Abandoned Hotel in Tamp FL
Floridan Hotel, Tampa Florida
The Floridan Hotel was constructed through local enterprise and effort in direct response to the need for hotel space created by the increase in the number of visitors coming to Tampa. It was conceived by A. J. Simms, a leading developer and a native of New Brunswick, Canada.
Allen J. Simms came to Tampa in 1906 and began his career in real estate working for the Tampa Bay Land Company, first as a stenographer and later selling lots in Palma Ceia Park, Keystone Park and Suburb Beautiful. In 1908, Simms went into business for himself and organized the Simms Realty Company. In 1917 at the onset of the war, he abandoned the business and joined the Royal Canadian Dragoons. Simms returned to Tampa in 1919 and started developing on a large scale. During the next six years he headed companies that developed and sold New Suburb Beautiful, West Suburb Beautiful, North Suburb Beautiful and Parkland Estates. Other projects credited to Simms include numerous apartment and office buildings, the Michigan Avenue bridge and the Cass Street extension.
During the summer of 1925, at the height of the land boom, Simms realized the need for a hotel to meet the demands of the rapidly growing Tampa. He organized the Tampa Commercial Hotel Company, Inc. and served as its general manager and secretary. The board of directors consisted of prominent Tampa businessmen and included: W.E. Dorchester, President; E.B. Pancake, Vice President; Abe Maas, Vice President; L.C. Edwards, Vice President, T.N. Henderson, Vice President; and J.W. Taylor, Treasurer. Ben Cosio, Webb C. Clark, C.A. Faircloth, W.C. Hodge, G.C. Warren, C.E. Holtsinger, J.C. Vinson, L. Eli Knight, and J.W. Warren also served as board members.
The site chosen for the hotel was a quarter of a block located at the northeast corner of Florida Avenue and Cass Street within the commercial core of downtown. According to a real estate ad in the Tampa Tribune on January 11th, 1925, the asking price for the downtown business corner, marketed through AJ. Simms & Co., was $275,000. Financing for the hotel represented an initial outlay of approximately $1,500,000 and was secured by bond sales through the Adair Realty and Trust Company. Original plans called for a 14-story building, but were later changed to 18 stories to meet the increasing demand for hotel accommodations. Construction started in January 1926 with the placement of more than 600 piles for the foundation.
While the hotel was under construction, Simms headed the Cass Street Development Company which opened Cass Street through to Tampa Union Station and afforded a direct route to the Floridan Hotel. The company was also responsible for the construction and development of the Cass Street Arcade, a $260,000 downtown office and store complex located directly across from the hotel along Cass Street. The arcade fronted on Cass Street and extended the entire length of the block between Florida Avenue and Marion Street.
When construction of the hotel was completed in 1927, the 18-story building towered 240 feet above the sidewalk. An article in the Tampa Sunday Tribune reported that "quality materials and workmanship utilized in the construction of the Floridan hotel make it one of the most substantial and solidly built structures in the state." The owners of the hotel described the building as, "Tampa's greatest and Florida's tallest hotel," and boasted, "Every convenience utilized in metropolitan hotels is found in the structure." Each room was furnished with walnut desks, chifferobes, chairs, telephones and Simmons steel beds. Site construction and furnishings involved expenditures of approximately $3,000,000. The hotel formally opened on January 29th, 1927, with "addresses, public inspection of the building, a buffet dinner and dance and entertainment features." Speakers included Mayor Perry G. Wall and Jerry Carter, state hotel commissioner.
By the time the Floridan Hotel opened in 1927, the real estate boom had already ended. After the crash of 1929, ownership of the hotel passed into the hands of Barron G. Collier, a millionaire of street car advertising fame from New York. Collier owned the Collier Florida Coast Hotels, Inc. which also acquired the Tampa Terrace, another downtown hotel. The Floridan Hotel prospered through the 1950s, but as trade in the downtown area declined, so did the hotel's business. On May 11th, 1943, the hotel was purchased by a group of twelve persons who organized the Floridan Hotel Operating Company. In 1968, Penn Mutual Life Insurance Company obtained ownership of the Floridan after a mortgage foreclosure, and operated it from 1969-1971 as leasable space. With the loss of a large tenant in 1971, Penn Mutual offered the building for sale and sold it to A.C. Kalvi of Minneapolis, Minnesota in October of that year. Kalvi purchased the Floridan for $351,000 and operated it as a hotel for transients. In 1988, the building was purchased by Sity International, Inc. and has remained vacant since 1989.
Florida Land Boom
Following World War I, Florida experienced a vigorous period of economic growth and population expansion which became known as the Florida land boom. Attention focused on the state during the war made businessmen and developers aware of opportunities for easy fortunes through land speculation. Tourists were drawn to the "tropical paradise" by promotional literature. New residents were encouraged by the assurance that the state would not levy income or inheritance taxes. The increased mobility that the automobile provided the American public created a sense of wanderlust and dissatisfaction with the established national centers of urbanization and industrialization. This attitude helped drive people to new and less developed places such as Florida. The material prosperity of the country provided the time as well as the means for travel and speculative enterprise.
The development of a statewide system of public highways and roads in the 1920s facilitated travel and allowed the boom to become widespread. Road building had previously been largely the function of local governments, but during the boom period and following, the state road department committed itself to the creation of a vast network of hard-surfaced highways. From less than 748 miles of state roads completed or underway in 1920, the system grew to 3,254 miles by 1930. Private enterprise also accounted for many major and minor road improvements. Traffic in and out of Tampa was facilitated by two projects paid for largely by developers, the Michigan Avenue Bridge and the 22nd Street Causeway.
In the winter of 1924-1925, the incipient boom that had been gathering force since the end of the war became a reality. Speculation broke wide open in the late summer of 1925. The Florida boom burst into full force first in Miami and Coral Gables, quickly followed by Palm Beach, Boca Raton, Tampa, and St. Petersburg. From just under a million (969,470) people in 1920, the population of Florida rose to 1,263,540 in 1925 and 1,468,211 by 1930. Between 1920 and 1930, Tampa's population increased from 51,608 to 101,161 and was the third highest in the state. Jacksonville remained the state's largest city with a population of 129,549 and Miami followed in second place with 110,637.
Fortunes made during the height of the boom were just as quickly lost with the onset of the bust. The decline of the boom began in 1925, almost when the land-buying fever had reached its height. Financial collapse and a hurricane came suddenly and together in 1926. Two years later came another devastating hurricane, followed a year later by the stock market crash and the onset of the Great Depression. Although it was not apparent during the early 1920s, the state government had committed itself to too much too quickly. This attitude was taken up by local governments and private enterprise who failed to see the dangers of promoting growth and financing it with public bonds that could not be repaid with the existing system of taxation. Speculative real estate projects ruined sound ones by pushing them too far in the growing competition for customers. Between 1926 and 1930, the assessed value of real estate in Florida dropped from $623,000,000 to $441,000,000.
In Tampa, the building boom reached its peak in 1925 and held over well into 1926. The increased real estate activity rescued Tampa from a serious economic recession. In 1925, building permits issued in Tampa totaled $23,418,836 and represented nearly half as much building, done in one year, as had been completed from 1884 to the beginning of the boom. The increased construction activity resulted in hundreds of commercial buildings and literally thousands of new homes. March 1926 brought a general downturn in land sales and development activity in Tampa, but most of the persons involved in the real estate business expected sales to increase rapidly by the beginning of summer. In 1926, it was estimated that construction projects in downtown Tampa would value more than $10,000,000 with a number of major office buildings and recreational projects involving between $250,000 to $2,500,000 each. During 1926, building permits issued totaled $15,872,772. Included among the buildings erected during that year was the 18-story Floridan Hotel.
Building Description
The Floridan Hotel is located at 905 North Florida Avenue in the Central Business District of Tampa, Florida. Constructed in 1926, by G.A. Miller, Building Contractor, according to plans prepared by Francis J. Kennard and Son, the Floridan has a rectangular ground plan with facades facing Florida Avenue (west) and Cass Street (south), and a flat roof surrounded by a parapet. The building has eighteen-floor levels (including the mezzanine) plus a partial basement and a multi-level mechanical service area at rooftop. The fifteen-story tower (floors four through eighteen) of guest rooms, rising above the rectangular base, is L-shaped in plan. This steel-framed construction is veneered with limestone, granite and buff-colored brick with terra-cotta ornament. The building's design reflects the influence of the Ecole de Beaux-Artes in the use of Renaissance Revival motif and design theory applied to the high-rise commercial building type popularized by the Chicago School. The ground floor was renovated during the 1960s, closing its street-level storefronts.
The Floridan Hotel occupies lot 3 of Block 16 of the 1853 General Map of Tampa, abutting the sidewalks fronting the intersection of East Cass Street and North Florida Avenue. The main entry is centrally located on the Florida Avenue frontage. The building has primary facades with public entries fronting Florida Avenue and Cass Street. Marion Street and Tyler Street complete the perimeter of the block of which the Floridan Hotel occupies 100% of the southwest quarter, a rectangular plan of approximately 11,000 square feet. The vacant quarter block parcel to the east is associated with the current ownership of the Floridan Hotel. The Floridan is abutted on the north by a 3 story building renovated during the 1980s to accommodate the U.S. Postal Service.
The Floridan Hotel is located at the north end of the city's commercial core, four blocks east of the Hillsborough River and the cultural cluster that includes Hillsborough County's main library, the Tampa Performing Arts Center and the Tampa Museum of Art. The building is immediately north of the new 390,000-square-foot Federal Courthouse Building.
The Floridan Hotel, promoted at the time of its opening as the tallest commercial dwelling in Florida, is an eighteen-story building on the northeast corner of the intersection of Florida Avenue and Cass Street. The building's irregular massing consists of a three-story rectangular base surmounted by a fifteen-story tower, L-shaped in plan. The building is topped out by a multi-level mechanical service area and elevator penthouse, which will be referred to as floors 19 and 20. To avoid confusion it is noted that the floor and room numbering system used in the hotel skips the 13th floor in deference to the superstitious, possibly suggesting one more floor than really exists (floors numbered 14 through 19 actually correspond to floor levels 13 through 18).
The Floridan rises from a reinforced concrete foundation supported on concrete pilings supported on bedrock. The building's steel frame supports the floor and roof structure of steel-reinforced concrete ribbed slabs with integral corrugated steel form pans. The steel frame members consist of plate and angles riveted to form I-sections. Exterior curtain walls are constructed of terra-cotta tile veneered with a variety of decorative masonry finish materials, including matte-finished pressed brick, Georgia granite and Bedford limestone. Interior partitions on the first three floors, as well as the enclosure for the two fire stair towers, are of terra-cotta tile. Partitions at the upper floors as well as vertical chases for mechanical and electrical systems are constructed of cored gypsum block.
The Floridan Hotel has two primary facades of nearly equal architectural emphasis facing Florida Avenue (west) and Cass Street (south). Each of these facades as well as the secondary east and north elevations are organized vertically with three distinct components that will be referred to as the base, the shaft and the capital.
West Elevation (Florida Avenue)
Base: A slight offset in plan distinguishes the west elevation as the main elevation. This inset of the central bay of three bays focuses attention at the entry. The "Base" is four stories in height including the third-floor mezzanine. The "Base" is divided into three vertical subdivisions. A simply molded water table divides the first and second floor levels. A plain limestone ribbon supported on closely spaced consoles divides the third and fourth-floor levels. A heavily molded limestone cornice caps the "Base" and separates it from the "Shaft" above. The ground floor fenestration has been infilled with stuccoed building panels and ceramic tile. Two pairs of anodized aluminum storefront doors provide access to the ground floor and to the historic lobby at the second-floor level. The suspended canopy at the main entry has been shrouded in stucco. The central element composed of the second and third-floor levels is finished in crisply detailed rusticated limestone ashlar. The central arcade is flanked on each side by an arch with trabeated openings on each side. Each of these is surmounted by a pair of casements in a simply molded limestone surround. The paired casements identify the level of the mezzanine. This arcade was open to an outdoor lounge area when the hotel opened in 1927. Today, each of the three arches composing the central arcade is fitted with a pair of nine-over-nine wood double hung sash with fixed sidelights and a semi-circular fanlight. A decorative cartouche accentuates the central arch in each of the three bays. The uppermost level of the base is finished with smooth limestone ashlar. Like the two lower levels it is divided horizontally into three bays each of which is punctuated by three pairs of regularly spaced one-over-one wood double-hung sash. At the central bay the three spandrels beneath the coupled windows are composed of bas relief that suggest a balustrade. A subtly sculptured limestone surround details each pair of windows.
Shaft: Composed of floors five through fifteen, a slight offset in plan divides the "shaft" horizontally into three elements. Each of these elements, clad in buff-colored brick with matching mortar, is punctuated by three pairs of one-over-one wood double-hung sash at each floor level. The central pair of coupled windows in each bay is detailed with a limestone surround. The full entablature that forms the header for the paired windows is accented by an oversized keystone. Decreased window height marks the transition to the "Capital". A full entablature of glazed terra-cotta forms the header for this range of windows and divides the "Shaft" from the "Capital".
Capital: This element is composed of floors sixteen through eighteen and is capped by a heavily enriched entablature of glazed terra-cotta surmounted by a parapet composed of a balustrade punctuated by molded panels. This parapet obscures the rooftop mechanical service area. Like the lower elements, the "capital" is divided horizontally into three bays. The "capital" continues the fenestration pattern of coupled double-hung windows of the "Shaft" - three coupled window units per bay per floor. The central windows of the outermost bays are linked in a neo-classical surround rising from scrolled brackets at the sixteenth floor to a broken arched pediment above the nineteenth-floor windows. Paneled spandrels separate each range of windows on this element. A plain limestone ribbon links the sills of the seventeenth-floor windows.
South Elevation (Cass Street)
Base: This element of the Cass Street facade is similar to the west elevation with a few subtle changes to distinguish the secondary entry. All of the ground-level storefronts have been filled with stucco-finished panels. Plywood covered flush steel doors do not relate to the composition of surviving elements of the original design. A centrally located molded surround belies the original Cass Street entry to the hotel's lobby. The steel frame with remnants of the enriched pressed metal fascia is all that survives of the canopy that sheltered the Cass Street entrance. The arcade that provides the focal point for this elevation was glazed with large double-hung sash with sidelights and semi-circular fan lights from the building's original construction. These windows were probably the model for the infill units that enclose the loggia above the Florida Avenue entry. Each of the flanking compositions on this elevation consists of a blind arch with a surround of radiating voussoirs. This blind arch surrounds two window openings. The lower and larger opening is headed with a full entablature. The upper unit corresponds to the level of the mezzanine. The upper unit has a simple molded surround with a segmental arched head. The openings flanking the blind arch are similar to their counterparts of the Florida Avenue elevation. The remainder of the "Base's" detailing is similar to the Florida Avenue elevation.
Shaft: The elimination of the plan offset that divides the Florida Avenue elevation horizontally is the significant difference between the Cass Street "shaft" elevation and its Florida Avenue counterpart. A series of small rectangular fixed windows occur at each floor between couples two and three and between couples seven and eight. The material composition and the horizontal elements dividing the shaft from the "base" below and the "capital" above are similar to those used on the Florida Avenue elevation.
Capital: Features that distinguish this element from its Florida Avenue counterpart are limited to the elimination of the plan offset and the change in fenestration described in the previous section. The placement of the narrow fixed wood sash between coupled window pairs two and three and between pairs seven and eight has the effect of creating three subtly distinguished vertical elements. Limestone surrounds tie window pairs two, five and eight at each floor level into a three-story composition with bracketed base and broken arched pediment similar to the Florida Avenue facade. The enriched terra-cotta entablature with balustrade details the uppermost limit of the "capital" of this elevation.
East Elevation
Base: The east elevation is organized vertically in three distinct elements; "Base", "Shaft" and "Capital". Because an existing building was positioned immediately adjacent to the Floridan's site, the base has no formal architectural treatment. The area exposed by the demolition of the adjacent structure is finished with a combination of painted brick, concrete block and stuccoed construction panels. The height of this base corresponds to the second-floor windows adjacent to Cass Street. The base steps up to include the third floor (mezzanine) at the rear (northeast) corner of the building. A contemporary steel fire escape descends from a flush steel-clad exit door at the third floor (mezzanine level).
Shaft: This element is divided into two distinctly separate planes: 1. The projecting plane (left) is the end wall of the south leg of the L-shaped plan of the room tower, 2. The setback plane (right) is the inside wall of the west leg of the L-shaped plan of the room tower. These surfaces are finished in a brick of color similar to the primary facades. The projecting plane is punctuated by two steel-clad two-over-two double-hung fire windows at each level of floors four through fifteen. These windows flank a blank expanse of wall that corresponds to the location of the east fire stair tower. A full entablature of terra-cotta separates this wall surface from the "capital" above. The setback plane expresses the room tower from floor four through floor eighteen. This surface is punctuated by a range of regularly spaced double-hung fire windows in coupled pairs, five per floor. The parapet corresponding to this set back wall plane is finished with a simple coping of glazed terra-cotta.
Capital: This three-story element (floors sixteen through eighteen) is limited to the projecting plane of the east elevation. Coupled double-hung fire windows are organized vertically with a limestone surround, centered on the window alignment of the floors below. A three-story neoclassical composition consisting of three vertically stacked blind panels finished in square, textured, red terra-cotta tiles focuses attention on the alignment of the fire stair. This composition is treated with a simple limestone architrave topped by a broken pediment. The enriched entablature and parapet which caps the main facades returns and terminates on this face of the building, transitioning to a simpler terra-cotta detail that separates the capital from the two-tiered brick wall that encloses the end of the roof-top mechanical service area above. Three unadorned double-hung fire windows admit light to the mechanical service area.
North Elevation
Base: The base is obscured by the three-story building occupied by the U.S. Postal Service.
Shaft: Like the east elevation, the shaft element of the north elevation is divided into a projecting plane (right) and a setback plane (left). The projecting plane is finished and detailed in a manner virtually identical to the corresponding element on the east elevation. The setback plane of the north elevation is detailed in a manner similar to its counterpart on the east elevation. However, a vertical expanse of blank wall, corresponding to the location of the service elevator, interrupts the pattern of the coupled double-hung fire windows that make up the fenestration of this wall surface. The rear wall of the rooftop mechanical service area is exposed above the eighteenth floor stepping up to a level corresponding to the twentieth floor at the service elevator penthouse.
Capital: The "capital" is limited to the projecting plane on the north elevation. Its design is similar to the corresponding element on the projecting plane of the east elevation. A cylindrical steel flue is supported near the intersection of the north and east walls of the room tower's western leg. This flue extends approximately one story above the roof line.
Roof top Sign
Individual electrically illuminated six-foot block letters compose "Hotel Floridan". Mounted on an elevated steel frame with its two faces oriented southwest and north, this sign proclaims the Floridan's presence to those approaching from nearly all directions. A sign of similar design has advertised this building since its opening in 1927.
The interior includes the ground floor originally designed for retail space and service core serving the lobby, lounges and dining areas above. A basement boiler room is accessed by a stair at the east side of the ground floor. The original lobby, lounges, dining hall, and main kitchen were contained on the second and third (mezzanine) floor levels. The hotel rooms are contained on floors four through eighteen. The fourth-floor rooms were originally designed to provide product display areas for traveling salesmen. A roof top service area adds partial floors at the nineteenth and twentieth floor levels. The total building area is approximately 158,500 square feet including the mechanical service areas.
The first-floor access consists of entry foyers on Florida Avenue and Cass Street. Travertine stairs trimmed in heavily veined black marble lead to the original lobby at the second-floor level. The existing first-floor plan includes a lobby and lounge, check-in desk, administrative offices, and service space for mechanical equipment, electrical equipment, food preparation and storage. A partial basement containing fuel storage and oil-fired mechanical equipment is located at the northeast corner of the building. A series of retail and personal service spaces front on Florida Avenue and Cass Street. A bank of three elevators serve the lobby. A fourth service elevator serves the service and food preparation area on the east side of the building. The ground floor area underwent a substantial renovation between 1960 and 1980 relocating customer check-in from the second floor to the first, apparently due to a minor fire. The storefronts facing Florida Avenue and Cass Street have been infilled and finished with painted stucco and ceramic tile. Flush steel-clad doors have been installed to provide access to converted storage areas. Carpet, tile and a variety of sheet goods have been installed on most floor surfaces. Acoustical ceiling tile and vinyl-finished paneling cover most ceiling and wall surfaces on the first floor. This floor represents the major alterations made to the building.
The second floor and the mezzanine to which it provides access are the Floridan's primary interior spaces that best convey the quality of design, materials and workmanship that make this building architecturally significant. Travertine stairs bordered with black marble direct the visitor from the ground level entries on Florida Avenue and Cass Street to the check-in desk, lobby and elevators, which provide access to the room levels above. A large ramp of contemporary construction, intended to simplify access to the multiple lounge levels, is the most significant intrusion on this space. A short flight of travertine-finished stairs leads to a loggia overlooking the Florida Avenue entrance and to adjoining lounges. The dining hall overlooks Cass Street to the south of the main lobby. An ornate wrought iron stair rail, guarding travertine steps, leads the visitor to the mezzanine at the third-floor level. Food preparation and service areas were allocated to the east end of the building on the second floor.
Floor finishes in the main public spaces survive from the original construction: travertine patterned with marble in the main lobby; a subtly patterned terrazzo in the dining hall; and terrazzo of a bold black and white diamond pattern in the loggia overlooking Florida Avenue. The walls are plastered in a heavily textured pattern suggesting the eclectic influences of the Mediterranean Revival which becomes more apparent in the examination of the details. From the Florida Avenue entry, a colonnade directs the visitor toward the check-in desk. Plastered columns rising from bases of travertine and marble are bolstered with foliate consoles at the horizontal ceiling supports, cased and paneled with pecky cypress. In the more intimate lounge areas the design vocabulary is less formal. The clustered columns, finished with stained cypress, support detailed wooden bolsters providing a spring point for plastered arches, linking the building's neo-classical theme to the Spanish influence of the Mediterranean revival design vocabulary. Ceilings of textured plaster are modulated by members cased in pecky cypress. The ceilings in the peripheral lounge areas are covered in pecky cypress boards. In strong contrast to the intimate scale of the lounge areas, the dining hall is detailed in a manner referred to as Adamesque by the Florida Master Site File. A grid of rectangular columns and pilasters rise two stories in height to the plaster ceiling detailed in an intricate octagonal coffering. Foliate capitals crown the columns and a molded cove runs the perimeter of the room at a level two-thirds the wall height. The smooth wall surfaces are a strong contrast to the heavily textured plaster in the adjoining rooms.
The mezzanine at the third-floor level overlooks the main lobby and the dining area. The east side of this floor level was dedicated to food preparation and storage areas. The manager's office is located at the northwest corner, adjacent to the fire stair tower. The finishes and design elements are a continuation of and similar to those on the second floor. A guardrail consisting of rectangular panels spaced by turned spindles protects the overlook to the main lobby. The rectangular panels are perforated in a geometric pattern that suggests a series of crosses within the octagonal cut-outs. A wrought iron railing guards the musician's balcony overlooking the dining hall. The extension of the mezzanine floor level into the upper level of the loggia fronting Florida Avenue is the most significant alteration that has occurred on this floor level. Some finishes, the ceiling in particular, have suffered as a result of weather intrusions, leaks and a minor fire in the space enclosed above the Florida Avenue loggia.
Floors four through eighteen encompass the Floridan's guest rooms. These floors share a common plan for access to the guest rooms. An L-shaped double-loaded corridor connects the enclosed stair towers on the north and east sides of the building and provides access to the guest rooms. A secondary corridor provides access to the three centrally located elevators. Janitorial and mechanical equipment rooms are clustered with the elevator core on each level. An additional service elevator is located adjacent to the stair tower at the east side of the building. The room plan on the fourth floor included eighteen rooms marketed to traveling salesmen. The room layout provided additional space for the display of the salesman's wares. An example of an original single-panel room entry door complete with glazed transom survives on this level. Room plans have been altered on this floor. Wall, ceiling, and floor finishes have been altered over time throughout the fourth floor. Room plans on floors five through seventeen are generally intact, twenty-six per floor, with a bathroom in each room. Connecting doors allowed the grouping of pairs of rooms into suites. The corridor ceilings were dropped on those floor levels to accommodate mechanical air distribution. The majority of the baths survive intact. Grout-set hexagonal ceramic tile finishes the floor. Plaster walls are protected by a wainscot of 3"x6" white ceramic tile. All baths are furnished with a water closet and wall-hung lavatory. The street side rooms include a porcelain finished cast iron bathtub while the bank of east wing rooms adjacent to the elevators are furnished with showers enclosed with travertine partitions. Room entry doors have been replaced throughout most of the guest room floors. Transoms at room entries have been modified to accommodate mechanical air distribution. Wallpaper, painted plaster and carpeting appear to have been altered periodically throughout the life of the building. Some examples of the original single-panel hardwood doors survive on bathrooms and closets at floor levels four through seventeen. Room and bath partitions as well as floor, wall, and ceiling finishes have been demolished on the eighteenth floor.
Both fire exit stair towers provide access to the rooftop mechanical service areas. This multi-level service space houses elevator equipment, the hotel's water tank, pumps and distribution control, as well as, secondary switching gear for the building's electrical and telephone systems. An area of the roof deck on the perimeter of the service floor has been enclosed to provide additional space for storage and maintenance activities. This work area appears to have been constructed after 1960.
The Floridan Hotel's exterior appears today much as it did when opened for business January of 1927. The most significant alteration of the building's exterior involves the infill of the ground-floor storefronts. The interior at the ground floor underwent extensive alteration associated with the relocation of guest registration to this level from the original second-floor lobby. These alterations occurred as the downtown business district declined during the 1960s through the 1980s. The building's primary public spaces on the second and third-floor levels are basically intact. Finishes on the guest room floors have been changed periodically keeping pace with changes in style and fashion until the decline in the hotel operation's economic health after the 1960s. The building survives, structurally sound and in fair condition.
Street level view E Cass Street, showing S elevation looking northeast (1995)
Street level view of Cass Street entry, showing partial S elevation looking north (1995)
Street scene of Cass Street, showing partial S elevation looking northwest (1995)
Street level view E Cass Street, showing partial S elevation looking north (1995)
Arched window detail, S elevation looking north (1995)
Dining hall arcade, S elevation looking north (1995)
Street level view of intersection Florida Avenue/Cass Street, showing partial W elevation looking northeast (1995)
Street level view of N Florida Avenue, showing partial W elevation looking northeast (1995)
View of S and W elevations looking northeast (1995)
View of E and N elevations from Tyler Street looking southwest (1995)
Florida Avenue street scene (Federal Court Building construction in foreground) looking northeast (1995)
Cass Street view, showing E and S elevations looking northwest (1995)
Partial W elevation at street level looking east (1995)
Florida Avenue entry looking east (1995)
