The Don CeSar, Florida’s pink palace, prepares for its 2028 centenary following the 2024 hurricanes

From the sea, it is visible before everything else: a pale pink mass resting on the white sand of St. Pete Beach, featuring towers, arcades and balconies, resembling a film set someone forgot to dismantle. The Don CeSar opened in January 1928 and will celebrate its centenary in January 2028. In between, it has been a Roaring Twenties luxury hotel, a military hospital, an administrative office, a ruin destined for the bulldozers, and then a luxury hotel once again. And, in September and October 2024, it took the full force of two hurricanes, Helene and Milton, before reopening in March 2025. Portrait of a survivor.

Thomas Rowe, an opera and a pink façade

The story of The Don CeSar stems from an obsession. Thomas Rowe, a real estate developer from Virginia, was passionate about Maritana, an opera by William Vincent Wallace whose hero is named Don César de Bazan. Legend has it that he fell in love with its soprano in London in his youth and that the hotel’s name, the lobby fountain and even the shade of the façade pay homage to her. What is documented is that Rowe had architect Henry H. Dupont design a neo-Mediterranean and Moorish style luxury hotel, inspired by the Royal Hawaiian in Waikiki, which opened the same year, and inaugurated it in January 1928 at a cost of approximately 1.2 million dollars at the time, on a beach that was then almost deserted.

From Fitzgerald to the military: a century in four lives

The Don CeSar was initially the hotel of choice for Northern high society fleeing the winter. F. Scott Fitzgerald and Zelda stayed there, Lou Gehrig and the New York Yankees made it their spring training base in the 1930s, and rumor has it Al Capone stayed there too. The 1929 crash followed by Rowe’s death in 1940 weakened the business; in 1942, the US army bought the building to turn it into a military hospital, then a convalescent centre for airmen, before it became a regional office for the Veterans Administration until 1969. Abandoned, vandalised, and slated for demolition, it was saved by a grassroots campaign led by June Hurley Young, added to the National Register of Historic Places, and reopened in November 1973. Since then, several waves of renovations have brought it back to luxury hotel standards, with the latest in 2021 redesigning all the rooms, restaurants and public areas.

Helene, Milton and the March 2025 reopening

On 26 September 2024, Hurricane Helene pushed a storm surge into the gulf that flooded the ground floor of The Don CeSar and its Beach House Suites, just like all the barrier islands of Tampa Bay. Two weeks later, Milton swept through in turn. The hotel remained closed for roughly five months while the ground floor, restaurants and beach facilities were rebuilt, reopening in March 2025. This is an ordeal the property has experienced several times over a century; the difference in 2024 was that the reconstruction was carried out with the centenary in mind, incorporating reinforced beachfront facilities.

What can be found there today

The Don CeSar boasts nearly 280 rooms and suites within the historic building, complemented by the Beach House Suites, a separate building a few hundred metres away featuring its own pool. The rooms embrace seaside pastels, flamingo wallpaper, light wood and white linen; the penthouse suites feature terraces overlooking the gulf. Spa Oceana, two swimming pools, a private beach with paddleboards and cabanas, the Maritana restaurant, Society Table and Rowe Bar make up the offering, in a more relaxed spirit than the exterior might suggest. Discover hotel news in the United States on La Revue des Hôtels.

Our perspective

The Don CeSar belongs to that select group of American hotels whose silhouette alone is worth the journey, alongside The Breakers in Palm Beach or Hotel del Coronado in California. Its strength lies not in unadulterated luxury, where it is outdone by recent openings in Miami, but in its history, its beach and a loyal family clientele. Two years away from its centenary, we recommend aiming for winter, from January to March, when the light of the gulf justifies the colour of the walls, and requesting a high-floor sea-view room, as the lower levels remain the most vulnerable to returning storms. The events of 2024 serve as a reminder of a reality the hotel has carried for a century: on this coast, one does not build against the sea, one rebuilds with it.

Practical information

• Address · The Don CeSar, 3400 Gulf Boulevard, St. Pete Beach, FL 33706, USA
• Best time to visit · December to April · hurricane season from June to November
• Nearby · Pass-a-Grille (5 mins), Salvador Dalí Museum in St. Petersburg (25 mins), Tampa (40 mins)
• Official website · doncesar.com