Betsy Hotel South Beach

The Betsy – History

As anomalous as a square ring hovering around Saturn, the Betsy Hotel South Beach stands as the lone southern belle amid the sexy lines and forms of the Miami Beach Architectural District. With its towering columns, expansive front porch, and tall windows, the Betsy evokes classic American colonial architecture; yet it was created by the same man, L. Murray Dixon, who is responsible for such famous South Beach odes to the Tropical Art Deco style he invented as the Hotel Victor and The Tides.Dixon was a native Floridian who did not let his incomplete formal architectural education prevent him from designing all types of commercial and residential buildings during the post-Depression boom the lasted from the late 1930s into the 1940s. He was one of the first architects to build large Art Deco style in Miami Beach, reflecting, as one author has described it, “the jazz age style of machine-age optimism and prosperity” (Gebhard, Colonial Revival 23).

There are reasons for the anomaly in Dixon’s architectural vision, which had him creating futuristic Art Deco lines on the one hand and working in a somewhat remade colonial style at the Betsy. A clue lies in the original name of the historic property, which began life as The Betsy Ross Hotel.

The 150th Anniversary of the Declaration of Independence occurred in 1926, ushering in a period of nostalgia for the early years of the nation. John D. Rockefeller’s restoration of Colonial Williamsburg, Virginia, was a prime case in point. Completed in the 1930s, it served as a catalyst for other historic preservation efforts. The past was renovated and gussied up, perhaps to magnify it as a way of renewing the faith of Americans struggling to emerge from the Great Depression. Everything from restaurants to funeral homes were re-created in the colonial image, and Hollywood provided its powerful endorsement of the style by featuring colonial as the signature architectural style of suburban homes depicted in such films as Bringing Up Baby. The colonial revival was not limited to building exteriors, as evidenced by the Betsy, where a Williamsburg-inspired sensibility characterizes the interior sensibility design and decor.

Also at that time, the Works Progress Administration created a printed Depression-inspired guide to the “colonial east,” which included images and photographs emphasizing architecture from the 17th through 19th centuries. Complementing the series were numerous magazines articles that included plans from architects and building companies of the time and an explosion of popular and professional books honoring colonial architecture.

A rebirth of colonial furniture, new interest in preserving colonial historical monuments, and even a trend toward incorporating colonial-inspired kitchens and dining rooms in new public buildings were all part of the national fascination with building styles of the past.

When Dixon got around to considering how best to embrace the colonial chic of the moment, perhaps he couldn’t resist the urge to go farther. Erected in South Beach, the Betsy Ross stood out all the more for its stark yet graceful contrast to Dixon’s Art Deco oeuvre.

Today, the Betsy stands as the lone surviving example of Florida Georgian architecture on Ocean Drive. And, not surprisingly, given the scope of Dixon’s vision, the hotel is not purely colonial. Rather, the serenity and formality of its classic forms were re-imagined to reflect a level of informality more appropriate to the 1930s than the 1770s. Interiors were more open and connected than in original colonial buildings, and Dixon took liberties with proportions while interpreting the colonial forms rather than slavishly adhering to them. In that slight reconceiving of colonial forms, Dixon created not an opposite that didn’t fit, but rather a counterpoint that did – and does.

Citation
last=Gebhard
first=David
title=American Colonial Revival in the 1930’sTrial:Difficulties
journal=JSTOR
volume=22
issue=2
year=1987
pages=109-148
url= http://ezproxy.library.nyu.edu:2063/view/00840416/ap040041/04a00010/0?currentResult=00840416%2bap040041%2b04a00010%2b0%2cFFFFBEAFEF01&searchUrl=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.jstor.org%2Fsearch%2FBasicResults%3Fhp%3D25%26si%3D1%26gw%3Djtx%26jtxsi%3D1%26jcpsi%3D1%26artsi%3D1%26Query%3Dthe%2Bamerican%2Bcolonial%2Brevival%2B%2Bdavid%2Bgebhard%26wc%3Don