PBSCV1599

Gen. James Patton Anderson Camp 1599
Celebrating 34 Years 1992 - 2026
THE BILLOWS HOTEL

XX
The Palm Beach Post
Sun, Jun 10, 1923
Page 4
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READY MARKET FOR BONDS ON BILLOWS HOTEL
Half Of $88,000 Issue Sold On Palm Beach Property
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One-half of the $88,000 first mortgage, 8 per cent gold bonds on the Billows Hotel property in Palm Beach, have been taken in the few days since the securities were offered for sale, it was said yesterday at the office of the Palm Beach Guaranty Company, which issues and guarantees the bonds. The Billows Hotel is being erected at the northeast corner of Ocean boulevard and Worth avenue, Palm Beach for H. C. Curtis, formerly of Chattanooga, Tenn., who bought the lot as a site for a hotel three years ago. Lot, building, and furniture and equipment are estimated to represent an investment of $155,000, which is the security for the $88,000 bond issue. The term of the bonds is from two to ten years, with interest coupons payable November 15 and May 15, bonds and coupons payable at the American National Bank, West Palm Beach. The amortization plan is used in payment of the bonds. Net earnings of the property are estimated at not less than two and a half times the greatest annual interest charge under the mortgage. This estimate is based on similar buildings in this section of the country and an experience in managing similar hotel buildings. The Billows Hotel will be one of the structures that are changing the appearance of the ocean front in Palm Beach, being across the street north from Gus' Baths, where a building of striking appearance is just being finished.
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Gus' Bathhouse Adjacent To Billows Hotel, Palm Beach

Billows Hotel and Gus Baths improvements are two of the buildings that are changing the appearance of the ocean front at Worth avenue. The new bathhouse cost upward of $100,000. It is practically completed and some of the storerooms are occupied.
Billows Hotel and Gus Baths improvements are two of the buildings that are changing the appearance of the ocean front at Worth avenue. The new bathhouse cost upward of $100,000. It is practically completed and some of the storerooms are occupied.
A dinner dance tonight at the Billows hotel, completed recently on the beach at the corner of Ocean boulevard and Worth Avenue, opposite Gus' Baths and apartments, will be opened formally today. A cordial invitation is issued to the public by H. C. Curtis, partner, and John B. Carroll, partner to inspect the hotel today to take part in the opening entertainment. Music will be furnished. by the Florida Kernels. The construction of this building has been watched with much interest by the public, both in Palm Beach and West Palm Beach. It is the first hotel to be located directly on the beach for many years.
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The announcement by Mr. Curtis that the Billows will be open the year round also will be of interest to local people, as it is the only hotel in Palm Beach to be held open through all seasons of the year. Like other Hotels directly on the ocean in other East Coast towns become popular as summer places as well as winter hotels. It remains to be seen how it will be taken in Palm Beach.
The arrangement of the rooms in the hotel is attractive, as each room, with a few exceptions, have a commanding view of the ocean. This is in itself a unique and new feature in hotel construction. The rooms that do not overlook the ocean, also command an excellent view as they face the Everglades Club, which is one of the most exclusive clubs in America, and also command a view of beau- tiful Lake Worth. A spacious lobby, together with several fashionable stores, and an attractive dining room, will occupy the ground floor. At the rear of the lobby a large space has been devoted to shower baths and dressing rooms for men, which will be used by bathers after they have taken a dip in the surf. A mezzanine is located between the first and second floors and at the rear of this a large space has been set aside for showers and dressing rooms to be used by the ladies after their ocean dip. The entrance to the dressing rooms is at the rear of the building. Under this unique plan a guest of the hotel can take his daily dip in the ocean with all the comforts of a home owner on the Ocean boulevard.
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Furnishings of the Billows hotel, together with all the interior decorations, are being placed, and are the product of Sterchi Brothers and Fowler, of Chattanooga, Tenn., which is one of the largest firms of interior decorators in that state, and Mr. Curtis has spared no expense in the furnishings and fixtures of his hostelry. Only the best hotel equipment will be used, the owner says.
The entire east side of the second floor is devoted to a sun parlor which commands an excellent view of the ocean, a view, it is said, superior to any hotel view in Palm Beach, and is for the use of guests of the hotel. This sun parlor will accommodate more than seventy- five persons, where they may sit and view the many seagoing vessels which come in closer to land here in Palm Beach than any other place on the coast.
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Every room has a private com- mode and lavatory, a private, or adjoining bath. All the baths are composed of built-in features, and the floors are of tile.
The guest rooms are all very large, light and airy, and they are so arranged as to be available in either single rooms or in suites as high as five and six rooms to a guest. The corridors and halls are unusually wide and roomy, giving them plenty of light and air. The building is supplied with well built fire escapes, easy of access from any part of the hotel, and is protected within by a generous supply of fire hose, and also hand extinguishers on each floor.
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William Manly King, the architect, has also proven his worth, when it comes to symmetry and beauty of style, and the blending of colors in the finish that are so bright and attractive and appropriate in this climate.
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A thing of beauty is a joy forever, and Mr. Curtis wishes this hotel to be one round of joys for his guests the whole year long. The name "Billows," musical and suggestive of the ocean, was suggested by Mrs. George B. Scrogin, of 101 Worth avenue, and adopted by Mr. Curtis as the name of his new hotel just before the construction was begun last spring. It is a very appropriate name and one easy to remember. A member of the staff of the Billows who is an experienced hotel man is A. L. Alsobrook, who will act in the capacity of bookkeeper. The Billows cafe is to be operated under the personal management of Mr. and Mrs. J. Slutter, who are owners and managers of the Elvin hotel in the Pocono mountain resort region of Pennsylvania.
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The Billows has become the Sea Glade
The Palm Beach Post
Sun, Jan 14, 1934 ·
Page 10
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LEAGUE OF WOMEN VOTERS TO MEET THURSDAY
A luncheon meeting of the Palm Beach County and City League of Women Voters will be held at the Sea Glade (former Billows) hotel, Palm Beach, Thursday at 12:30 o'clock. C. C. Chillingworth will be the speaker and will use for his subject, "How To Make the Wo- man's Vote Powerful." All persons interested in the subject are invited to attend.
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Palm Beach Daily News
Sat, May 06, 2017
Page A1
By M.M. CLOUTIER Special to the Daily News
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BILLOWS A PIONEER
Charming hotel was the first to cater to visitors year-round.
MEMORY LANE
t's now routine for the island's hotels to remain open in summer, but nearly a century ago, when Prohibition reigned and the highly seasonal town idled after winter visitors cleared out, a largely forgotten hotel pioneered a year-round trade. And although The Hotel Billows is little known today relative to Palm Beach's past and present nameplate hotels, it made an impression for at least one other reason besides being a summer-season trailblazer. Its particular oceanfront perch was a prime one. Despite that, The Billows fizzled after a colorful decade in business. And, in its wake, came a spate of high-er-profile hotels capitalizing on a fast-growing resort community.
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The Billows first opened on Dec. 27, 1923. The site: South Ocean Boulevard at the north-east corner of Worth Avenue, which was then a just-flowering attraction. It also was a neighbor to one of the most popular attractions in town: a swimming facility called Gus' Baths and its adjacent ocean pier.
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The hotel's 40-plus rooms and small suites boasted views of the ocean or Worth Avenue; in the distance to the west, The Everglades Club, which opened in 1919.
From the outset, Billows owner and hotelier H.C. "Henry" Curtis announced the hotel would be open year-round. Curtis had been itching to open such a property in Palm Beach since he first visited the town in June 1913. Four years later, Curtis purchased the ocean-facing north lot at Worth Avenue's east end and engaged local architect William Manly King to design a hotel and oversee its construction.
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Once The Billows opened, you could stay there for as little as $2.50 a day. According to advertised hotel rates of the day, that was an attractive deal — and far cheaper than staying at developer Henry Flagler's large and amenity-rich hotels: Hotel Royal Poinciana and The Breakers.
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But The Billows' best asset was being "fortunately located," The Palm Beach Post noted in 1926. "It's close to the ocean and Gus' Baths and the Rainbow Pier, which are the centers of interest in the colony with so many bathers and fishermen ... No matter how warm it may be, there is always a breeze from off the ocean, which ... is particularly enjoyable at night and is very conducive to sleep."
The Billows was, by no means, a quiet place. Dinner dances were frequent during high season. Ocean-going guests came and went from the sun parlor to use the hotel dressing rooms.
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The Billows also was the site of Prohibition-related scuffles. Palm Beach, a coastal town with numerous points of ocean/beach entry, was hardly immune to rum-running and bootlegging.
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In early 1933, four years after the 1929 stock market crash, The Billows closed due to foreclosure and Curtis had moved to West Palm Beach.
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A real-estate boom that peaked in the mid-1920s had resulted in the open-ing of such buzzed-about Palm Beach hotels as The Brazilian Court; the Li-do-Venice (which eventu-ally became The Ches-terfield); Bradley House, and the now-gone Royal Daneli. New owners of The Billows renovated the property and reopened it as The Seaglade hotel.