People know Florida for its warm beaches, orange fields, and family-friendly theme parks like Universal Studios and Disney World. It’s not all good in the Sunshine State, though. Some of the scariest hotels in the country are there. One of these is the Loews Don Cesar Hotel in St. Pete Beach. It has a sad and happy past that you can still feel in its rooms.
The Pink House
Thomas Rowe built the Loews Don Cesar Hotel in the 1920s. He was a rich businessman who fell in love with Lucinda, a Spanish opera singer. Their parents told her to go back to Spain and marry someone else because they didn’t want them to be together. Thomas never forgot the woman he loved, so he built the hotel and named it after one of their favorite opera characters, Don Cesar.
The hotel has a unique pink color and a tower in the middle. It was built in a Mediterranean style. A lot of famous people, politicians, and socialites liked going there because it had nice services and jazz parties.
The Spirits of Thomas and Lucinda
Thomas Rowe died in 1940, giving the hotel to the people who worked for him. While he died, his spirit and Lucinda’s, who died of a broken heart, never left the ground. People who work there and guests have seen them going around the grounds holding hands and dressed in white. A woman with raven hair who is thought to be Lucinda’s ghost sometimes walks with them.
People say they are nice and safe, but they also really watch out for their hotel. Sometimes they’ll play music, turn on lights, or move things around in the rooms. Guests and workers are also welcome, and they may show up as a reflection in the mirror or a voice in the ear.
The VA Hospital
During World War II, the hotel was turned into a VA hospital for hurt soldiers, which was a sad part of its past. The fancy rooms in the hotel were turned into morgues, surgery rooms, and wards. A lot of soldiers died in the hotel, and some of their ghosts were still there.
People who worked there and guests have said they heard moans, screams, and footsteps in the halls, especially on the fifth floor, where the most seriously hurt patients were being treated. Another thing that some people have seen are ghosts of troops and nurses in uniforms doing their jobs. There are friendly ghosts and angry, antsy ghosts among them.
The Ghost Hotel Today
In the 1970s, the hotel was brought back to its former glory. It is now part of the Loews Hotels group. Tourists still love to visit because it has beautiful views, great restaurants, and spa services. But it’s also a popular place for people who are interested in the supernatural, who come to learn about the place’s haunted past and meet its ghostly residents. People can learn more about the hotel’s history and the ghosts that live there by going on walks. The hotel is also used for weddings and events, and some people have said they saw Thomas and Lucinda there.
In conclusion
There are ghosts in the Loews Don Cesar Hotel, which is also one of the most beautiful places to stay in Florida. It shows how much Thomas and Lucinda loved each other that they still haunt the hotel they built together. At the same time, it shows the terrible things that happened during war and the pain that fighters went through. The hotel is a place where history and mystery come together, and guests can feel both the beauty and the horror of the story.