1674-6 N.B.T. Roney •
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, „,...........„.:._... , HISTORY , _ _, .............. .....4,,..4....;,.<,`,,..i.L.,„,,,I, , .. ,,„‘- '--,' ,`, • •" ‘... -___ ..3f.A!',:: ''''. .4,,:..4.aeg6lAtit.‘4-;;'‘.
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THE RONEY PLAZA, a pink-and-white _ tom the 10-foot, tidal wave struck: "I was workin
"" '"" .,„:_.7.i.,..7-4. part time installing
confection that appears to have been _ ,•� - g power lines and h
,� � '� there wa
designed by a master baker, is to Miami plenty to do after the storm. I had a yet
Beach what the Eiffel Tower is to Paris. The rx for a Hershey bar and managed to get to th
r ! tint , a�°ko: 2aytlybs...:
Eiffel Tower was built as an attraction for the drug store on the ground floor of the Roney
C M �
Paris Exposition of 1889. The Roney was ' �
Those ceilings were at least 12 feet high buy
erected to serve as a model of splendor for the drstore was filled with sand. There was
the most lavish, glittering, alluring carnival g sr ,- w barely a crawl space between the sand ani
that ever hit the U.S.A. — Miami Beach €' 4. y ' the ceiling. I scrambled aroundkunhot there
! x just to see what it looked like. The hotel was
The Roney may never be M a class with '� y •`a< ,, 3 '°^ �" w. a mess, but the Roney was Well built. A good
the Pyramids, but it has become a landmark •"" ` F •i,•,,,..*-C `" cleaning and some new windows put it back
;:er,
�; ` ^ l .'
at the age of 38, an architectural adolescent • in shape." That eyewitness account came from
by most historical standards. t "o 0" fKi,tZ ,.,s,,.4„,,,` a !R�>i a F. X. James O'Brien, now a customers repro
r@Ri.:fXY 3�YNt:let :It
.� :,• lh�::yjE iY
The Roney has served as an experimental .„' ,. •.- - ti a for Goodbody &
e .n x enta v Go od Co in the Dupont
: Plaza office.
station for the Beach's tourist trade. It was mix
the first hotel to offer cabanas. It was the
° The real estate boom which had started
first hotel to go after the instant-rich classabout
rather than limit its clientele to slow-leavened 19began to go flat. The hurricane
4 �
dampenedtheenthusiasm of tourists andsoonfortunes. It was the first hotel to bee built .. • x afterthe
.. Depression emptied their pockets.
North of Lincoln Road on what was a > I ° ',` r f ; r r r a t f a The land developers who didn't
go bankrupt
tourist frontier. It was the first hotel t then n n n tr s' p rt r( :a ' n t yea =,... had to retrench. In 1932, N. B. T.
- rt n tr �rtr rr n n e n n r n ,nis o. Roney sold
in on the craze for physical fitness by em i s'�n fr tt n m tr €r st n n tr n n to Jr tr tr p; his hotel, the only building he ever permitted
phasizing tennis. It was the first hotel to hire n t` n '� n n r' n Jr n n: . �'` to bear his name, to Henry Doherty, the Pres
and thus fill empty rooms. ;�{� , �° ' 3
�►-1/ " p�,l; � ' 't N. B. T. Roney died in Philadelphia on
wife,
these firsts are of local caliber except September 8, 1952, at the age of 71. His wife,
'or the cabana American hotels did ......4,,\ Gertrude Chisholm Roney lives on Sunset Is-
Allsot have_cabanas distinction. a Roney's builder, RONEY PLAZA sits majestically - land No. 1. She's a handsome, intelligent
lewton Baker.Taylor Roney,t>rought the idea on 1,500 feet of ocean: woman who leads a quiet Life and shuns pub
fere from Europe. The-Roney now has 200 cantilevers a 1a Lapidus? Mais non! ? ]petty. Nrt as her husband did. The Honeys'
atrick
•abanas and the Cabana Club is so only child, Betty, is Mrs. Edwin J. Fitzpatrick
pith local residents that even when popular of Plainfield, N.J., who has two children.
the hotel
posed last summer, the cabana colony began dealing in real estate! He soon
plashed on as usual. -The Roney Plaza started just 50 feet from-- Oilman Doherty also bought the Miami Bilt-
sizable fortune. the ocean. It had 350 rooms (Roney planned club, hopiin ng toextend organized as "year-round"
The matriarch of Miami Beach's concrete During a trip to Cuba he stopped in Miami, an addition) and cost $2 million. The furnish- service the season. Plush bus
horns line seems mellowed and sedate in con f lige (valued attransported year-round club members'
In 1918 he returned to have a look at Carl t $800,000) almost outdid the between the Roney and the Biltmore. Doherty
ast to her sister Circus. But she was not Fisher's real estate. At that time, Fisher had view and the gilded Moorish dome. The hotel hired Carl Byoir, a New York publicity man,
'ways so circumspect. The Roney had placed a sign opened to thepublic in February t926. It ,•
gn on the lit at the M r `r :f 2-- w,a to f;., up file rooms ieathe Honey. Byoir
,ming youth. Street and Avenue. The sign was • a social and economic success even though the this. But the celebrities he brought down,din
feet Collinsollint high. It read: "Weww2l t hoi polloi were still patronizing Carl Fisher's hopes
N. B. T. Roney was a man of many real give longthis entire blocktfeet anyone who will build
" "Flamingo." paying guestsamd would followateand bask in
Some preferred the other new their reflected fame, drank, ate sunned
tatel-11 and as many nicknames. a resort hotel thereon." Ronephotel of the year — the Nautilus, also a themselves for free.
e
e was called, "No Back-Talk Roney," "The sign for other deals. Seven years passedlater,uwhen Fisher enterprise.
tpoleon of Miami Beach," "Newt,"'and after he bought that block, he paid $21 million for The Roney had one good season under its described one of the few a
e boom, "Nothing But Trouble Roney." None In her book, "Miami U.S.A.," Helen Muir
his nearsightedness. But by then Roney had ! white tiled roof when the 1926 hurricane struck. Duke, as "spare and wistful." Miss Duke told
these really reflected his personality. He already set a record for makingmoneyin A g paying guests, Doris
is a quiet,l unassuming man who dressed Miami real estate. your Miamian, home from his classes at thepress, "Just tell
ttly and conservatively. He would never Notre Dame, tells how the Roney looked afteryour readers that I wore
ve ruined the line of a suit by thrusting-
Gov.
the boom days of 1924.25 Roney and ____ peacock feathers and strutted down the
fist in the vest. Roney was about five Gov. James M. Cox, late publisher of The
t four. He was slim and balding and be- Miami News, teamed up
$3on. Roney,
1 his glasses, his eyes seemed slightly out north of Golden Beach forte buy ocean front
focus.
wanted to subdivide "Seminole milliBeach." He
didn't advertise his intention. But soon his
1 Miami News story, published in June doorstep was crowded with purchasers wav-
soon after Roney had broken ground for , ing checks. All the land was sold within 61
beachfront hotel, describes, in Roney's own hours for $7,645,000. A good afternoon's work.
ds, his beginnings as a real estate tycoon:
vas in high school," Roney told his inter- The Seminole Beach maneuver was not a
typical Roney operation, although it is consid-
;er, Dick Devine. "The youthful desire for
ered his "master stroke." He usually bought
ring my own spending money stirred and I
Land, held on to it long enough to develop it
about for a means of earning it. For
e reason the butter and egg business held and then sold. In the days of "the binder
actions for me and I started in that pre- boys" real estate changed hands almost on
its business. I say precarious because the verbal order. All profit was either on paper or
kage was such a big item to a youngster. written on the sand, Roney was a compara-
ri ng butter and eggs kept me busy after Lively stodgy dealer. Not exactly the Bank of
)1 hours for months. I would buy from a England, but a shrewd, cautious man.
er and sell in a hoose-to-house canvass. A
was soon builtaup and I foundaAit He built 18 homes on Espanola Way. At one
s ary to quit, I was able when I ue on time he held every important business corner
rosiness I had built u on Flagler Street. Roney avoided publicity but
p .� still had a strong word-of-mouth reputation for
key was to "realize" often after that, and knowing land values. When it was rumored
is always a daring speculator never car- Roney was in on a deal, everyone wanted a
piece of the action. A typical Roney real estate
>w flimsy the basket or how big the eggs
opped into it. Born in Camden, N.J., advertisement always began modestly, "N.B.T,
• gave up his egg route to study law as Roney Suggestions."
0-a-week clerk in a law office. He was In 1925 Roney hired the architectural firm
ed to the New Jersey bar when he was of Schultze and Weaver to design a hotel that
rney quickly built a good practice, but was "different." He could have hired an en-
>ment it settled down to a steady income gineer just as well because most of the design
'ned the details over to his staff and ideas were dictated by Roney.
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