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The '''San Carlos Hotel''', sometimes called the '''Hotel San Carlos''' and affectionately dubbed the '''Gray Lady of Palafox''', was a grand and revered hotel in Pensacola for much of the 20th century.
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 and issued stock in the project under the name '''Pensacola Hotel Company'''. 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]], at a cost of $75,000.(The Methodists had purchased the property from Colonel [[C. C. Yonge]] in [[1882]] for an old [[Tarragona Street]] church building valued at $1,500 plus $100 "to boot."<ref>"Purchased For $1,600, Sold 26 Years Later For $75,000." ''Pensacola Journal'', January 29, 1909.</ref>)
The hotel was designed by New York architect [[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. The name "San Carlos" was selected on [[January 15]], [[1909]], and site clearing began thereafter. As the ''[[Pensacola Journal]]'' explained:
