San Carlos Hotel (Pensacola, Florida)

The San Carlos Hotel, sometimes called the Hotel San Carlos and affectionately dubbed the Gray Lady of Palafox, was a grand and revered hotel in Pensacola, Florida, for much of the 20th century. The San Carlos Hotel was the project of local businessmen James Michael Muldon, Sr. (1867-1932) and Frasier Franklin Bingham (1872-1953) (lumber magnate and shipbuilder), who saw the need for the kind of upscale hotel being erected in larger cities, and issued stock in the project under the name Pensacola Hotel Company. Regarding the site, their original choice was the northeast corner of Palafox and Garden Streets, which had no significant structures at the time. However, they instead purchased the northwest corner (at the cost of $75, 000) from the First Methodist Church, which was relocating to Wright Street. The Methodists had purchased the property from Colonel Chandler Cox Yonge (1818-1889) in 1882 for an old Tarragona Street church building valued at $1,500 plus $100 "to boot." The hotel was designed by New York architect William Lee Stoddart and erected by local firm C. H. Turner Construction Co. at the cost of $500,000. A sturdy beam-and-girder structural system, designed to withstand hurricane winds, was covered by ceramic tile and stucco. The name "San Carlos" was selected on January 15, 1909, and site clearing began thereafter. As the Pensacola Journal explained: The name "S

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