown Lake City. Storefronts are on the first floor of the main block and the north annex. The Hotel Blanche occupies the entire city block bounded by DeSoto Street on the north, North Marion Street on the east, Madison Street on the south, and North Columbia Street on the west.
Two antebellum, frame buildings were torn down in 1902 to make way for the Hotel Blanche. This block was one of the few downtown blocks that was still occupied by residential buildings at that time. Most contained frame or brick commercial buildings.
The present setting for the Hotel Blanche is little changed from the early 1900s. The blocks on all four sides contain brick commercial properties, generally two stories high. The building east of the hotel is three stories high. It was built as a bank around 1911, and remains in its original use. The Hotel Blanche Garage no longer functions as a garage, but is still extant directly west of the hotel. The block to the north of the hotel is a parking lot. The blocks diagonal from the Blanche also contain commercial buildings, save for one large 1920s bungalow, and one city park.
The 1902 hotel is much more elaborate than the 1920s additions, displaying some Classical Revival features on the main facade and south elevation, the most visible elevations. These two elevations have a heavy cornice and an entablature including a frieze surmounted by a dentil cornice and soffit with modillions. "Hotel Blanche" is written in the frieze over the main entrance. There is a heavy cornice between the first and second levels, and staggered corbel course quoins at the corners of the pavilions on the main facade.
The main facade (east elevation) of the Hotel Blanche has three bays; the central one is recessed. The two bays flanking the central bay have paired, 1/1, double-hung sash windows, grouped on each side of a single, double-hung sash window. The second-floor windows have transoms, while the third-floor windows have no transoms, but are topped with heavy cornices supported by brackets. The central bay has three large, double doors with fanlights and wrought iron balconies at the second story. A single, double-hung sash window is located above each doorway on the third story. The brick on the main facade is buff with pink mortar, while the brick on the south wall is red with pink mortar.
The south elevation of the 1902 building has seven single windows at the second and third stories. The second-floor windows are like those on the main facade, except that they have segmental arches. The third-floor windows match the single windows on the main facade. The street level is plain masonry, with one central entrance and one single window.
The west elevation of the main part of the original 1902 building is covered with asbestos shingles. Most of the rear windows are 1/1, double-hung windows, except for oversized, multi-paned triple windows and three single multi-paned windows. A one-story dining room/kitchen wing projects from the center of the elevation (rear of the building). The north and south elevations of the wing are dominated by large, double, 1/1, double-hung sash windows with fanlights. The brick walls are constructed with poorer quality brick and brick failure is evident. The dining room/kitchen wing has a hip roof sheathed with standing seam sheet metal. A small storeroom was added to the southwest corner of the kitchen in the 1920s, and is in very poor condition. The rear of the dining room wing also contains the chimney for the kitchen stove and two tall, segmentally arched double-hung windows, one of which has been enclosed.
The south wing (1924), located directly west of the original hotel, is three stories high, and repeats the red brick color of the south wall of the original hotel, and the rhythm of solids to voids of the 1902 building. Its 1/1, double-hung windows have no arches or cornices, but the annex is visually tied to the 1902 building by the cornice between the first and second stories, and the parapet roof line. A small, recessed, central entry provides access to the office spaces on the first level.
The west and east walls of the annex have fire escapes. The two walls hidden from view, the east and north walls, are of poorer quality brick.
The north wing (1925) is similar to the first addition, but has some notable differences. The north annex is much larger, with five storefronts facing DeSoto Street, and one very large store that faces Marion Street. The main facade of the north annex is visually linked to the original hotel by similar fenestration and horizontal corbel courses at the juncture of the first and second stories, and at the parapet line. Doors with iron balconies are in the center of the main facade at the second and third stories, and are flanked by two 1/1, double-hung sash windows. The fenestration on the north side has an alternating pattern of paired and single double-hung sash. The five storefronts at the street level have their original wooden, double doors and plate glass windows. The south and west elevations of both wings are strictly utilitarian, with regularly placed, plain windows, fire escapes, and service entrances.
The main entrance is composed of plate glass doors flanked by a set of plate glass windows separated by elongated decorative brick. Colored, octagonal tile, set in geometric patterns, is visible for about three feet in front of the lobby doors, in the enclosed hallways leading to the side exit doors, and in a small room beneath a grand staircase.
The interior of the original 1902 Hotel Blanche features a spacious lobby that leads to a grand staircase on the west wall. The staircase is symmetrical with divided flights. Immense boxed columns that carry the beams continue up the staircase to the hallway and mezzanine. The mezzanine is a large, centrally located, open space that originally led to a second-story porch. The main hallway has boxed columns and boxed beams with dentil cornices. This feature is also found in the interior staircase in the south and north sections of the original 1902 building, and in the large guest rooms adjacent to the mezzanine. Some of the 1902 guestrooms still have their original footed tubs and bracketed, wall-hung lavatories. The doors are paneled and shallow, paneled closets project into some of the rooms. All of the hallway doors have transom windows and there is evidence that they once had screen doors.
As with the exterior, the interiors of the two annexes are far more utilitarian in design and appearance than that of the original 1902 building. The guest rooms in the additions, twenty-four in the south addition, and thirty-two in the north addition, are largely intact. They are smaller than the rooms in the 1902 section, but contain larger, walk-in closets. The hallway and interior doors have only two large panels, unlike most of the doors in the original building which usually have six vertical panels, or four horizontal panels. The bathroom floors are raised and the tubs rest directly on the floor without legs. The bathroom walls are tiled with six-inch square tiles.
The 1902 hotel has lost some of its decorative, exterior features, most notably the roof balustrade, raised parapet inscribed with "1902", flagpole, and a porch. The recessed, central bay of the main facade of the 1902 building originally had a two-story porch with large, brick columns and spindlework balustrades. By the early 1920s, the columns were replaced with 8-inch iron pipes. Four large, round columns supported the architrave under the flat roof. The entire porch was removed in the 1960s. In addition, windows on the south wall of the first level of the 1902 building have been enclosed and painted over.
The lobby and dining room have been extensively altered over the years. A fireplace in a large salon to the south of the lobby in 1902 was removed when the salon was converted into a soda fountain and stationery store in 1905. The original entrance to the lobby has been replaced twice, and now has plate glass doors and windows. Walls and hallways have been paneled with 4x8 veneer. Dropped ceilings conceal boxed beams with dentil cornices. Boxed columns were also sheathed with wallboard. The grand staircase and lobby have been covered with wall-to-wall carpeting. Other interior staircases were enclosed to meet safety code requirements in the 1960s when the Blanche was converted into a retirement center.
Although the building has undergone numerous alterations, much of Milburn's work is still intact. The basic building configuration and many of the interior features, such as the dentil cornices, boxed beams and columns, bathroom fixtures, and hardware remain.