The Historical Society of Avon ParkAVON PARK, FL · EST. 1886
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Pinecrest Hotel and Country Club

The Pinecrest Hotel and Country Club (historically known as the Old Pinecrest Hotel and the Maharishi School of Vedic Science) was a landmark Mediterranean Revival resort complex situated on a ten-acre estate at 1609 South Lake Lotela Drive, two miles southeast of downtown Avon Park on the southeastern shore of Lake Lotela.[nrhp-00000266] Listed on the National Register of Historic Places on 24 March 2000, the historic structure was demolished in 2007 following severe structural destruction sustained during the 2004 Florida hurricane season.[nrhp-00000266][wiki-pinecrest]

Pioneer Origin and Country Club Founding

The Lake Lotela waterfront property was originally acquired around 1890 by Colonel Harlan Page Davidson, founder of Northwestern Military Academy in Highland Park, Illinois, during Oliver M. Crosby’s initial townsite promotion.[nrhp-00000266] In 1924, the estate passed to his son, Colonel Royal Page Davidson, superintendent of the academy and an automotive military pioneer.[nrhp-00000266]

In 1925, Colonel Davidson engaged local architect William J. Heim to design an elaborate Mediterranean Revival clubhouse and winter resort overlooking Lake Lotela.[nrhp-00000266] Completed in 1926 at a cost of $50,000, the two-story hollow-tile and stucco clubhouse featured an arcaded loggia, reception lounges, a pro shop, locker facilities, and a grand second-floor dining room seating 150 guests with sweeping lake views.[nrhp-00000266]

Donald Ross Golf Course

Simultaneously with clubhouse construction in 1926, internationally renowned golf architect Donald J. Ross was engaged to design and lay out the resort’s golf course.[nrhp-00000266][ross-society-list] The initial nine-hole championship layout opened east of the clubhouse in late 1926, establishing Avon Park on the national winter golf circuit alongside Pinehurst and Belleair.[ross-society-list][fl-historic-golf-trail] The course is permanently indexed in the archives of the Donald Ross Society and the Tufts Archives at Pinehurst, North Carolina, and continues to operate today as the Pinecrest Golf Club on the Florida Historic Golf Trail.[ross-society-list][fl-historic-golf-trail]

During the late 1920s, visiting golfers and winter guests stayed downtown at Heim’s sister project, the Hotel Jacaranda, traveling by automobile to Lake Lotela.[nrhp-00000266]

Completion and the Resort Era (1936–1960s)

The collapse of the Florida land boom and the 1926 hurricane halted Davidson’s planned hotel guest wings for a decade. On 4 January 1936, Chicago investor E. B. Hitchcock purchased the property and resumed construction according to Heim’s original 1925 architectural blueprints, employing William Heim and his architect son James Heim as supervising architects.[nrhp-00000266] Hitchcock added a second nine holes to complete an eighteen-hole golf course and erected the two-story residential hotel wings.[nrhp-00000266]

In 1939, the property was acquired by Horace C. Wright, chairman of the Sunbeam Corporation, and Boston restaurateur Mark Thompson.[nrhp-00000266] Under Wright and Thompson, the Pinecrest operated as a premier, secluded winter resort. The hotel attracted prominent national figures, including comedians George Burns and Gracie Allen, Chicago business leaders, and sports icons Babe Ruth and Lou Gehrig during Major League Baseball spring training exhibition games at Head Field.[nrhp-00000266]

A persistent local tradition holds that Chicago gangster Al Capone frequented the resort to play golf and relax, taking advantage of the direct rail connection from Chicago. While plausible given the hotel’s Chicago clientele and remote location, the claim remains uncorroborated by primary sources. Other figures often attached to the hotel by local lore include Franklin D. Roosevelt and Grover Cleveland; the latter claim must be firmly rejected as circular reporting, as Cleveland died in 1908, eighteen years before the Pinecrest was built.

To maintain first-class operations, Wright recruited Robert King Jr. (co-manager of the Hotel Jacaranda) for the 1946–1947 season and subsequently engaged Chicago hotelier Thomas Flaherty, who brought his seasoned culinary and service staff from Chicago to Avon Park each winter season.[nrhp-00000266] In 1996, King’s firsthand testimony provided core operational documentation for the hotel’s National Register nomination.[nrhp-00000266]

Educational Use, Vedic Science, and Demolition

In the 1960s, the facility accommodated The Highlands School, an exclusive college preparatory boarding school for girls.[nrhp-00000266] Commercial hotel operations ceased in 1973. The surrounding 119-acre golf course was sold separately to ensure continuous recreational operation as the Pinecrest Golf Club, while the ten-acre parcel containing the historic hotel buildings remained independent.[nrhp-00000266]

In 1994, the Transcendental Meditation organization acquired the vacant hotel campus, establishing the Maharishi School of Vedic Science.[nrhp-00000266] The facility achieved listing on the National Register of Historic Places on 24 March 2000.[nrhp-00000266] During the nomination process in July 1998, architectural photographer Ken Krumpe recorded twenty-nine detailed photographs of the complex, capturing the 1926 block’s octagonal tower, main lobby, and grand second-floor dining hall, as well as the 1936 and 1950 additions and the swimming pool. This survey remains the definitive visual record of the hotel before its loss (a typographical anomaly in the federal continuation sheets erroneously labels the location as Pinellas County).[nrhp-00000266]

In August and September 2004, central Florida was struck by three successive hurricanes: Hurricane Charley (13 August 2004), whose eye passed directly across Avon Park and Highlands County with sustained Category 3 winds, followed within weeks by Hurricane Frances (5 September 2004) and Hurricane Jeanne (26 September 2004). The storms tore open roofs, shattered vintage windows, and caused catastrophic interior water infiltration across the hollow-tile and timber framing.[wiki-pinecrest]

With structural remediation deemed economically unfeasible and the building declared an unsafe structure, the historic hotel complex was razed in early 2007.[wiki-pinecrest] Today, only historic palm trees and landscape contours on Lake Lotela mark the former building site, while the adjacent 1926 Donald Ross golf course remains in active play.[fl-historic-golf-trail]

Visual Records

The Detroit Publishing Company documented the hotel between 1900 and 1940 (stylistically dating to its opening circa 1926):

Pine Crest Lakes Country Club, Avon Park Pine Crest Lakes Country Club, Avon Park, Florida. (Library of Congress, Detroit Publishing Company Collection) [loc-2016816432]

Five undated postcards (erroneously indexed as circa 1900 by the Library of Congress, but stylistically and factually dating to the 1920s boom or later) document the property during its tenure as the Pine Crest Lakes Club:

Pine crest Lakes Club Pine crest Lakes Club, Avon Park, Florida. Library of Congress.[loc-2024687069]

Pine Crest Lakes Country Club Pine Crest Lakes Country Club, Avon Park, Florida. Library of Congress.[loc-2024687067]

Pine Crest Lakes Country Club Pine Crest Lakes Country Club, Avon Park, Florida. Library of Congress.[loc-2024687068]

Lounge, Pine Crest Lakes Club Lounge, Pine Crest Lakes Club, Avon Park, Florida. Library of Congress.[loc-2024687070]

Tropical splendor, Pine Crest Lakes Club Tropical splendor, Pine Crest Lakes Club, Avon Park, Florida. Library of Congress.[loc-2024687071]

References

Where this comes from

Evidence
corroborated — More than one independent source agrees.
Review
unverified — Drafted from sources but not yet checked by a volunteer.
Rights
society

Sources

  1. Detroit Publishing Co., Pine Crest Lakes Country Club, Avon Park, Florida (1926)
  2. United States Department of the Interior, National Park Service, National Register of Historic Places Registration Form: Pinecrest Hotel, Old, Avon Park, Florida (reference 00000266) (2000)
  3. Donald Ross Society and the Tufts Archives, Pinehurst, N.C., Directory of Golf Courses Designed by Donald J. Ross, compiled by the Donald Ross Society and the Tufts Archives, Pinehurst, updated 2022 (2022)
  4. Florida Department of State, Division of Historical Resources, Florida Historic Golf Trail: Pinecrest Golf Club (2026)
  5. Wikipedia, Old Pinecrest Hotel (2026)

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