Gulf Stream Hotel Lake Worth Herald/Coastal Observer Installment 4

From The Lake Worth Herald, dated February 1st, 1990 titled "Historic Landmark,
Financial Nightmare: The Gulf Stream Hotel May Be Holding Her Head High For The
Last Time", written by Greg Brown:

Some call it Lake Worth’s own “pink elephant.”

The Gulf Stream Hotel on Lake Avenue may now be just so much useless real estate to investors, but it has a glorious past. For many seasonal visitors it has been a second home and a storehouse of decades of memories.

Perhaps someone will buy her and return her to her former glory. Perhaps as easily she has a date with the wrecking ball. Only time will tell that.

The Gulf Stream was abruptly closed about three years ago. New owners had renovated the state-registered historic site and re-opened it as a hotel only three seasons before.

I had arranged to take a full tour of the Lake Worth landmark only to be sent away. A Barnett Bank representative had given tacit approval to the idea, but then never confirmed our set time. When I tried to contact them about the tour later no one was available to speak on the subject.

In an effort to see as much of the Gulf Stream as possible I went to the hotel itself and talked to a guard. He invited me in and told me to wait while he called the bank. While waiting I explored.

An Abandoned Lobby

Standing in the lobby of the now-closed resort gives the feeling of time suspended. It should be because of the 1920s Art-Deco architecture, but it’s largely due to the dust.The furniture in the lobby is draped with white sheets like in a Gothic horror film. The lamps and tables are tagged with pale yellow inventory stickers. Nothing much has gone on here since the closing.

The only things out of place are the stacks of current magazines. Subscriptions to everything from Sports Illustrated and to Forbes are piled up in neat rows on the lobby’s squat coffee tables. They were meant for guests but are now thumbed through by security guards who now pass their hours here.

The main room itself is huge with high-ceilings. Tasteful floral drapes hang from high arched windows. Subdued, frosted Art Deco lamps are suspended from the ceiling. The elevators have the old style gates that must be closed by hand before the car will operate.

A fireplace with a marble hearth and a brass screen holds two logs. Over the fireplace hangs a large oil painting in the impressionist style of two women in summer dresses. A small brass plate on the ornate gilded frame reads “Lazy Afternoon.” It fits here.

No Media

The hotel is old Florida in the tradition of Henry Flagler. One could imagine that it was once a grand hotel, a home to prominent social figures is search of the Florida sun. Golf, sailing, tea on the veranda are all the things that make a Florida resort what it is would have been available.

The guard returned from what had been a half-hour long telephone conversation. “No media” he said. No media? Then why did my contact at Barnett Bank originally agree to the idea, I asked him.

He didn’t know but summed up the situation well with a succinct observation. “He works for someone, too.”

So it goes for most Gulf Stream negotiations. Cloaked in secrecy, rumors of deals abound and are often given more credit than the record, if there is a record to follow. The best way to reconstruct the current scene regarding the hotel is to create a composite image of talks to re-open it.

An Old Hotel

A source close to the negotiations says that the problem with the old hotel is just that — it’s an old hotel. The demand for hotel rooms is large in Palm Beach County, but not quite large enough to warrant the amount of work required to put the Gulf Stream into working order.

Not that there are that many problems with the place. The main problem is reportedly the rooms. They are small, out-of-date and need modernizing. They just don’t live up to current standards for a resort hotel.

One group has approached Barnett Bank about opening an adult congregate living facility at the hotel. The rest home would serve as a high-rent alternative to existing skilled nursing care available in Lake Worth, they say.

The city commission of Lake Worth, however, rejected the idea by voting to block any ACLF (Assisted Congregate Living Facility) in the downtown area. The commission majority is careful to point out that they are not attacking bank interests in the hotel because they have zoned a large section around the hotel the same way.

The result, however, is conveniently the same. No rest home can move in now.

Council Rule

The ACLF idea has its adherents, notably Mayor Ron Exline. He makes the case that there is a market among Palm Beachers looking for a nearby place to place their aging parents in need of medical care.

The commission majority, however, felt that keeping the Gulf Stream as a hotel was vital to the future of downtown Lake Worth. Both schools of thought have their proponents in and out of city hall. It just depends on who you ask. Several groups have made moves to acquire the Gulf Stream for development as a hotel. The last serious offer was made by a shadowy group of Finnish investors
speaking through a local attorney.

The rumors concerning them and their maneuvers have been wild and plentiful. One day they supposedly made several million dollars in non-refundable faith payments. The next day the reportedly hadn’t put up a cent.

The other interesting rumor was the “handshake” story. As that goes, the Finns objected to the hotel deal because contracts in Finland are sealed with a handshake, not legal documents. Naturally, the bank couldn’t agree to this, the story goes, so the deal fell through. Insiders say that the Finns are holding out for a better deal. Others maintain that handshake contracts are normal Finnish practice. Once again, no one will go on record. The facts remain murky at best.

Historical Site

One interesting sidelight to the story is the reported problem with the state historic site designation. That simple recognition — marked by a framed certificate hanging over the check-in desk — may bring the wrecking ball to Lake Avenue in the end. The rules regarding state historical sites protect the hotel from changes that might alter its historical character. If it were renovated on the outside, a facade of the old front of the building must remain intact. Oddly enough, it can be torn down. The historical designation affects only architectural changes, not complete demolition. Because of this, insiders say that it may be worth more torn down. The land underneath is prime real estate. As long as the Gulf Stream occupies it and the hotel remains closed it is not making money. To build a new hotel on the site is seen to be a money-losing proposition. There is a 65 foot height limit downtown. A new hotel would need more room, sources say, to make enough money to pay off construction costs. If the Gulf Stream were torn down, it is not likely that a hotel would replace it, the source says.

Pink Elephant

And so she sits — the pink elephant of Lake Worth. But there’s more to the story than that. Some of it is interesting and some of it is silly but it never fails to paint a nostalgic picture of Lake Worth. In many ways, the chronicle of the Gulf Stream hotel is the chronicle of the city. In 1923 Lake Worth was experiencing the big Florida land boom. Population in the city increased eight-fold in the decade between 1920 and 1930. Like any coastal Florida town, part of that was seasonal.

The citizens recognized the need for a good-sized hotel to put the city on the map. A committee financed a six-story, 100 room hotel to be called the “El Nuevo.” It had five floors of rooms and a restaurant and patio on the roof. The total construction cost $600,000. [$8.1 million in 2015 dollars] Today, it should sell for a reported $12 million.

A series of natural and man-made disasters combined to kill the hotel. The end of the Florida land boom came in 1925. A hurricane came ashore in 1928 and left “seven feet of sand” in the lobby of the hotel and damaged the fifth and sixth floors.

Market Crash

Then, in 1929, the stock market crashed and the depression began. Florida businesses and cities went bankrupt overnight. In 1935 the El Nuevo was ordered sold to the highest bidder. Prior to its sale the management had changed the name of the hotel to the Gulf Stream hotel. It was under this name that it was auctioned off on the Palm Beach County Court steps in 1936.

A bidder was there with orders to buy. At that auction the Hygeia Hotel Company picked up the Gulf Stream for a paltry $5,000. Richard C. Marshall, Jr. and H. Cabel Maddux were the primary investors in the new Gulf Stream. They secured a loan to repair the damaged floors and were able to re-
open the hotel in November, 1936.

What the hotel needed now was paying guests. Through highway signs and by paying young men to distribute hotel literature at intersections within 100 miles north of the hotel, Marshall and Maddux were able to attract a steady seasonal clientele.

The Season

Contrary to current vacation practice, the “Gulf Streamers” would return season after season. Eventually, a newsletter, the “Gulf Stream Ripples,” was begun to keep guests in touch with each other during their stay. Included in each monthly issue was a list of guests soon to arrive at the resort.
Tennis, golf, bridge and the occasional evening at the Patio, the bar upstairs in the hotel, kept the guests busy. For the adventurous there were the polo games, held then in Lake Worth near Military Trail. The dog races at the Palm Beach Kennel Club were popular and three horse tracks were within driving distance.Gulf Stream guests also fished in the ocean on charter boats, took trips to Florida’s
inland waterways and toured what was then called “Africa U.S.A.” Much like today’s
Lion Country Safari west of West Palm Beach, the Africa U.S.A. wild game park was
just west of Boca Raton. There were no carnivorous animals, though, and the train that
toured the park was open.

One recreational activity that is gone from Lake Worth now is the wrestling arena that was on Lucerne Ave. A great number of Gulf Stream guests, mostly women in between the ages of 40 and 80, were regular ringside fans of “Gorgeous George” and his colorful opponents.

Expansion

During and following World War II Marshall and Maddux embarked on an expansion project at the hotel. In 1940 the Gulf Stream Lodge was bought. In 1941 employee quarters were acquired. The five apartment Gulf Stream Terrace was picked up in 1941. Four more apartments were bought in 1959 and named the Gulf Stream Manor. In 1950 the 32 apartment Statler-Hampshire building was bought. Another 35 apartments were picked in 1963 and named Gulf Stream Towers. In 1967 the Gulf
Stream Royal apartments was purchased and in 1975 the Gulf Stream Inn was bought.

Where the Gulf Stream goes from here remains to be seen. In any case, the steady seasonal business that kept it profitable for decades may be a thing of the past as northern guests turn to other lodging for their time in the sun.