Historically St. Pete: The fascinating history of St. Pete’s 100-year-old Princess Martha hotel
/The Princess Martha, one of St. Pete’s first luxury hotels, celebrates 100 years in downtown St. PEte | The Princess Martha
At St. Pete Rising, we are constantly providing comprehensive coverage on everything new and coming soon to the Sunshine City, but we think it’s also important to take a look back at our city's rich history.
Introducing Historically St. Pete, a new monthly column on St. Pete Rising written by Rui Farias, Executive Director of the St. Petersburg Museum of History, which will cover everything from the legend of underground mobster tunnels to the buildings and people that created the Sunshine City.
Follow us each month as we explore how these projects shaped St. Pete into the city we know and love today.
This month we explore the history of the 100-year-old Princess Martha, one of the city’s first luxury hotels.
Front and side facades of the Princess Martha Hotel in 1937 | St Petersburg Museum of History
The end of World War I started a race for land, development, and wealth in St. Petersburg. Everyone from industrialists to artists who moved to the Sunshine City soon found themselves in the development and real estate game.
When Franklin J. Mason, a New York contractor, wintered in St. Pete in 1920, he fell in love with the sun, surf, and warmth, but mostly with the endless opportunities. Mason returned to New York, closed his business, and moved to St. Pete.
Just a few months later, he announced the construction of 46 bungalow homes in Pinewood, a new subdivision off Euclid Boulevard (Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Street), between 22nd and 23rd Avenue North.
Upon completion of Pinewood, Mason’s group purchased the northwest corner of 4th Street and 1st Avenue North and announced a new hotel would be built on the site. The Hotel Mason would become the city’s first million dollar hotel. At least that was the plan.
The Princess Martha being constructed in 1924 in downtown St. Petersburg, FL | St Petersburg Museum Of HIstory
By the summer of 1923, the 250-room Neo-Classical hotel began rising from the ground. It actually had 252 rooms, but 250 sounded better for advertising. The steel framework of the ten-story structure arrived in early June, and the frame was completed by the end of July. The exterior was clad in 300,000 red bricks – the largest brick order in St. Pete history at that time.
The interior of the hotel was equally impressive, with no expense spared. High ceilings, grand staircases, 15,000 square feet of Spanish mosaic tiles, plush carpeted hallways, and a world-class dining room.
But the most unique feature of the hotel was invisible to guests, buried in the basement. A 12-ton refrigeration and water purification system fueled by an onsite 250-foot artesian well provided chilled water to every floor, and bowls of spring water ice cubes on every dining room table. The water system, furnace, and boilers were powered by the hotel’s own garbage burning incinerator.
The Hotel Mason was set to open January 5th, 1924, but developer Soren Lund stole the title of the city’s first million dollar hotel when he opened the Soreno Hotel on Beach Drive on January 1st.
After a successful first tourist season, the hotel was sold to a group led by William Muir. Legend has Mason putting the hotel up for auction due to his financial demise, but Mason sticks around St. Petersburg, building St. Petersburg Senior High (1925), additions to the Belleview Biltmore (1925), the Pennsylvania Hotel (1926), and additional housing through the late 1920s.
Muir changes the name of the hotel to Princess Martha in honor of his wife and schedules a reopening for Thanksgiving 1924. Until new pieces could be produced, a “P” was stamped over the “M” emblem on the dinner china.
The Princess Martha Hotel opened on November 22nd, 1924, and a new grand dining room on New Year’s Eve to a sold-out crowd of 400 revelers.
Resembling one of New York’s finest hotels, a far cry from the Mediterranean Revival style taking over St. Petersburg, the Princess Martha was a favorite for those traveling from the north seeking first class accommodations, including poet Carl Sandburg.
The 100-year-old Princess Martha, which was designated a historic landmark in 1995, still houses the city’s oldest barber shop | St. Petersburg Museum of History
Babe Ruth and the New York Yankees arrive for Spring Training in 1930, and Ruth signs a new two-year, $160,000 contract with the Yankees in the Princess Martha. When asked if he deserved to make more money than President Hoover, Ruth replied, “Why not? I had a better year than he did.”
After surviving the Great Depression, the Princess Martha joined the Allied effort in World War II by housing members of the U.S. Army Air Corps stationed in St. Pete. But the late 1960s and 1970s were tough on all downtown hotels. The hotel changed hands and was even run by the First Baptist Church for a short time.
The Princess Martha closed and underwent a $4 million renovation in 1989, reopening as the finest independent senior living venue in the heart of downtown, which is still in operation today. The 100-year-old Princess Martha, which was designated a historic landmark in 1995, still houses the city’s oldest barber shop.
