The Don CeSar Hotel

A stunning pink Mediterranean-style resort built in the 1920s by Thomas Rowe as a tribute to his lost love, Lucinda. The "Pink Lady" served as a VA hospital during World War II and is now a luxury beach resort.

The Don CeSar Hotel, known as the "Pink Palace," rises like a fairytale castle on St. Pete Beach. Built in 1928 by Thomas Rowe, the hotel's romantic origins are as legendary as its hauntings.

As a young man studying architecture in London in the 1890s, Rowe fell deeply in love with Lucinda, a Spanish opera singer performing in Maritana—whose hero was named Don César de Bazan. Lucinda's noble family forbade the match, cruelly separating the lovers. Rowe returned to America, married another woman, but never stopped writing to Lucinda. Years later, he received a newspaper clipping announcing her death with a heartbreaking note attached: "My beloved Don Cesar."

Rowe built the Pink Palace as a monument to his lost love, naming it after the opera's hero. He designed the lobby and courtyard fountains to match those in London where he and Lucinda had secretly met. The hotel opened January 16, 1928, quickly becoming a playground for F. Scott Fitzgerald, Clarence Darrow, Al Capone, Lou Gehrig, and Franklin D. Roosevelt.

Rowe died suddenly of a heart attack in the hotel lobby. During World War II, the Army converted the Pink Palace into a hospital, then a VA facility. By 1969 it sat abandoned, covered in graffiti.

When the restored hotel reopened in 1973, staff immediately reported ghostly sightings. A gentleman in a white summer suit and Panama hat—matching Rowe's description—appears in the lobby, gardens, and fifth floor. Sometimes he's seen holding the hand of a beautiful dark-haired woman, presumably Lucinda, finally reunited in death.

Rowe's ghost greets arriving guests with a friendly smile before vanishing when approached. Doors open on their own to assist staff carrying trays. Guests report strange sounds, unexplained knocking, and eerie feelings throughout the hotel. Some also encounter spirits of former WWII patients who never left.