Deauville Beach Resort

History of the Deauville Beach Resort

The original Deauville was constructed in 1926 by Joe Elsener, a real estate investor and one of Carl Fisher’s top salesmen. According to legend, hotelier J. Perry Stoltz and his wife, Nellie, were out on a drive with Elsener in search of land for a new hotel. Miles north of South Beach, Mrs. Stoltz jumped out of the car and struck an “X” on a button tree with lipstick and proclaimed, “This is where we will build our hotel.” The hotel was built on the Biscayne Bay side of Miami Beach and named after their son, Fleetwood.

Several years later, Elsener saw the “X” on the tree and decided to gamble on a woman’s intuition. He left Fisher’s company, found investors with more than $1,000,000, and built the first Deauville hotel. According to Ed Hancock, who worked for the company that built the hotel, the workers practically had to be shanghaied into working there, as it was so far from civilization. Construction materials had to be transported at premium prices to the construction site.

The Deauville Casino

Known as the Deauville Casino, the 142-room resort was a gaudy, opulent showcase of high society surrounded by wild swamplands and endless darkness. Although the hotel was highly successful on opening night, it failed miserably within a few years. Most visitors opted to stay closer to civilization, not daring to chance isolation in the Deauville’s far removed location. Cafe society orchestras from New York, nightclub stars, and gambling failed to attract visitors. Even the swimming pool, the largest of its kind in Florida, failed.

By 1928, Elesner had taken out three mortgages on the Deauville—the second, valued at $50,000, was acquired by businessman Fred D. Breit, while the third, worth $100,000, was purchased by fight promoter Tex Rickard. Rickard was interested in turning the casino into a major sports venue, but died in 1929 before those plans got off the ground. Then the Depression hit, causing the Deauville to close down. To protect himself, Breit bought the first mortgage and foreclosed, becoming the owner of the property.

According to Breit, he was successful and well off, but didn’t know it. He owned the sites where the Cadillac Hotel and the Patrician Hotel now stand, 19 lots in Golden Beach, and a $125,000 home on Collins Avenue. He was also the owner of the North County Hydro-Electric Company in Ottawa, Illinois. “I should have stopped right there. I should have let that old casino rot right where it stood,” Breit said in a 1965 interview with The Miami Herald.

Instead of letting it rot, Breit invested nearly half a million dollars in renovating the building by removing the bathers’ lockers to put in hotel rooms, adding some cabanas, and widening the beach. In order to pay for these renovations, though, Breit sold some of his properties, including his home, for just $37,000. The site where the Cadillac Hotel is located was sold for just $30,000. After just one season, which proved unsuccessful, Breit sold the resort for $150,000 to Lucy Cotton in 1934.

Princess Lucy Cotton Thomas McGraw Eristavi-Tchitcherine

Born on August 29, 1895, in Houston, Texas, Lucy Cotton moved to New York City as a teenager to pursue a career in theatre. She began in the chorus of The Quaker Girl before rising to fame with roles like Polygamy at the Park Theatre (1915) and the popular Broadway production Up in Mabel’s Room (1919).

Lucy appeared in approximately 12 silent films between 1910 and 1921. Notable titles include The Fugitive (1910), Life Without Soul (1915), The Prodigal Wife (1918), The Miracle of Love (1919), The Devil (1921), The Misleading Lady (1920), The Sin That Was His (1920), The Man Who (1921), and Whispering Shadows (1921).

Lucy’s personal life drew major public interest. In 1924, she married Edward Russell Thomas, publisher of the New York Morning Telegraph. He died in 1926, bequeathing a large fortune (around $27 million) and their daughter, Lucetta, to Lucy. Over the next two decades, she had several high-profile marriages— Lytton Grey Ament (1927–1930), lawyer Charles Hann Jr. (1931–1932), William M. Magraw (1932–1941), and finally, Georgian-Russian Prince Vladimir Eristavi-Tchitcherine in 1941; this last marriage granted her the title of “Princess”.

Bernarr MacFadden, “Father of Physical Culture”

In 1936, the Deauville was renamed the Macfadden Deauville Hotel and operated as a health spa when Cotton leased the hotel to Bernarr MacFadden, an American health reformer, publisher, entrepreneur, and cultural provocateur, widely regarded as the “Father of Physical Culture.” Born Bernard Adolphus McFadden on August 16, 1868, in Mill Spring, Missouri, he endured a sickly childhood marked by poverty and the loss of both parents. Rejecting frailty, he remade himself through exercise, clean eating, and an austere lifestyle, eventually changing his name to “Bernarr Macfadden” to sound more vigorous and memorable.

In the late 19th and early 20th centuries, Macfadden became one of the most influential voices in America’s early fitness and natural health movement. He preached the benefits of bodybuilding, fasting, fresh air, whole foods, and a rejection of processed products. His philosophy, called “Physical Culture,” promoted self-reliance, discipline, and natural living—anticipating many aspects of modern fitness and wellness culture.

He opened gyms, staged fitness exhibitions, and even promoted contests that celebrated strength and physique. His emphasis on muscular development and health-conscious living helped popularize bodybuilding decades before it entered the mainstream.

Macfadden turned his philosophy into a publishing empire. In 1899, he launched Physical Culture magazine, which reached hundreds of thousands of readers. His empire grew to include popular mass-market titles such as True Story (which pioneered the confessional magazine style), True Detective, and others. At its peak, Macfadden Publications was one of the largest magazine empires in America.

He also ventured into politics, running unsuccessfully for the U.S. Senate and the presidency, and founded institutions such as health resorts and schools devoted to Physical Culture. At the height of his career, Macfadden owned multiple hotels along with a prominent building in Dansville, New York. In 1902, he opened a New York City restaurant named Physical Culture, one of the earliest vegetarian establishments in the city. The concept proved popular, and by 1911, twenty Physical Culture vegetarian restaurants were operating in cities across the country.

McFadden-Deauville Hotel

In 1936, MacFadden oversaw a large expansion of the original Deauville Casino, which included the extension of the north and south wings, a third-floor addition, and the enlargement of the guest rooms. Roy F. France, who is credited with creating the Miami Beach, Florida, skyline, was the architect. His works include the St. Moritz Hotel (1939), the National Hotel (1939), the Cadillac Hotel (1940), and the Saxony Hotel (1948).

The hotel boasted the largest circular saltwater swimming pool in the country, 165 feet long and 100 feet wide. The pool also featured two movable platforms with seating, accommodating up to 2,000 guests during aquatic shows and events. Like its predecessor, the hotel struggled to retain visitors, but found some success with the resort’s cabanas and swimming pool.

During World War II, the Coast Guard used the MacFadden Deauville as one of three control points for its anti-invasion patrol of beaches. In 1942, the U.S. Army leased the hotel for officer candidates, but six months later condemned the building due to a leaking roof.

In 1944, Lucy Cotton sold controlling shares of the Deauville to New York investors L. A. Lasser and B. A. Winkel for $750,000. As part of the agreement, they pledged to spend an additional $3 to $5 million on improvements. The transfer gave them 51 percent ownership, but when Lasser and Winkel withdrew from the deal, despite the transfer going through, the collapse triggered a four-year legal battle over control of the property.

After four years, Cotton won the lawsuit and regained control of the property in December 1948. A week later, she committed suicide by overdosing on sleeping pills and was found dead at her Miami Beach home on December 12, 1948. In 1950, E. M. Leow acquired the hotel from her estate and sold it to Irving Pollack and Charles Yavers, who, in turn, had the resort demolished in 1956 to make way for a new hotel.

Deauville Beach Resort

Located in the North Beach Resort Historic District in Miami Beach, the new Deauville Beach Resort was designed by Melvin Grossman, whose works include Caesar’s Palace in Las Vegas and the Acapulco Princess Hotel in Mexico. According to the resort’s website, it was declared “Hotel of the Year” upon opening in 1957. The 538-room oceanfront resort boasted a swimming pool, a beauty salon, restaurants, shops, a radio station, and even an ice skating rink. The hotel’s ballroom was later used for the 2009 film Confessions of a Shopaholic.

The Beatles

The hotel attracted a myriad of celebrities such as Lena Horne, Sophie Tucker, Mickey Rooney, Tom Jones, Joan Rivers, Judy Garland, Phil Silvers, Milton Berle, Jerry Lewis, Buster Keaton, Betty Grable, Lome Green, Wayne Newton, Johnny Mathis, Dany Thomas, Jimmy Durante, Eleanor Roosevelt, and President Ronald Reagan. President John F. Kennedy also stayed here in 1961 to speak to the Young Democrats before heading to the Americana Hotel to address the American Federation of Labor and Congress of Industrial Organizations. The hotel’s Napoleon Ballroom also played host to many artists such as Frank Sinatra, Louis Armstrong, and Tony Bennett.

On February 9, 1964, the Beatles performed for the first time in the United States on The Ed Sullivan Show in New York. The following week’s show was broadcast from Miami Beach, where Cassius Clay, later known as Muhammad Ali, was in training for his first title bout against Sonny Liston. On February 16, 1964, the Beatles performed at the Deauville Beach Resort to a throng of fans, opening the show with “She Loves You,” “This Boy,” and “All My Loving.” They later closed the show with “I Saw Her Standing There,” “From Me to You”, and “I Want to Hold Your Hand.”

Closure

On July 25, 2017, the hotel installed an air conditioner chiller without electrical permits, and it was ordered the previous week to stop using it. They continued using it, resulting in faulty wiring catching fire. According to reports, the sprinkler system in the electrical room was activated, and it was the only room damaged. No smoke or fire got into the guest areas or rooms. Nonetheless, guests were forced to evacuate and were relocated to nearby hotels as the electrical system needed extensive repairs. The hotel has been shut down since then. Two months later, the building sustained further damage during Hurricane Irma. Those damages were amplified due to illegal work done on the roof of the building without a construction permit.

Despite several occasions where the owners had made the claim that they were indeed working towards having the hotel back up and running again, the City of Miami Beach made a counterclaim, saying that the only work done on the building has been the illegal work following Hurricane Irma. In a hearing with the Miami-Dade County Unsafe Structures Board in December 2018, owner Homero Meruelo is quoted as saying, “It would be a favor that they demolish the [Property] and I get rid of this nightmare that I have. That’s the truth.” He is also quoted as saying, “So, the building is full of water, full of mold and mildew. We have no power. I mean, what do we do? We have no money.”

In early 2019, the City of Miami Beach filed a lawsuit against the owners of the Deauville Beach Resort due to the building’s state of disrepair and fear that the owners are intentionally neglecting to maintain the property, eventually leading to the deterioration of the building beyond repair and forcing its demolition. After two minor fires caused by trespassers occurred at the Deauville, the owners agreed to hire at least three security guards on-site, installation of a new fence to further secure the property, and provide three points of entry for the City’s Police and Fire Departments.

On August 7, 2019, a Miami Beach Police officer checked on the property after receiving multiple complaints about trespassers and homeless activity. He was denied access to the interior of the building but was able to conduct an exterior check of the property, revealing insufficient security measures. Two days later, on August 9, 2019, another check on the property found no indications of security guards being on-site. In February 2020, the beach walk behind the hotel was closed due to safety concerns, as chunks of concrete had fallen off the building. Later that same year, the city began fining the owners for “failure to prevent demolition by neglect.“

Demolition

Then, in January 2022, the building’s owners turned over a structural report to the city that found that the building was beyond repair and would need to be demolished before the start of the 2022 hurricane season. Crews began preliminary demolition work to remove the Deauville’s iconic metallic red sign and its porte-cochere. Asbestos abatement commenced soon thereafter. Crew resumed demolition work of the hotel in September 2022, bulldozing the lobby, ballrooms, and pool area. Finally, on November 13, 2022, the Deauville Beach Resort was no more, and the structures were imploded.

While the city hoped that future building plans would be the same as the old hotel, that is simply not the case. Plans are being made for the land to be sold to billionaire developer and Miami Dolphins owner Stephen Ross. He had made plans to build a much taller, luxury condo hotel designed by architect Frank Gehry, but due to the planned towers exceeding current city height codes, the proposal, placed on the November 8, 2022, ballot, was voted against by residents.

Since the Deavulle’s demolition, the state passed a law that permits owners of properties east of the coastal construction control line to demolish them even if they are locally designated historic landmarks, though long-established historic districts, such as the city’s Art Deco district, are exempt. It also strips historic preservation boards of the authority to require replicas, design elements, or other tributes to the demolished structures.

Author’s Note: Throughout the entire process, the city and the owners have proved unfaithful not only to their promises but also to the urgency needed to demolish the structure. This is considering the fact that much of the structure remains standing near the end of the 2022 hurricane season, when the owners claimed that the structure needed to be demolished before the season even started. The city has also gone along with the owners’ plans despite pleas from preservationists. Preservationists lost, unfortunately.

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