Manatee History Matters: The Manavista Hotel was Bradenton's first 'sky scraper'

By 1906, Bradentown was rapidly outgrowing its hotels; the St. James, Gaar House, Le Chalet, Duckwall House, Oak Grove, the Inn and smaller boarding houses were not enough to handle the influx of tourists during season.

Bradentown needed more hotel space, and the answer came from Henry L. Coe. He envisioned a stone structure the likes this area had never seen before.

Coe was already an investor in Bradentown, having constructed the Coe Brick Block on Main Street a year earlier. Coe acquired the Mansion Lot on the plat of Braidentown for its Main Street location. The $8,000 purchase price was raised and donated by the local hotel committee, with the promise he would build the hotel.

The Duckwall House, which had served as a home, hotel and restaurant, and other buildings were moved off the lot. The Inn, one of the oldest structures in the city, would soon see the same fate. Lost among its brick block brothers on Main Street, it was torn down the same year, and the lumber was moved to Fogartyville by Sam Tillis to be reused in a cottage.

Called a "sky scraper" in the Oct. 5, 1906 newspaper, it would be the tallest building in Manatee County. Hotels were usually on the second or third floor of buildings with business on the street level. The new hotel would have its offices, kitchens, parlors and dining rooms on the first floor.

Construction started in July 1906 with the laying of the foundation and a promised opening date in January 1907.

After some construction delays, the Manavista Hotel opened Jan. 31, 1907 to praise from all fronts. The construction was modern, with four floors of concrete and artificial grey-stone with a tin roof, an elevator, sweeping verandas, single rooms, en-suite rooms, hot and cold water, steam heat, electric lights and private baths.

There was also a connecting archway across Turner Street to the second floor of the St. James Hotel building, which was to be used as an annex containing newly remodeled rooms. The structure on the west side of the lot would contain rooms and the dance floor.

The Manavista immediately became the place to stay, dine and entertain for locals and for tourists. Society tidbits were printed in the newspaper including the lists of registered guests, dances, galas and menus

for the extensive gourmet food being offered.

With sweeping lawns, gardens and seawall, the view to the north toward the Manatee River was unhindered. Guests arrived by steamer at the City Dock aka Corwin's Dock and later by train. The Manavista was a seasonal hotel; Mr. J H Murdick, the hotel manager, arrived in late December to open the hotel. When the hotel closed for its first season, it had only been open for 30 days and would reopen again Jan. 1, 1908. The first major hotel in Bradenton to stay open all 12 months was the Hotel Dixie Grande.

With the death of Coe in 1916, and the arrival of the "new modern" hotels in the 1920s -- the Hotel Dixie Grande and the Manatee River Hotel -- a massive update of the hotel structure was needed. In 1925, the Manavista was stripped to its walls and remodeled; what had been new and modern in 1907 was dated in the 1920s. The Manavista managed to survive into the 1950s -- no small feat, because the area's economy collapsed in late 1926 and did not recover until the early 1940s.

The hotel was later sold on June 30, 1959 to the Bradenton Motor Hotel Inc. and replaced with the Bradenton Cabana. The older structure was leveled and a new one constructed for a motor lodge. The new building would no longer have that view to the river. The waterfront was filled and seawalled to create more city land -- on that new piece of filled land stands the old Manatee Players building.

Fortunately for the Bradenton Cabana, unlike the Manavista, it would see a new life after being purchased by Presbyterian Retirement Communities and remodeled into the Westminster Courtyard we see today.

Cindy Russell, librarian for the Manatee Historical Records Library, enjoys genealogy and puzzles of all kinds, needlework and sewing. She can be reached at cindy.russell@manateeclerk.com or 941-741-4070.

This story was originally published November 18, 2014 at 12:00 AM with the headline "Manatee History Matters: The Manavista Hotel was Bradenton's first 'sky scraper' ."