The Terrace Hotel

The flourishing railroad and real estate industries in Florida in the early part of the 20th century gave rise to booming tourism, and to welcome the Sunshine State’s many visitors in style, Lakeland’s Terrace Hotel opened its elegant doors in 1924. It was the city’s first grand hotel, the first high-rise building, and, thanks to the recent invention of air-conditioning, one of the first year-round hotels in Florida. During its heyday in the 1940s and 1950s, The Terrace was the vacation spot of celebrated figures such as Henry Ford, Frank Sinatra, and Frank Lloyd Wright. In 1999, a $10 million renovation restored the hotel’s Mediterranean beauty and classical features and ushered The Terrace into a period of modern elegance and contemporary service.