Our History
History comes alive at the Crowne
Plaza Key West - La Concha. Carl E Aubuchon built this Key West landmark,
first opened in January of 1926, to provide the city with a
"first class hotel." The newest hotel on the island had marble
floors, private baths, elevators and other luxuries that were
new to Key West accommodations. It was no surprise that the
hotel was an immediate success with wealthy industrialists,
visiting dignitaries, and high society. In fact, when the
president of Pan American World Airways, Juan A. Trippe,
announced the beginning of service between Key West and Cuba
in 1927, he located the first office in the hotel. During this
time, rum-running thrived, the sponge-gathering and
cigar-making industry was booming and warm weather tourists
from the mainland were being delivered by the hundreds to Key
West by Henry Flagler's Overseas Railroad.
The stock market crash of 1929 hit Key West hard and suddenly it
was one of the poorest cities in the United States. In 1930,
because of financial difficulties, the hotel changed ownership
and changed it's name from "La Concha" to the "Key West
Colonial," although the natives still called it by its
original name. Although the start of construction on the
Overseas Highway improved the flow of visitors to the area,
the Labor Day Hurricane of 1935 damaged major parts of the
highway and the Overseas Railroad and Key West was cut off
from the mainland once again. The hurricane ended the Key West
extension of the railroad and its bridge pilings and railway
track beds became a part of the Overseas Highway, more
commonly known as U.S. 1.
Through it all, the La Concha survived and played host to its share of
famous personalities. Ernest Hemingway, a name synonymous with
Key West, stayed at the hotel and his protagonist in the
acclaimed
To Have and Have Not makes reference to La Concha's landmark tower as he sails from the island. Another
Pulitzer Prize winning author, Tennessee Williams, finished
the play "A Streetcar Named Desire" (for which he won the
prize) here. In his words, "We arrived in Key West and
occupied a two-room suite on the top of the Hotel La Concha
and it was there that I really began to get Streetcar into
shape. It went like a house on fire…" The rest is Broadway and
movie history.
The next 30 years saw the hotel fall victim to age and newer and
glitzier hotels and resorts. By the early 80s, the only part
of the hotel still open was the rooftop bar (for the history
of rooftop bar,
click here). The remaining rooms had been boarded up and
were now occupied only by pigeons and the occasional vagrant.
That all changed when architect Richard Rauh was hired to save
the faded gem. Working only from old photographs, interviews
of longtime residents about what the hotel once looked like,
and stripped layers of wallpaper and panels, his crew
painstakingly restored the La Concha to its former glory. The
multi-million dollar, award winning project re-opened in 1986,
this time with a new coral-pink exterior replacing the drab
mustard-yellow look it once sported.
When the hotel first opened, an article in the January 20th, 1926 edition of the Key West Citizen proclaimed "The roof of the Hotel La Concha has already become popular on account of the fine view that one can get of the entire city and surrounding gulf and ocean...In the distance are the towers, boats in the harbor, boats passing, the old fort, the sun shining down on the surrounding waters, and many other beautiful pictures made picturesque from that height." Storm damage to the 7th floor in September and October of 1948 forced repair of the rooms on that floor. In order to show the public that the damage was minimal, the hotel introduced a "penny cocktail hour" each evening.
The popularity of the event led the hotel to realize they had not capitalized on the view from the top of the hotel. The opening of "The Quarterdeck" was announced in September of 1949 with an ad for "Dancing under the Key West stars with the lights of Key West and The Naval installations far below...a tropical moon...a sip of Cuban rum...a low rumba...all in the atmosphere of a Naval shop from quarterdeck to poop deck to bridge."
