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57-738: Flagler was a life-long member of the Presbyterian Church, and upon his daughter's death chose a plot of land on the corner of Sevilla and Valencia Streets, which was very near his hotels, to construct a new church building for the Presbyterian congregation in St. Augustine, the first in Florida. The building, the land it sits on, and the parsonage at the time were all donated to the Presbyterian Church and exchanged for land they owned on St. George and Hypolita Streets (Flagler would later build

114-837: A country house in Harrison, New York . Carrère was most active in the firm's large civic and commercial projects, including the House and Senate office buildings on Capitol Hill, the Manhattan Bridge and its approaches, and the New York Public Library Main Branch . He was interested in civic affairs in New York, where, with the help of Elihu Root , he helped establish the Art Commission of New York City . Later his public service extended to

171-573: A couple hours and try to keep awake. Four or five o' them was thrillers, at that. Their names was Adventure, Discovery, Contest, and so on, but what they all should of [sic] been called was Lady Who Had Mislaid Her Clo'es. The hotel's named after the fella that built it. He come from Spain and they say he was huntin' for some water that if he'd drunk it he'd feel young. I don't see myself how you could expect to feel young on water. But, anyway, he'd heard that this here kind o' water could be found in St. Augustine, and when he couldn't find it he went into

228-592: A hotel together. Smith couldn't come up with the funds, so Flagler began construction of the 540-room Ponce de León Hotel by himself, spending several times his original estimate. Smith helped train the masons on the mixing and pouring techniques he used on the Zorayda. Two years later, Smith would build the Casa Monica Hotel opposite the Ponce de Leon, on land sold to him by Flagler. The Hotel Ponce de Leon

285-493: A modern American architecture out of centuries-old traditions. One of the largest contributions of the firm was in the realm of urban design, a result of Carrère's abiding interest in the Beaux-Arts " City Beautiful " movement. An early advocate of comprehensive planning, he designed downtown plans for Baltimore, Hartford, Cleveland and Atlantic City. In collaboration with Hastings, he was largely responsible for carrying out

342-863: A municipal building for the city on this site). Like Flagler's other St. Augustine buildings (the Hotel Ponce de Leon , the Hotel Alcazar , and Grace United Methodist Church ), Memorial Presbyterian was designed by John M. Carrere and Thomas Hastings of Carrere and Hastings architecture firm in New York ; however, it greatly differs in architectural style. St. Mark's Basilica inspired the Venetian Renaissance style and Latin cross-shaped sanctuary in Venice. It contains design elements of Spanish, Moorish, Italian, and Baroque style. The building

399-519: A prominent New York City furniture and design firm at the time. Bernard Maybeck , whose later designs include the Palace of Fine Arts in San Francisco, served as a draftsman on the project and designed its 540 guest rooms. Architect Emmanuel Louis Masqueray , who had recently arrived from Paris and would go on to supervise the 1904 World's Fair in St. Louis, created the watercolor elevation of

456-542: A small room to the east of the central dome served as a brig when the hotel served as the founding headquarters of the Coast Guard Reserve U.S. Coast Guard . The Hotel Ponce de Leon opened on January 10, 1888. It was an instant success, and within two years, Flagler opened another hotel in St. Augustine, the Alcazar . Just across the street, it absorbed guests that the Ponce could not accommodate and eased

513-408: Is built on land that was part of a former orange grove and salt marsh belonging to Dr. Andrew Anderson , owner of the nearby Markland house . Construction began in 1885 by contractors and former New England shipbuilders James McGuire and Joseph McDonald; the building was completed in 1887. Various famed and notable designers, architects, and painters worked on the project. The hotel was designed by

570-583: The American Renaissance . Renewing his friendship with Carrère, who was also in the office, he remained there for two years. A referral through his father to Henry Morrison Flagler resulted in the commission first for a library extension to Flagler's Mamaroneck estate and then for the Ponce de Leon and later Alcazar hotels in St. Augustine, Florida. Further ties to wealthy patrons, who were also members of his father's mid-town congregation, propelled

627-530: The Group Plan for Cleveland , Ohio (1903), and again with Brunner on a plan for Grand Rapids, Michigan (1909). Then, in 1910, he worked with Brunner and Frederick Law Olmsted Jr. on a plan for a Baltimore civic center (1910). In 1908, Carrère was elected into the National Academy of Design as an Associate member, and became a full member in 1910. Later, Carrère and Hastings produced a plan for

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684-534: The Union Theological Seminary . His grandfather, Thomas Samuel Hastings (1784–1872), was one of America's leading church musicians of the 19th century: he composed hymns, including ' Rock of Ages ,' and published the first musical treatise by a native-born composer in 1822. Hastings was educated in private schools in New York, and began his architectural apprenticeship at Herter Brothers , the premier New York furnishers and decorators. He attended

741-535: The City of Hartford, Connecticut , which was completed in 1911, just prior to his death, which occurred when a streetcar collided with the taxi in which he was riding. He suffered a brain concussion and never regained consciousness. Thomas S. Hastings was born in New York City on March 11, 1860. His father, also Thomas S. Hastings (1827–1911), was a noted Presbyterian minister, homiletics professor, and dean of

798-537: The Florida peninsula from Orlando south. With the success of the Ponce de Leon, Flagler realized the need for a sound transportation system to support his resorts, and he purchased short-line railroads to form what would later become known as the Florida East Coast Railway . He modernized the existing railroads for them to accommodate heavier loads and more traffic, allowing guests to reach the hotel from New York City and other northern cities. Over

855-659: The New York architecture firm of John Carrère and Thomas Hastings , as their first major project. Soon after, they would design the New York Public Library in Manhattan. Interior design of the hotel was headed by Louis Comfort Tiffany , and his company, Tiffany & Co , which provided the stained glass windows in the hotel's dining room. The landscape was designed by Nathan Franklin Barrett . The hotel's furnishings were provided by Pottier & Stymus ,

912-572: The Ponce in the 1880s and 1890s was Frank Thompson, who was a pioneer civil rights advocate and an organizer of the professional black baseball team that became the Cuban Giants . One member of the team, Frank Grant , was elected to the Baseball Hall of Fame . The hotel saw declining visitor numbers throughout the 1910s and 1920s. A major cause of this was the continuous extension of Flagler's railway, which allowed tourists to vacation in

969-544: The Treasury Department, resigned. Carrère was offered the job, an offer he very publicly considered but ultimately declined, writing, "the system, not the man, should be changed." Carrère was engaged in the development of city planning in the United States. He wrote pamphlets and lectured at universities and to civic groups on the subject. He collaborated with Daniel H. Burnham and Arnold Brunner on

1026-560: The church decorations, and White's son was a page. Hastings is credited with many of the firm's designs and, in part because he survived Carrère by eighteen years, he is the often cited as the leader of the firm. He lectured widely and wrote a number of influential articles, later collected by David Gray in his brief biography of the architect. He and his wife enjoyed riding, and they built a country house in Old Westbury, Long Island . Following Carrère's death in 1911, Hastings maintained

1083-761: The colony included Felix de Crano , Reynolds Beal , Arthur Vidal Diehl, the flower painter Albert Fuller Graves, the Provincetown artist and teacher Charles Webster Hawthorne , the impressionist painter Harry L. Hoffman, and Heinrich Pfeiffer. During the Great Depression , the federal government had organized several of its direct aid programs in the city with the goal of revitalizing the area's tourism economy. Authors such as Ernest Hemingway , Zora Neale Hurston , Robert Frost , John Dos Passos , and, most particularly, Marjorie Kinnan Rawlings , visited or lived in St. Augustine during this time, and there

1140-883: The country house and garden movement of the early 1900s, where they introduced both stylistic and compositional ideas that shaped domestic architecture for decades to come. Their garden designs were extensively published, and they created a comprehensive staff to handle interior design in large houses, one of the first offices to offer these services. Their largest and most notable country houses included Blairsden (1898) in Peapack, New Jersey , Bellefontaine (1897, altered) in Lenox, Massachusetts, Arden (1905–09) in Harriman, New York , and Nemours (1910) in Wilmington, Delaware. The office's significant skyscrapers were not designed until

1197-559: The evenin' we strolled acrost the street to the Ponce—that's supposed to be even sweller yet than where we were stoppin' at. We walked all over the place without recognizin' nobody from our set. I finally warned the Missus that if we didn't duck back to our room I'd probably have a heart attack from excitement; but she'd read in her Florida guide that the decorations and pitchers was worth goin' miles to see, so we had to stand in front o' them for

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1254-848: The firm's major public commissions: the New York Public Library (1897–1912), the House and Senate Office Buildings in Washington (1908–09), the planning of the Pan-American Exposition in Buffalo (1901), the McKinnley Memorial in Buffalo, Richmond Borough Hall on Staten Island (1904–06), and the Paterson (New Jersey) City Hall (1896). The architects were also noted for their contributions to

1311-460: The firm's name and continued his role as principal in the firm, but shared responsibility in large commissions with trusted associates such as Richmond Shreve , Theodore Blake and others. Owen Brainard, an engineer, was a junior partner in the firm during Carrère's lifetime and continued to consult with the firm thereafter. Eventually this collaborative arrangement would result in the formation of Shreve, Lamb and Blake (later Shreve, Lamb and Harmon),

1368-598: The first African-American artist to have his work hung in both the Vatican and the White House . After the war ended, the building was deactivated by the Coast Guard and returned to operation as a hotel. Large crowds that had stayed away from the city during the war returned, but the boom did not last. The hotel saw declining visitor numbers in the following years, and in 1967 it was permanently closed. In 1968

1425-653: The floors are Italian marble , the pews are carved from mahogany , and the baptismal font was carved from a single block of Siena marble. The baptismal font's inscription reads, "'In Memoriam—F. H. B. to J. L, B.—March 25th, 1889. I will be a God unto thee and to thy seed after thee. (Genesis 17:7)". The church was dedicated on March 16, 1890, and the ceremony was attended by many dignitaries, including First Lady Caroline Harrison , and Vice President Levi Morton . Stained glass windows designed by German artist Herman T. Schladermundt took twelve years to complete and were finally installed in 1901. When Flagler died in 1913, he

1482-511: The former hotel to thousands of visitors annually. The building was added to the US National Register of Historic Places in 1975, and became a U.S. National Historic Landmark on February 21, 2006. Carr%C3%A8re and Hastings Carrère and Hastings , the firm of John Merven Carrère ( / k ə ˈ r ɛər / kə- RAIR ; November 9, 1858 – March 1, 1911) and Thomas Hastings (March 11, 1860 – October 22, 1929),

1539-567: The hotel became the centerpiece of the newly-established Flagler College . Beginning in 1976, with the nation's bicentennial anniversary, Flagler College embarked on an ambitious campaign to restore the hotel and other Flagler-era campus buildings to their original grandeur. In 1988 the College celebrated the centennial of the Ponce de Leon Hotel, and a decade later students created the Flagler's Legacy program, which provides guided historic tours of

1596-486: The hotel business and got even with the United States by chargin' five dollars a day and up for a room. Electricity was supplied by the Edison Electric Company , as Thomas Edison was a personal friend of Henry Flagler and architect Thomas Hastings' brother Frank, who was the company's secretary-treasurer. Edison oversaw the installation of DC dynamos in the hotel. The building was one of the first in

1653-547: The hotel, with up to 2,500 trainees living in the building at any one time. One of the Coast Guardsmen the trained at the hotel was Jacob Lawrence , already a famous artist. According to the official Coast Guard history, In October 1943 Lawrence was drafted into the Coast Guard, then part of the Navy. As the armed services were still segregated, he, along with all African-American recruits, were automatically limited to

1710-675: The hotel. Murals in the rotunda and dining room were completed by the well-known artist George W. Maynard , who a decade later painted a second set of the Exploration series murals in the Treasures Gallery at the Thomas Jefferson Building of the Library of Congress . The murals at the Ponce were well known at the time. Writing of a visit to St Augustine, Ring Lardner has one of his characters say: In

1767-599: The late 1910s and early 1920s when, in association with other architects, Hastings' office worked on the Cunard Building (1917–21) and the Standard Oil Building (1920–28), which stand across the street from each other on Broadway at Bowling Green. Hastings was a critic of tall buildings in cities, warning that buildings over six stories (the height of Parisian hôtels particuliers ) produced alienation by removing references to human scale, and destroyed

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1824-408: The local coquina stone as aggregate. The hotel is one of the first buildings in the country wired for electricity from the onset, with the power being supplied by DC generators installed by Flagler's friend, Thomas Edison . Since 1968, with the founding of Flagler College, the original building and grounds of the hotel serve as the centerpiece of the campus Flagler College . Henry Flagler spent

1881-763: The massive demand. A year later, in 1888, he purchased friend and colleague Franklin Smith 's Casa Monica Hotel , renovating it and reopening it as the Cordova. The projects were Flagler's first three projects as a partner in PICO, the Plant Investment Company. In 1882, Henry Plant, Flagler and nine other northern businessmen established the corporation to develop the Southernmost Frontier of the US –

1938-701: The national arena. In the 1890s he worked with other leaders of the American Institute of Architects to persuade the US Treasury Department to implement the Tarsney Act , which had been passed by Congress in 1893 to allow the federal government to award architectural commissions for its buildings through open design competitions. During the extended Tarsney controversy, Jeremiah O'Rourke , the Supervising Architect of

1995-727: The next two decades, Flagler expanded the system further south, until it reached Key West . The Overseas Extension is known as the Eighth Wonder of the Modern World. Noted personalities that stayed at the hotel during its operation included President Grover Cleveland , Mark Twain , future President Franklin D. Roosevelt , as a college student on spring break, President Theodore Roosevelt , President Warren G. Harding , future President John F. Kennedy at age 13 with his family, Vice President Lyndon B. Johnson , Somerset Maugham , Babe Ruth and Babe Didrikson . The headwaiter of

2052-506: The noted builders of skyscrapers. Hastings died of complications of an appendectomy on October 23, 1929. Some of his papers were given to the American Academy of Arts & Letters, where he was a member and treasurer for many years. He was survived by his wife but left no heirs. The firm's first major commission came from a parishioner of Rev. Hastings, Henry Morrison Flagler, the Florida developer and railway tycoon, for whom

2109-708: The partners built the Ponce de León Hotel (1885–1888) in St. Augustine, Florida (now part of Flagler College ). This was followed by the Alcazar Hotel (1887–88 now the Lightner Museum ), as well as the Flagler Memorial Presbyterian Church (1887), both in St. Augustine, and a house for Henry Flagler nearby. In 1901 they designed a second house for Flagler, Whitehall , in the resort he developed, Palm Beach, Florida . Whitehall

2166-503: The public on Fridays from 11AM-3:30PM. 29°53′38″N 81°19′01″W  /  29.89379°N 81.31688°W  / 29.89379; -81.31688 Ponce de Leon Hotel The Hotel Ponce de Leon , also known as The Ponce , was a luxury hotel in St. Augustine, Florida , built by millionaire developer and Standard Oil co-founder Henry M. Flagler . Built between 1885–1887, the winter resort opened in January 1888. The hotel

2223-642: The railroad tycoon, Thomas Fortune Ryan , one of Wall Street's notorious capitalists, and several members of the Blair family of New Jersey. The early work of the firm was eclectic but always succinctly organized, an inheritance of their École des Beaux-Arts training. Following the World Columbian Exposition of 1893, and its influential classical themes, the firm's style began to exhibit modern French and Renaissance revival attributes. The attention to sculpture and surface embellishment in their work

2280-476: The rapid success of the young architects. His brother Frank's ties to E. C. Benedict, a leading financier, introduced him not only to patrons but also to his future wife. In 1900, at the age of 40, he married Benedict's daughter Helen at the Presbyterian church in Greenwich, Connecticut . The ceremony was attended by many of New York's wealthy citizens. Charles F. McKim was the best man, Stanford White designed

2337-624: The rear of the resort. The colony attracted many up-and-coming American artists of the time, including Martin Johnson Heade , who painted, among other works, "Giant Magnolias on a Blue Cloth" in Studio No. 7. The painting now hangs in the National Gallery of Art in Washington, D.C., and Heade has been honored on a U.S. postage stamp. Other works of his are in the White House and various significant galleries. Other artists of

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2394-468: The steward's mate rate. After his basic training at Curtis Bay, Maryland he was assigned to the Ponce de Leon Hotel (commandeered by the Coast Guard) in St. Augustine. Despite his rate, Lawrence was urged to continue his artistic endeavors by his commanding officer, Captain J.S. Rosenthal. He was later transferred to USCGC Sea Cloud [1944], the first integrated ship in the naval services. He became

2451-413: The top of the dome fell and pierced several holes through the copper. The cross was removed while the dome was repaired, but was later returned. As of March 2019, the church is continuing renovation work to repair damage from Hurricane Matthew and Hurricane Irma. The current Pastor and Head of Staff is Flagler College graduate Rev. Dr. W. Hunter Camp, II. Free self-guided building tours are available to

2508-460: The warmer, tropical climates further south, giving rise to cities like West Palm Beach and Miami. However, even as the Alcazar and Cordova Hotels closed, the Ponce remained open and was one of three Flagler hotels in the state to survive the Great Depression and operate into the mid-20th Century. Flagler established an artist colony at the hotel, with an Artists' Studios building constructed to

2565-609: The winter of 1882–1883 in St. Augustine where he became interested in the historic city and its potential for a winter resort for wealthy northerners. He was particularly impressed with the poured concrete construction method of the Villa Zorayda , the recently constructed winter home of businessman Franklin Smith . Flagler offered to buy it for his wife, but Smith would not sell it to him. Flagler returned to St. Augustine in 1885 and made Smith an offer. If Smith could raise $ 50,000, Flagler would invest $ 150,000 and they would build

2622-431: The world to be wired for electricity and constructed with it in mind. When the hotel first opened, Flagler hired staff to turn power on and off for his residents, because the people staying at the hotel were too afraid to turn the switches on and off themselves. Originally, the twin towers of the hotel were water storage tanks which contained 8,000 gallons each, providing running water for hotel guests. During World War II,

2679-639: The École nationale supérieure des Beaux-Arts in Paris from 1880–1883 as a student in the atelier of Louis-Jules André . There he met his future partner, and both maintained ties to Europe throughout their lives (Hastings earning the French Legion of Honor as well as the Gold Medal of the RIBA). Upon returning to New York, Hastings entered the office of McKim, Mead & White, the leading American firm of

2736-676: The École nationale supérieure des Beaux-Arts, Paris, where he was in the atelier of Leon Ginian until 1882. He returned to New York where his family had resettled after leaving Brazil and worked as draughtsmen for the architectural firm of McKim, Mead and White . He and his Paris acquaintance, Thomas Hastings, worked there together before striking out on their own in 1885. During this period Carrère independently designed several circular panorama buildings in New York and Chicago. After he married Marion Dell in 1886, they lived on Staten Island and had three daughters, one of whom died as an infant. In 1901 they moved to East 65th Street in Manhattan and built

2793-404: Was always closely tied to the axial planning that ensured the functionality of the interior spaces and circulation. They were among the earliest users of new technologies, from structural steel to electrification, even employing passive air conditioning systems. But their major interest was in the adaptation of the classical language of architecture developed in Europe to the American scene, creating

2850-433: Was an American architecture firm specializing in Beaux-Arts architecture . Located in New York City, the firm practiced from 1885 until 1929, although Hastings practiced alone after Carrère died in an automobile accident in 1911. Both men studied at the École nationale supérieure des Beaux-Arts in France and worked at the firm of McKim, Mead and White before they established their firm. The partnership's first success

2907-478: Was an active community of artists. During World War II , the Ponce de Leon Hotel was taken over by the federal government and was used as a Coast Guard Training Center. St. Augustine is considered to be the birthplace of the Coast Guard Reserve , as one of the first classes to graduate from Reserve officer training did so at St. Augustine in May 1941. From 1942 until the end of the war in 1945, thousands of young recruits received their basic and advanced training at

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2964-424: Was born in Rio de Janeiro , Brazil, the son of John Merven Carrère, a Baltimore native and Anna Louisa Maxwell, a Scots/Brazilian native of Rio who was the daughter of Joseph Maxwell, a prosperous coffee trader. The architect's father entered Maxwell's coffee business and later developed other business interests of his own in Brazil. As a boy Carrère was sent to Switzerland for his education until 1880, when he entered

3021-477: Was completed in 1902. Whitehall is a Mediterranean-flavored house faced with white stucco, with palatial interiors in various styles ranged round a grand entrance hall with double staircase. Carrère and Hastings were among the best-connected New York architects, and benefited from associations with the richest and most powerful of the city's citizens. Clients included Elihu Root , the noted attorney and cabinet secretary under Theodore Roosevelt, Edward H. Harriman ,

3078-407: Was constructed by builders McGuire and McDonald using poured concrete mixed with coquina , a process also used in Flagler's other buildings as well as in Franklin W. Smith 's nearby Villa Zorayda and Casa Monica Hotel . The cost of the construction was around $ 250,000. Many of the exterior architectural details were created with gold and white terracotta . The copper dome was created in Italy,

3135-406: Was designed in the Spanish Colonial Revival style as the first major project of the New York architecture firm Carrère & Hastings , which gained world renown for more than 600 projects, including the House and Senate Office Buildings flanking the US Capitol. Their final project was the New York Public Library. The hotel is the first of its kind constructed entirely of poured concrete, using

3192-452: Was interred in a marble mausoleum connected to the church alongside his daughter Jennie, his infant granddaughter Margery, and first wife Mary Harkness Flagler. In 2012, CNN included Memorial Presbyterian in a list of one of the top eight religious wonders to visit in the United States. Following Hurricane Irma in 2017, Memorial Presbyterian's copper dome underwent a major restoration costing $ 3.5 million. The 900 pound cross that sat at

3249-472: Was the Ponce de León Hotel in St. Augustine, Florida, designed for Henry Flagler . They went on to establish a successful practice during the 1880s and early 1890s, and rose to national prominence by winning the competition for the New York Public Library in 1897. The firm designed commercial buildings, elaborate residences, and prominent public buildings in New York, Washington and as far afield as Toronto, London, Paris, Rome, and Havana. John Merven Carrère

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