Luxury Hotels Atlas / Places / United States / St. Petersburg / The Vinoy Resort & Golf Club, Autograph Collection
The Vinoy Resort & Golf Club, Autograph Collection
St. Petersburg, Florida, United States · Autograph Collection · Core Luxury
Aymer Vinoy Laughner bought St. Petersburg waterfront for $170,000 after Walter Hagen drove golf balls off his pocket watch without cracking the crystal, then opened Henry L. Taylor's salmon Mediterranean Revival on New Year's Eve 1925. The 375-room house hosted Coolidge, Hoover, Babe Ruth, and Marilyn Monroe, slept soldiers in World War II, and closed for two decades before a $93 million rescue. Rockwell Group brought it into Autograph Collection on 5 April 2023, in time for the 2025 centennial.
- 375 rooms
- Opened 1925
- Neighborhood: Beach Drive / downtown St. Petersburg
- Architect: Henry L. Taylor
- Interiors: Rockwell Group
About The Vinoy Resort & Golf Club, Autograph Collection
- Restorers found a hidden vault of more than 1,400 pieces of silver in a hotel that had rented rooms for seven dollars a night before the 1970s shutdown.
- Listed on the National Register in 1978; the 18-hole course is a Ron Garl redesign with a 1927 Mediterranean clubhouse.
- AAA Four Diamond and Historic Hotels of America; five restaurants include a 1920s-style eatery, and The Dali Museum is less than a mile.
History
The Vinoy’s story begins in 1923, when Pennsylvania businessman Aymer Vinoy Laughner reportedly sparked the project with a party, a bet, and a round of golf — golf champion Walter Hagen drove balls off Laughner’s pocket watch without cracking the crystal, and a guest suggested the waterfront site would make a splendid hotel. Laughner bought the St. Petersburg land for $170,000 and commissioned architect Henry L. Taylor to design what became The Vinoy Park Hotel. Construction began on February 5, 1925, under contractor George A. Miller, and the 375-room hotel was finished in just under 10 months before opening with a grand celebration on New Year’s Eve 1925. The property quickly became one of St. Petersburg’s signature resort hotels, hosting Presidents Coolidge and Hoover, Babe Ruth, Joe DiMaggio, and Marilyn Monroe over the following decades, and serving as military housing and a training center for the U.S. Army Air Forces and U.S. Maritime Service during World War II.
The later history is one of decline and reinvention. The hotel operated into the early 1970s — by then renting rooms for as little as $7 a night — before closing for more than two decades after falling into disrepair. St. Petersburg residents saved the landmark, which was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1978 and restored at great cost. Its revival came through a major $93 million restoration and expansion that returned the salmon-colored landmark to prominence and added a guest tower and complete recreational facilities, including an 18-hole golf course redesigned by Ron Garl. A comprehensive Rockwell Group renovation, with Hart Howerton as architect of record, brought the property into Marriott's Autograph Collection on April 5, 2023, in time for its 2025 centennial; its golf club includes a Mediterranean-inspired clubhouse dated to 1927.
The hotel’s significance rests in that rare arc from boom-era resort, to long neglect, to large-scale preservation. Its original architecture, early-1920s origins, and later restoration have made The Vinoy a defining historic property in St. Petersburg, Florida.
Restaurants and bars
- Veranda — Restaurant
Amenities
- Spa
- Pool
- Sauna
- Golf course
Awards
- AAA Four Diamond (2026)
- National Register of Historic Places (1978)
Open The Vinoy Resort & Golf Club, Autograph Collection in the atlas for live weekend rates, photos, and the full folio.
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