A1A Scenic & Historic Coastal Byway
Hotel Ponce de Leon / Alcazar Hotel (Lightner Museum), FL

The Hotel Ponce de Leon / Alcazar Hotel (Lightner Museum) was the first of the grand hotels that Henry Flagler constructed in St. Augustine in an effort to refashion the City as the "American Riviera," and as a southern resort for the wealthy northerners. The Hotel Ponce De Leon constituted the center piece of opulent architecture of the Flagler Era (1887- 1913). Flagler commissioned a pair of young architects, Thomas Hastings and John M. Carrere, to draw the plans for the building, whose Spanish Renaissance style influenced architectural design throughout Florida for the next half century.

This building is acclaimed as one of the finest examples of Spanish Renaissance Architecture in America. Another young architect, Bernard Maybeck, who later won national prominence in California, designed the interior spaces, which evoked the Victorian splendor of America's Gilded Age. Louis Comfort Tiffany contributed to the interior. The building served as a hotel for well over half a century before it was converted to educational uses.