[By Kiley Mallard]

The Lightner Museum: A Collector’s Dream

By the mid-1880s, Henry Morrison Flagler was a wealthy and successful man looking for new business ventures. On an 1885 visit to St. Augustine, he saw an opportunity to develop accommodations for wealthy Northerners wintering in the city. By early 1888, he had extended the railroad from Jacksonville to St. Augustine, and the elegant Ponce de Leon Hotel was open for business.

Flagler built the Alcazar Hotel as a smaller, sister hotel to the Ponce de Leon. Designed by famed architects John M. Carrere and Thomas Hastings, the pair chose a Spanish Renaissance style, the first use of the style now popular throughout Florida. The Alcazar was also one of the first large buildings in the United States constructed of concrete, chosen because it was cheaper than brick and more durable than wood. The Alcazar opened for business on Christmas day in 1888. At $2.00 per night (roughly $40 today), the Alcazar could welcome less wealthy visitors.

The heart of the Alcazar was the "Casino." At the time, the term described a building or room used for social amusements. Among its amenities, the Alcazar Casino advertised the world's largest indoor swimming pool, a gymnasium, a massage parlor, as well as the "Baths"-a Turkish dry heat bath and a Russian steam room. Pool water was fed from an "artesian well" sunk 1,400 feet deep. Admission to the Casino was 25 cents and rental bathing suits and swimming lessons were available.

St. Augustine's tourist boom declined as the Florida frontier opened to the south, and Flagler turned his attention to south Florida and the extension of his railroad. The Alcazar operated as a hotel until 1932. The building then sat vacant until Otto C. Lightner purchased it in 1946.

Born July 2, 1887 in Norwich, Kansas, Lightner was known as a "newspaper doctor," reviving many failing papers across the country. He founded the Lightner Publishing Company in Chicago and created Hobbies magazine, a national magazine for collectors. He promoted the idea that everyone could have a hobby and be a collector of "something" even if they had little money.

Lightner bought most of his own "collection of collections" from large Chicago estates forced to sell during the economic depression of the 1930s and 1940s. Lightner housed his collection in two Michigan Avenue mansions, opening a museum devoted to America's "Gilded Age," the 1890s. As the neighborhood around the mansions declined, Lightner began to seek a new location for his museum.

During a recuperative stay in Florida at the Ponce de Leon, he saw the Alcazar. Lightner purchased the building for $150,000 and put the building in trust to the City of St. Augustine. Although much of his collection was damaged or stolen in its move from Chicago, the Lightner Museum of Hobbies opened its doors in St. Augustine in 1948.

In recent years, the city returned the hotel lobby area to the museum under the condition it be restored. Close to $1 million in state matching grants, museum funds and private donations and almost three years were spent restoring the lobby to its former glory. Kenneth Smith Architects of Jacksonville served as principal architect for the project, and the restoration was completed by A.D. Davis Construction Company, a family-owned and operated company in St. Augustine.

As none of the original tiling was still in existence, the intricate pattern of floor tiles had to be recreated from archive photographs which were scanned and enhanced to detect the exact coloring and pattern. The tiles were manufactured in Italy and fabricated in Mexico before being laid in place. In 2005, the Florida Trust for Historic Preservation recognized the Lightner Museum for Outstanding Achievement in the field of Restoration/Rehabilitation for its work on the lobby. The Lightner has also been recognized for restoration of the gardens and the grand ballroom. The Lightner Museum is home to the Tiberio Research Library, containing 6,000 books on 19th century decorative arts and material culture. Lightner's collection has been called one of the country's most complete reflections of 19th century life.

The property is listed in the National Register of Historic Places and located in the historic district of St. Augustine.