Condado Vanderbilt Hotel

About this property

The Condado Vanderbilt Hotel is a historic luxury hotel built in 1919 and located on Ashford Avenue in the district of Condado in San Juan, the capital city of the U.S. territory of Puerto Rico. It was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 2008. The hotel was designed by the architectural firm Warren and Wetmore, who also designed New York's Grand Central Terminal. It was built by the Vanderbilt family and it marked the beginning of high end tourism in Puerto Rico. Construction of the Condado Vanderbilt Hotel was begun in 1917 by Frederick William Vanderbilt, the son of William Henry Vanderbilt. He selected the prominent architectural firm of Warren and Wetmore, which had designed New York City's Grand Central Terminal, as well as the Biltmore, Commodore, and Ambassador Hotels. On 16 October 1919, the hotel, having cost a million dollars to construct, was inaugurated. It was suggested that the early Spanish Revival style architecture be used by Fredrick Vanderbilt. Capitalizing on the property's setting adjacent to the Atlantic Ocean, the designers created a Beaux Arts-style structure with white walls, red tiles, French windows, lofty ceilings and other design details typical of the style at the time. The original roofing featured antique Spanish tiles sourced from Puerto Rico's older Spanish buildings. The floors and the public areas including the main staircase were decorated with marble and mosaics and the area between the ocean and the hotel building was developed to help the building withstand damage from the Atlantic coast. The hotel also featured a flagstone paved terrace. Giant pandanus, several kinds of bougainvillea, fruit trees and coconut palms could also be found in the hotel's gardens. The Condado Vanderbilt was the first luxury hotel to open in Puerto Rico and was also the first hotel in Puerto Rico to have a casino after gambling was legalized in 1940. Among the famous guests to have stayed at the Condado Vanderbilt are the former Presidents of the United States John F. Kennedy and Franklin Roosevelt and Roosevelt's wife Eleanor, the American aviator Charles Lindbergh, composer José Luis Moneró, singer-songwriter Carlos Gardel, Hollywood actor Errol Flynn, comedian Bob Hope, and pianist Arthur Rubinstein. Activities that were available included American golf, tennis and motoring among other things. These were advertised in various American newspapers during the 1920s. Manuel Gonzalez bought the hotel from the Vanderbilts during The Great Depression in 1930, and changed its name to the Condado Hotel. In the 1940s, the hotel's East Wing was built, a five-story L-shaped addition, containing additional guest rooms and public areas. In the 1950s, after a series of changes in ownership, the name was changed to the Condado Beach Hotel. In 1962, another addition was built on the other side of the hotel, the West Wing, a nine-story concrete structure containing 156 air-conditioned guest rooms, all facing the sea.

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Property data from the National Register of Historic Places, National Park Service (public domain).

Description adapted from Wikipedia under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 International License.

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