PBSCV1599
Gen. James Patton Anderson Camp 1599
Celebrating 34 Years 1992 - 2026
The Salt Air Hotel was built on the site of the Earman House Hotel, West Palm Beach's first hotel. Owned and built by John Sites Earman, the first mayor of West Palm Beach. The Salt Air, in turn, was pulled down in 1959 to make way for the "Town House" Hotel - renamed Holiday Inn. The Holiday Inn was imploded in a spectacular New Year's Eve explosion in 1993. THe site is now occupied by the Meyer Amphitheatre.
The Florida Times-Union
Fri, Dec 19, 1913
Page 17
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SALT AIR HOTEL OPENS AT WEST PALM BEACH
West Palm Beach, Dec. 18.—West Palm Beach's newest and most modern hotel, the Salt Air, opened Tuesday for the winter's season. The owner and manager, Mr. W. A. Weihe, has been rushing the work on the hotel building with all possible speed to get the house ready for its opening date, and it now stands complete in every detail of building and furnishings.
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The location of the hotel, with its splendid appointments and excellent cuisine, coupled with reasonable prices, will make the Salt Air a most popular stopping place for the tourist and traveling public. Situated directly on Lake Worth, all but two of its fifty-five guests' rooms overlook the waters of the lake, while from the rooms on the fourth and fifth floors can be had a transcendental view of West Palm Beach, Palm Beach and the Atlantic Ocean.
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In the erection of the building Mr. Weihe has endeavored to have it modern and up-to-date in every particular. An elevator service accommodates the five floors and a basement. Each room is supplied with a telephone connection, the phones, which are made with brass fronts, being built into the walls. The dining room is located on the first floor, overlooking the water. It has a seating capacity of 150, and the twenty-seven windows on the east give a view of the lake from every part of the room. An attractive feature of the hotel is the commodious ladies' parlor furnished with Baronial kaltex. In this room, informal dances will be given frequently during the season for the guests of the house. Every room has hot and cold running water, and most of them are equipped with private bathS. The hotel has furnace heat throughout.
The owner, Mr. Weihe, assisted by Mrs. Weihe, who has had many years' experience in a Northern hotel, will manage the house, George Rider will be head clerk, George Smith, night clerk; and Miss Eva Kearns, secretary.
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Palm Beach Post
Tue, May 2, 1916
Page 5
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Salt Air Closed Yesterday
The Salt Air hotel closed yesterday morning, bringing to an end the greatest season this hotel has ever known. This was the only tourist hotel to remain open until May and a strong effort will be made next winter to lengthen the season. Mr. and Mrs. William Weihe are delighted with the season they have enjoyed and predict that the tourist business next winter will be even larger. The Salt Air this win- ter broke all previous records and has established itself among the leading hotels of the East Coast. Mr. and Mrs. Weihe and Mr. Weihe's mother, Mrs. Saunders, will leave soon for Macatawa, Mich., where they will open their summer hotel.
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The Palm Beach Post
Sun, Jun 17, 1917
Page 1
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The work on the large addition to the Salt Air Hotel has not yet commenced, although the contract has been awarded. It is the intention of the owner, W. A. Weihe, to be here in person while the building is going on, and to superintend not only that addition but the construction of his handsome bungalow to be erected upon the lake front immediately adjoining the Salt Air.
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The Palm Beach Post
Mon, Jul 19, 1920
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SALT AIR HOTEL LEASED TO STRAAT & MAAS FOR TERM OF TEN YEARS
One of the most important hotel transactions recorded here in a long time is that of the lease of the Salt Air hotel by Mr. and Mrs. W. A. Weihe, proprietors, for a term of ten years, to G. K. Straat and E. J. Maas, experienced hotel men and owners of the Fennimore hotel at Asbury Park. Along with the lease just filed was a bill of sale for the furniture and equipment in the hotel, the consideration be- ing $25,000. The lease calls for an annual rental of $12,000 for the first five years and an annual rental of $15,- 000 for the next five years. The lease indicates that negotiations for this transaction were made by L. G. Biggers, of the Palm Beach Realty Service. The Salt Air hotel is the largest hotel here and enjoys a large patronage during the tourist season. It is of fire-proof construction and adjoins the city park along the lake front, as well as fronting on both Narcissus and Datura streets.
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The Palm Beach Post
Mon, Jul 19, 1920
SALT AIR HOTEL LEASED TO STRAAT & MAAS FOR TERM OF TEN YEARS
One of the most important hotel transactions recorded here in a long time is that of the lease of the Salt Air hotel by Mr. and Mrs. W. A. Weihe, proprietors, for a term of ten years, to G. K. Straat and E. J. Maas, experienced hotel men and owners of the Fennimore hotel at Asbury Park.
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Along with the lease just filed was a bill of sale for the furniture and equipment in the hotel, the consideration being $25,000. The lease calls for an annual rental of $12,000 for the first five years and an annual rental of $15,000 for the next five years. The lease indicates that negotiations for this transaction were made by L. G. Biggers, of the Palm Beach Realty Service.
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The Salt Air hotel is the largest hotel here and enjoys a large patronage during the tourist season. It is of fire-proof construction and adjoins the city park along the lake front; as well as fronting on both Narcissus and Daturat streets.
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July 27, 1959 marked the groundbreaking ceremony for the “ultra-modern” Town House Hotel on Flagler Drive. The 1913 Hotel Salt Air was torn down to accom-modate the new hotel on the site now occupied by the Meyer Amphitheatre.
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The Town House opened with a big splash. The caption on the photo below that ran on page 2 of the Oct. 9, 1960 Palm Beach Post-Times: “Obliging a photographer as she re-laxed with a drink at the patio-pool area of the city’s new $3 million Town House Hotel is curvaceous Mary Taylor, who served as hostess during opening day ceremonies on Wednesday. Her beauty and attractive figure (36-23-34) undoubtedly gained the new hotel nationwide attention as this picture was flashed across America over UPI Telephoto from The Palm Beach Post-Times’ transmitting station.”
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But the momentum was not to be sustained. The hotel’s mortgage holder foreclosed on the Town House in 1964. It became the Holiday Inn Town House under new ownership in 1965, and operated as a Hol-iday Inn until 1984, when it became Palm Beach County’s first kosher hotel and residence, the Palm Beach Residence Inn. That venture lasted only about a year. The building was sold to developers in 1986, became entangled in foreclosures and bank-ruptcy proceedings, and was eventually handed to government regulators. West Palm Beach officials spent six years trying to tear it down, and finally succeeded with a New Year’s Eve implosion in 1993.
