The history…
Market reports, listings… Market reports, listing… how boring…
I am looking at The Plaza Resort & Spa in Daytona Beach, and I ponder about its past…
A few years ago my Moscow friend from school and college years sent me a photo of Hotel Clarendon on one Sunday in 1904. Beach, people, horse carriages…
I was looking at the photo, and it was a very strange feeling… Not only that life was here before us, but that most probably it was be as good if not better that our lives today. How active these people actually were.
At that time it was not Daytona Beach, this was a small town called Seabreeze. Now only the name of the street – Seabreeze Blvd., Seabreeze High School, and Seabreeze Bridge remind us of that era.
Hotel Clarendon is where Plaza Resort & Spa is now
This street between the Halifax River and the ocean with Hotel Clarendon standing right on the beach was full of life. Hotels, restaurants, shops, a Playhouse… It was packed with locals and tourists. It most probably was much busier than it is today…
Hotel Clarendon opened its doors in 1895. It had a casino, stables for horses and carriages, grand porches facing the ocean… It was one of the nicest places in the area, very popular… And then in February of 1909 it perished in the fire.
Hotel Clarendon was rebuilt and opened its doors again on the New Year’s day in 1911. It was a 7-story hotel featuring Turkish bath, hair salon, an 18-hole golf course…
The fun
Couple of months later the management hired a pilot to perform flying exhibitions on the beach. The first woman to pilot a plane in Florida – Ruth Bancroft Law – was also the first woman in the world to loop an airplane. It happened right in front of Hotel Clarendon. Yes, cars racing on the beach, were not the only thing worth visiting Daytona.
Then there was the war, then new owners and, subsequently new names…
Today Plaza Resort & Spa stands on the site of Hotel Clarendon. A premier condo-hotel in Daytona Beach, fighting for its place under the son in the shadow of its former glory…
It is interesting to look back. Yes, they did not have TV, computers, they did not have cars. But they lived full lives, they were happy in their own way.
It was the time of innocence before we bit the apple of technology.
