Vinoy Hotel still holds unique place in St. Pete’s waterfront

Long before the museums, high-rise condos, and exciting nightlife, downtown St. Petersburg was defined by a unique kind of experience. Home to thousands of winter residents and tourists, St. Petersburg’s leaders touted their city to newspapers across the country as the place to visit. One of the biggest hotels, and thus biggest draws, to St. Petersburg beginning in the mid-1920s was the Vinoy Park Hotel.

The hotel was the creation and namesake of millionaire Pennsylvania oilman Aymer Vinoy Laughner. Laughner owned a winter home on Beach Drive across from the future site of his hotel. As legend has it, the idea came to life during a party in 1923 at the Beach Drive home, where Laughner was goaded into building a hotel with friend and real estate developer Gene Elliott. According to the story, that occurred after golfing great Walter Hagan hit several golf balls off the face of Laughner’s watch toward the waterfront without breaking the watch’s crystal.

Construction sped along with the velocity of Hagan’s drives, and the 375-room hotel was completed in less than a year, opening in time for a fabulous New Year’s Eve party on December 31, 1925. The elaborate hotel dazzled its early guests. The lobby boasted a twenty-five-foot ceiling, and the grand ballroom, where New Year’s was celebrated, measured fifty feet wide by 125 feet long. Guests paid $20 per night for a standard room, among the highest hotel rates in the area (and not a lot less than today’s rates when adjusted for inflation).