From 1902 to 1925, the original
Palm Beach Hotel occupied the site of the present-day Palm Beach Biltmore. Embers from a fire started at
The Breakers on March 18, 1925, landed on the 400-room hotel, causing the building to rapidly burn down. Although the owner, Sidney Maddock, declined to rebuild and moved away, another structure called the Palm Beach Hotel was constructed along the north side of Sunrise Avenue and opened in January 1926. A few months after the fire, the site of the old Palm Beach Hotel was cleared out and prepared for a new building. In July 1925, it was announced that
Gustave Maurice Heckscher and his father, August, would construct a $7 million hotel, to be named the "Alba Hotel" in honor of
Jacobo Fitz-James Stuart, 17th Duke of Alba, and that the duo had obtained a $1.2 million mortgage loan. The Alba Hotel was scheduled to be opened on January 1, 1926. Approximately 1,400 people "have been working day and night to complete it" between June 15 and February 1926, according to
The New York Times. The Alba Hotel opened on February 1, 1926, However, the hotel went into bankruptcy by May, with
American National Bank and Trust Company vice president J. Warren Smith being named as the
receiver by judge
William Irwin Grubb. The hotel reopened in January 1927 for the winter season, which saw the arrival of
Irving Berlin,
W. C. Fields,
George Gershwin,
Arthur Hammerstein,
Jimmy Walker, and
Adolph Zukor. About eight months later, the Alba Hotel was sold by its trustees at an auction for about $4.66 million to a New York City hotelier. By 1928, the building became part of the Ambassador Hotel system, before being renamed the Ambassador in May 1929. Additionally, the Ambassador Hotel system purchased property owned by
J. Leonard Replogle in 1928 and transformed it into bathing beach and clubhouse. During the
1928 Okeechobee hurricane in September, some roof tiles blew away, causing water damage after rain leaked inside. About a month following the storm, the Alba Hotel was approved for a rebuilding permit for repair work projects costing about $125,000. Notably,
Harry Warner and Zukor stayed at the Alba Hotel during the 1929 winter season.
Nina Koshetz and
Howard Lanin's orchestra both performed at the hotel's ballroom two years later. After buying the property in 1934,
Henry Latham Doherty renamed it the Biltmore Hotel, as he owned another building with
the same name in
Coral Gables. training in front of the Biltmore Hotel c. 1943 In November 1942, Congress approved and President
Franklin D. Roosevelt signed into law an amended version of the Coast Guard Auxiliary and Reserve Act of 1941 for the purpose of sending more men overseas by creating a Women's Reserve of the
United States Coast Guard (USCG), also known as
SPARS. After realizing the need to establish a training facility for SPARS, USCG announced in May 1943 that they intended to open a base at the Biltmore Hotel. Robin D. Thompson of the USCG noted that in preparation for the opening of the SPARS facility in June, "Walls were knocked out, partitions were built, rich decorations were removed and ... The former Pink Palace had changed to Coast Guard blue." The Biltmore Hotel also included schools for bakers, cooks, storekeepers, and yeoman. More than 7,000 women trained there during the 18 months that the SPARS operated at the Biltmore Hotel. Thereafter, the SPARS relocated to
Manhattan Beach, New York. A jury at a federal court awarded the owners of the Biltmore Hotel and Sun and Surf Club $229,000 in December 1945 as compensation for their usage as facilities of the
United States Armed Forces. A. M. Sonnabend of the
Sonesta International Hotels had bought the Biltmore Hotel in 1944 from George MacDonald. In 1946,
Conrad Hilton of the
Hilton Hotels chain purchased the Biltmore Hotel for $1.75 million, which included 537 rooms at the time. The hotel returned to civilian functions by the end of the year, when the Investment Bankers Associated of America hosted its annual convention, with 900 guests expected and scheduled speakers such as
United States Securities and Exchange Commission chairman
James J. Caffrey and
International Bank for Reconstruction and Development executive director Emilio G. Collado. Less than three years after Hilton purchased the Biltmore Hotel, he sold it for about $2 million to the
West India Fruit and Steamship Company in 1949. The West India Fruit and Steamship Company, under the leadership of Daniel E. Taylor, spent more than $1 million to refurbish and remodel the resort. Not long after the
Cuban Revolution of 1959, Francisco Batista, brother of ousted President
Fulgencio Batista, arrived at the Biltmore Hotel and stated "We'll be back after the trouble is over." Fulgencio Batista's wife,
Marta, also stayed there. Many other notable guests stayed at the hotel at its height, including
Tallulah Bankhead,
Taylor Caldwell, members of the
du Pont family,
Peter Duchin,
Gracie Fields,
Judy Garland,
Rube Goldberg,
Beatrice Lillie,
General Douglas MacArthur,
John D. MacArthur,
Dorothy Parker,
Mary Pickford,
Babe Ruth, and
Ed Sullivan, while
Winthrop and
Bobo Rockefeller were married there. In 1959, the Hotel Corporation of America purchased the Biltmore Hotel for $3.5 million from West India Fruit and Steamship Company. At the time, the
Associated Press noted that in addition to 537 rooms, the resort contained "55 suites, a private yacht basin, terrace dining and dancing, swimming pool, and private beach." The R. H. Weissberg Corporation bought the property in 1962 for $4.3 million. However, in December 1967, the corporation declared bankruptcy, with a federal court in Chicago allowing Lord Baltimore, Inc. to take over the hotel via a trusteeship. With the exception of the World War II era, the Biltmore Hotel opened each winter season until 1969–70, when the owners foreclosed on the property. though the buyer was not confirmed to be John D. MacArthur until December. The hotel then remained vacant for several years, in part because the town of Palm Beach declared it "unsafe and in a deteriorated condition." John D. MacArthur sold the property to real estate developer Charles C. Barton in September 1973 for $5 million. After Barton suggested converting the hotel into a condominium, MacArthur nullified the sale. However, Stanley Harte then purchased the hotel in 1977 for $5.34 million and also announced his intensions to repurpose the building as a condominium, planning to transform 550 hotel rooms into 128 condominium units at an expected cost of $11 million. The first tenants moved in in October 1980, while about 25 people lived there by mid-December. Condo unit prices then ranged from $200,000 to $750,000. Some condo owners filed a lawsuit against Harte and The Lawrence Group Chartered Architects and Planners, with
The Palm Beach Post reporting that claimants alleged the building had "leaky walls and terraces... problems with structural steel reinforcements, heating and airconditioning in common areas and substandard fireproofing." A jury awarded the claimants $950,000 in December 1984 after failing to substantiate any problems other than leakage, which had already been fixed. On June 11, 1991, the town of Palm Beach designated the Biltmore Condominium main building as a historic landmark. ==Structure==