St. Petersburg
The Vinoy
St. Petersburg's 1925 waterfront grand hotel, host to Calvin Coolidge, Herbert Hoover, Babe Ruth and Marilyn Monroe.
- Built
- 1925built Feb–Dec 1925 as the Vinoy Park Hotel; opened New Year's Eve 1925. A guest tower was added in the 1990–92 restoration; the 1925 building still holds guest rooms ('Historic' room types).
- Style
- Mediterranean Revival
- Architect
- Henry L. Taylor (builder George A. Miller)
- Type
- Resort
- Rooms
- 354
- Credentials
- Listed on the National Register of Historic Places; Historic Hotels of America member
The story
Pennsylvania businessman Aymer Vinoy Laughner commissioned architect Henry L. Taylor; builder George A. Miller finished the hotel in about ten months, and it opened as the Vinoy Park Hotel on New Year’s Eve 1925. Guests included Calvin Coolidge, Herbert Hoover, Babe Ruth, and later Joe DiMaggio and Marilyn Monroe. The hotel was leased to the military from July 1942 to late 1944, reopened that December, and was bought by Charles Alberding in 1945. It declined and closed in the mid-1970s (HHA gives both 1974 and 1975), was listed on the National Register in 1978, and reopened in 1992 after a $93 million restoration and expansion; it joined Marriott’s Autograph Collection in April 2023 after a renovation.
The ghost story
Visiting Major League Baseball players and staff have long told ghost stories about the hotel; CBS Sports described its reputation as perhaps the most haunted hotel in baseball, citing a reliever who heard scratching in his room.
Source: www.cbssports.com
Good to know
- Breakfast: available
- Parking: on-site paid
- Address: 501 5th Avenue NE, St. Petersburg, FL 33701
Sources (5)
- https://www.historichotels.org/us/hotels-resorts/the-vinoy-resort-and-golf-club/history
- https://npgallery.nps.gov/AssetDetail/NRIS/78000955
- https://www.historichotels.org/us/hotels-resorts/the-vinoy-resort-and-golf-club
- https://www.hospitalitynet.org/announcement/41009389.html
- https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vinoy_Hotel
Last verified October 2026. Details change; confirm with the inn before you book.