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|name=San Carlos Hotel
|location=1 North [[Palafox Street]]
|architect=[[W. L. Wikipedia:William Lee Stoddart|William Lee Stoddart]]
|client=[[James Muldon]] & [[F.F. Bingham]]
|engineer=[[C. H. Turner]]
The San Carlos Hotel was the project of local businessmen [[James Muldon]] and [[F. F. Bingham]], who saw the need for the kind of upscale hotel being erected in larger cities. Regarding the site, their original choice was the northeast corner of [[Palafox Street|Palafox]] and [[Garden Street]]s, which had no significant structures at the time (but would soon be occupied by the [[Isis Theatre]]). However, they instead purchased the northwest corner from the [[First Methodist Church]], which was relocating to [[Wright Street]].
The hotel was designed by New York architect [[W. L. Wikipedia:William Lee Stoddart|William Lee Stoddart]] and erected by local firm [[C. H. Turner]] Construction Co. at a cost of $500,000. A sturdy beam-and-girder structural system, designed to withstand [[hurricane]] winds, was covered by ceramic tile and stucco. Ground was broken in April of [[1909]], and construction was completed in [[1910]]. It opened its doors on the first day of [[Mardi Gras]] celebrations. The hotel had its own well, with a rooftop cistern and purification system, and the original 157 rooms each had an exterior window and modern furnishings.
Muldon and Bingham leased operation of the hotel to [[George Charles Harvey]] until [[1919]], and then to the Newcomb Hotel Company until [[1922]], when it was sold to lumber magnate [[William B. Harbeson]] and managed by his son-in-law. The new owners soon announced a massive expansion on the north and west sides of the hotel that maintained a consistent facade and added 246 rooms, a ballroom, a new lobby, and space for offices and shops.