Hotel Normandie | |
Location | Ponce de León Ave. and San Gerónimo St., San Juan, Puerto Rico |
---|---|
Coordinates | 18°27′52″N66°05′15″W / 18.464493°N 66.087412°W |
Built | 1942 |
Architect | Raúl Reichard & Félix Benítez Rexach |
Architectural style | Art Deco, Streamline Moderne |
NRHP reference No. | 80004295 [1] |
Added to NRHP | August 29, 1980 |
The Normandie Hotel is a historic building located in the Isleta de San Juan, in San Juan, Puerto Rico which opened on October 10, 1942 as a hotel. Its design was inspired by the French transatlantic passenger ship SS Normandie in addition to featuring the same art deco design as the ocean liner that inspired it, and the hotel's original roof sign was one of the two signs that adorned the top deck of the SS Normandie but were removed from it during an early refitting. It is an example of what came to be known as the Streamline Moderne architecture style.
As of 2021 [update] the building was vacant and not in operation and in 2022, was sold to private owners who said they plan to renovate it.
The Normandie Hotel was the brainchild of Puerto Rican engineer Félix Benítez Rexach. [1] He married the French singer Lucienne D'Hotelle in 1927 or 1928; [2] [3] reportedly, he built the hotel as a wedding present for his bride. [4] He served as the president of the Escambron Development Company, which was incorporated in approximately 1943 to issue bonds to finance the completion of the hotel. Escambron owned and operated the hotel. [2]
The hotel was designed by architect Raúl Reichard (1908–1996) and construction began in 1938. The hotel's exterior was designed to resemble the famed luxury ocean liner, [4] elongated and curved in front and back, with porthole-shaped lights on the facade of the 6th floor, as well as on the front on all floors except the front entrance and 2nd floor. Inside, the hotel features art deco design, complete with Roman, Egyptian, and French details, high ceilings, corridors looking down into a central skylighted atrium, banisters that resemble those on ships on the edges of all floors except the lobby, a pool outside in the back shaped similarly to the hotel's, and had blue or orange awnings above the windows on the upper floors until the hotel closed in the 1960s.
Designers and artists from Puerto Rico, Dominican Republic, France, and Spain all contributed to the hotel's overall construction. When it opened on October 10, 1942, [5] it became an instant sensation among the island's social elite. Completed at a cost of more than US$2,000,000, the hotel catered to many major Hollywood and Latin American film stars such as Cantinflas, Libertad Lamarque and Jorge Negrete. The hotel also served as a performing arts venue for many of Puerto Rico's top entertainers, such as Ruth Fernández, Myrta Silva, Sylvia Rexach, and Carmen Delia Dipini.
The coastline of Puerto Rico was expropriated by the federal government for defense during World War II, including the hotel, and Benítez Rexach, who had moved to the Dominican Republic in 1944, reportedly protested by refusing to pay his property taxes. [4] However, court records indicate Benítez Rexach had argued unsuccessfully that as an American citizen without congressional representation, he was exempt from federal taxes. [2] After being closed and abandoned in the 1970s, [4] the hotel was restored in the early 1990s. Afterwards, it underwent massive renovations due to heavy damage caused by Hurricane Georges in 1998. After storm-related damages were repaired, the hotel remained in business until 2004, when another renovation project commenced. In early 2005, the 173-room hotel reopened after its refurbishing and would operate as a Boutique Hotel for 4 years, before closing again by late 2010, since then the hotel has remained unused and vacant for over a decade. [6]
The Normandie Hotel was purchased on August 8, 2013, by Ben Medetsky and Jack Polatsek of Interra Capital Group for nearly US$4,000,000 but after initial plans for redevelopment of the hotel, the group decided to sell it. [7] [8] In 2015, the owners removed the hotel's historic roof sign in order to protect and preserve it, and only the structure that held up the letters of the sign remains. [9] Although various groups of investors attempted to purchase the property in 2014, [10] then in the spring of 2017 [11] and again in the spring of 2018, [12] it wasn't actually sold until January 2022. [13]
Majority Leader Ángel Matos García (PPD) filed Joint House Resolution 0089 in March 2021; if passed, the Puerto Rico Department of Economic Development and Commerce would seize the property and demolish the hotel. [5] The Institute of Puerto Rican Culture made a statement opposing the resolution two days later. [14] Later that year, despite rumors to the contrary, Hard Rock International denied that it was interested in the hotel. [15] The hotel was purchased by the Ishay Group for US$8.6 million, who plan to restore the hotel and reopen it, possibly converting some rooms into residences. [13]
The Normandie Hotel was added to the U.S. National Register of Historic Places in 1980. [1] [16]
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Luis Lloréns Torres, was a Puerto Rican poet, playwright, and politician. He was an advocate for the independence of Puerto Rico.
Sylvia Regina Rexach González was a Puerto Rican comedy scriptwriter, poet, singer and composer of boleros.
María Bibiana Benítez Batista was a Puerto Rican writer who was Puerto Rico's first female poet and one of its first playwrights. She was the first of three renowned poets in her family, the others being her niece and adopted daughter Alejandrina Benítez de Gautier, and Alejandrina's son José Gautier Benítez.
Félix Benítez Rexach was a Puerto Rican engineer and businessman who built the Normandie Hotel, located in San Juan, Puerto Rico.
Juan Manuel Dalmau Ramírez is a Puerto Rican politician, attorney and a former candidate for Governor of Puerto Rico for the Puerto Rican Independence Party. He was previously a member of the Senate of Puerto Rico.
Jaime Benítez Rexach was a Puerto Rican author, academic and politician. He was the longest serving chancellor and the first president of the University of Puerto Rico.
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Roberto Nicolás Rexach Benítez also known as his stage name Bobby, was a Puerto Rican politician, and former Senator and Representative. Rexach Benítez served as the tenth President of the Senate of Puerto Rico from 1993 to 1996. He also served as a member of the Puerto Rico House of Representatives from 1973 to 1976, under the Popular Democratic Party (PPD) and as a member of the Senate (1985–1998) under the pro-statehood New Progressive Party (PNP).
Cayetano Coll y Cuchí was a politician, writer and an advocate of Puerto Rican Independence. In 1917, he became the first President of Puerto Rico House of Representatives after the island was ceded to the United States by Spain as a result of the Spanish–American War. Coll y Cuchí was a member of a prominent family of Puerto Rican politicians, writers and educators.
Carmen Yulín Cruz Soto is a Puerto Rican politician who served as mayor of the city of San Juan, Puerto Rico from 2013 to 2020. From 2009 through 2013, Cruz served in the House of Representatives of Puerto Rico.
Orlando Fernández De La Crúz, a.k.a. "Aquaman Boricua", is a long-distance swimmer and the first Puerto Rican swimmer to cross the Strait of Gibraltar.
Anaida Hernández is a Puerto Rican sculptor, painter, installation artist, muralist, documentary director, and businesswoman. She was an active member of the Association of Women Artists of Puerto Rico and is considered as being a pioneer in addressing violence against women via contemporary Caribbean and Latin American art.
Margarita Inés Benítez Martínez is a Puerto Rican educator and education policy expert. After completing a bachelor of arts degree at Vassar College, she earned a master's at Middlebury College and a PhD at Columbia University. She taught Spanish and literature classes at the University of Puerto Rico at Cayey in the 1970s. Moving into administration in the 1980s, she was rector and then president of UPR Cayey while simultaneously serving as the acting chancellor of the University of Puerto Rico at Humacao. In 1986, she founded the first women's studies program in Puerto Rico.
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