Historical Holidays



An ariel view of the
Belleview Biltmore Resort

 

 Fifteen years ago, when our family was on vacation in Florida, we visited Clearwater Beach for the day. As I looked across the Inland Waterway, I caught glimpses of a structure which intrigued me. The sunlight appreared to be reflecting off a massive architectural anachronism reposing behind large grove of trees. Bill, who was always game for one of my adventures, packed up the children and took me across investigate. That was the first time I saw the largest occupied wood frame building in the world: The Belleair Mido. Too intimidated by her elegance and grandeur to do more than drive around the perimeter and gape, we paid our respects and returned to our modest, unimaginative hotel in a daze. What a novel experience!



Though it was built in the same era as the
Belleview, the old Tampa Bay Hotel is a
showcase of Moorish architecture.

A few years later, following Bill's death, when the children and I were again visiting his mom in Florida, I took a morning away from them to tour the old Tampa Bay Hotel, which has been preserved in part on the University of Tampa campus as the Henry Plant Museum. I learned that this was actually a sister structure of the Belleair Mido (which is now known as the Belleview Biltmore Resort), though it was vastly different in design. (Think "Anne of Green Gables" meets "Aladdin!") I spent the better part of that time in open-mouthed wonder absorbing the flavor of a privileged life lived more than a century ago in America's Gilded Age.



The Tampa Bay Hotel
 at night is a sight
 to remember

 

 I have a passion for vintage architecture. Perhaps this is a consequence of growing up in the shadow of The Biltmore House in Asheville. Or perhaps my abiding affection for historic adventuring began the first time my brother arranged for me to have a behind-the-scenes private tour of The Reynolda House in Winston Salem, NC.

No matter what the reason, I am thrilled that in a few weeks, the children and I will actually be STAYING at the Belleview Biltmore

Resort in Clearwater Beach! This will be my last chance to sample that part of American architectural history before "The White Queen of the Gulf" closes indefinitely for rennovations beginning in June. While I am thankful that she will--for the most part--be saved from demolition, some of the character of this Grand Dame will be forever lost after her contemporary facelift.



A beautiful shot of the Belleview
 from across one of its many pools



 Kay O'Hara                                          

 March 4, 2009