Thomas Rowe (Don CeSar)

Thomas Rowe (1872–1940) was the founder and builder of the Don CeSar resort in St. Petersburg Beach, Florida.

Thomas was born in Massachusetts and became orphaned at the age of five.  He was sent to England to be raised by an uncle and attended college in London.

The Legend of the Don CeSar

The romantic legend of how Thomas Rowe came to build his "Pink Palace" as a memoriam to his deceased beloved can be read in the book, Haunted Love: Tales of Ghostly Soulmates, Spooky Suitors, and Eternal Love by Chris Gonsalves.^[1]

The story relates how Thomas, a penurious young student, met Lucinda, a young opera singer, in London.  They would meet nightly by a fountain after Lucinda's performance in the opera "Maritana".  The lovers planned to elope, but their plot was discovered by Lucinda's parents, who brought her back home to Spain.^[2]

A heartbroken Thomas returned to America, his numerous letters to Lucinda having been returned, unopened, by her parents.  A few years after, Lucinda wrote a final letter to Thomas as she lay on her deathbed.  Her parents kept their promise and mailed this final letter to Thomas in America.  In part, it read, "Time is infinite. I wait for you by our fountain.... I will be yours, but not in this life".^[3]  Thomas' own health began failing after that, and at the advice of his doctor, traveled to the sunnier climes of Gulf Coast, Florida.^[4]

History of the Don CeSar

Thomas Rowe was successful in his real-estate ventures in New York, married in Virginia where he left his wife behind to stay, and at the advice of his doctor, traveled to Florida.  Here, at the height of the "Roaring Twenties", he bought land on the key of St. Petersburg Beach and built his famed "Pink Palace", a 277-room grand hotel designed by Henry DuPont in a fanciful Moorish style.^[5]  He named it the Don CeSar, after the hero in the opera Maritana and had an exact replica of the secret fountain where he courted Lucinda built in the lobby. 

The Don CeSar was a successful Florida Gulf Coast resort in pre-war years, attracting many famous people to its doors:  President Franklin D. Roosevelt, F. Scott Fitzgerald, Lou Gerhig, Ernest Hemingway, Al Capone, Joe DiMaggio and Cay Grant are but a few of the famous names on the archived guest registers.  The Don CeSar was the first baseball spring training location in Florida, housing the NY Yankees in its rooms for three years.^[6]  Many famous musicians such as Duke Ellington, Louis Armstrong, Guy Lombardi, Bing Crosby, Ella Fitzgerald, Billie Holiday, Frank Sinatra, Judy Garland and Elvis Presley performed at the Don.  Many deaths occurred in its rooms throughout its long history.

Thomas Rowe himself lived on the 5th floor, in a suite of rooms.  His health never did recover, and in 1940, he was stricken by a heart attack in the hotel lobby and died.  The Don was sold and in 1942, converted to a military hospital.  The famous fountain in the lobby was removed, a note hidden under the flooring; it was uncovered 45 years later during renovations and describes the dismantled fountain in detail.^[7]

Today

Today, the Don CeSar is again a famed seaside resort.  The ghosts of Thomas Rowe and his beloved Lucinda are frequently sighted in the lobby and grounds, as well as numerous other paranormal activity observed in and around the hotel.^[8]

Further reading

Theme Broken Hearts, Hotels, Lonely Streets

• Thomas Rowe, the Ghost of Don CeSar
• Broken Hearts, a play by Sir William Schwenck Gilbert (of Gilbert & Sullivan); Gilbert and Sullivan Archive, "Broken Hearts", synopsis: http://www.gilbertandsullivanarchive.org/gilbert/plays/broken_hearts/broken_hearts_synopsis.html
• Heartbreak Hotel, (Wikipedia article)
• Heartbreak Hotel, by Elvis Presley (1956) Song Lyrics: https://play.google.com/music/preview/Tdof47s3uvg4iifsvpj264yw56u?lyrics=1&utm_source=google&utm_medium=search&utm_campaign=lyrics&pcampaignid=kp-songlyrics&u=0#
• Article, Elvis Presley's Heartbreak Hotel, "I Walk a Lonely Street" https://www.google.com/amp/amp.usatoday.com/story/84857732/?client=ms-android-verizon
• Lonely Street, by Andy Williams (1959) Song Lyrics

"Where broken dreams and mem'ries meet..." https://play.google.com/music/preview/Th7zkoabldvgswfvfnfdfmu27cm?lyrics=1&utm_source=google&utm_medium=search&utm_campaign=lyrics&pcampaignid=kp-songlyrics&u=0#

• Lost on Dream Street, A Musical in Two Acts by Theodore G. Twitchell, © 1961 Theodore Grant Twitchell 26jan60 du50357
• Article, Dr. Theodore Twitchell, John Muir Faculty, 1963, see reference to Dr. Theodore Twitchell https://burbankhigh1968.net/2013/11/09/remembering-nov-22-1963/
• "You are walking on the earth as in a dream; Our world is a dream within a dream", The Divine Romance, from "The Awakening" by Paramhansa Yogananda, publ. East West, 1934 http://www.beyondword.com/product/the-divine-romance

See also

• List of reportedly haunted locations in the United States, section Florida, Don CeSar Hotel
• Don CeSar

References