| LAKELAND'S GRAND AND NOT SO GRAND HOTELS |
OTHER LAKELAND HOTELS |
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Lakeshore Hotel |
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Franklin Hotel |
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Washburn Hotel |
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Title Page |
The Tremont, Klibler/Thelma, Lakeland Terrace, and the New Florida are the most prominent and grandest of Lakeland's early hotels, but they are not the only ones. There were several other less luxurious, but still serviceable hotels built to serve travelers to Lakeland. Most have been torn down and long since forgotten. Among them were the Washburn Hotel at 221 South Tennessee, the Franklin Hotel at 116 North Massachusetts, the Lakeshore at 41 Lake Morton Drive and a host of small hotels along North Kentucky, including the New Southern, the Marvin, the Brown and the Orange.
The Orange and the Lakeshore are the only ones that remain from that host of hotels. Both were renovated and are currently in use as office buildings. The Orange is the last of the many blue collar hotels/rooming houses built to house railroad workers in the early part of the century. The Orange was built about 1910. It continued to be used as a rooming house until 1994 when it was renovated for use as a combination retail/office space.
The Lakeshore Hotel, now the Ruthven Building, was built at a cost of $15,000 in 1913 by Spence Stephens, one of Lakeland's pioneer settlers. It was designed by noted Tallahassee architect, W. B. Talley. The building has known many names and many uses during its long life. It was originally known as the Colonial Apartments, reputed to be Lakeland's first apartment building. It was later known as the Freeman Apartments before being purchased by Florida Southern College in 1946 for use as a dormitory and fraternity house. It was sold to the Dillinger Brothers (James and Kenneth) in 1948 and renamed the Lakeshore Hotel. It continued to serve as a hotel until 1975 when it was purchased by local businessman Joe Ruthven and renovated for use as an office building. Its graceful columned portico continues to overlook Lake Morton at the corner of Lake Morton and Iowa.
Click on the links above to view larger images of some Lakeland's less fashionable early hotels.
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