Fortunato park is located at a very special place.
The riverfront park is across the road from Ormond Heritage Condominiums, where in the times of glory Hotel Ormond was defining the skyline of Ormond Beach for more than a century.
Built in 1887 by Joseph Price and John Anderson, and opened January 1, 1888 as a 75-room hotel, it was two years later bought and expanded to 400-room gorgeous Hotel, by Henry Flagler - his first hotel in Florida.
The managers invited 30 wealthy sportsmen to ride their cars, a novelty at that time, on the hard packed sands on the nearby beach. That's how the race on the beach was born in 1903. Now it is called the Birthplace of Speed.
Nearly half a century the race was held on the Beach until the International Speedway was built.
The Birthpalce of Speed Park is located just a few short blocks right on the Beach.
The restored Cupola that you see on the photo to the left is the only things left of the magnificent wooden structure
Even now there is not a single Hotel in the Greater Daytona Beach area with 400 rooms in one building.
This was really a winter playground for the rich and famous. Henry Flagler extended the railroad to the Hotel Ormond. The bridge was a railroad bridge.
Rich and famous could go from Park Avenue Station in New York right to the Hotel. The station was where the Fortunato Park is now, right in front of the Hotel.
Hotel was the largest wooden structure in the United States. The richest man on the planet John Rockefeller used to take the whole floor for his winter stay, but later bought a mansion across the street from it and stayed there in winter until he died in his Ormond Beach home May 1937, two months shy of his 98th birthday.
Among other guests were The Prince of Wales, Will Rogers, Henry Ford, Harvey Firestone, Thomas Edison, President Warren Harding, Harriet Beecher Stowe, George and Babe Zaharias, John Phillip Sousa, Al Capone, the Astors, the Rockefellers and the Vanderbilts.
Demolished in 1992, the Hotel site later became a construction site for The Heritage Condominiums. People of Ormond Beach saved the cupola from the Hotel Ormond rooftop, and it is now a museum in the park. It is open to public Saturdays and Sundays fro 2PM to 4PM from September to June.
Photographs, memorabilia and information about the history of the Hotel Ormond and the Cupola itself are displayed on the first level of the restored structure.
Now there is Ormond Heritage Condominiums building with over 150 units. I love the address: 1 John Anderson Drive.
Residents enjoy terrific view of the Halifax River, use the park, its playground, watch fans gathering in the park for annual car shows, gaslit Christmas Parade, and they may be oblivious to the life that was here a century ago...
It is common to measure the progress we made by looking at the past. This is a strange case when you look into the past and see how much we lost. The richest people of the world were loving guests of this area. No more. If this is not a loss for a tourist area, than tell me what is.
Did we lose the Ocean, the Beaches, or warm Florida weather? Why Henry Flagler had a vision, built the railroad to the place, brought people here, and made it a destination and managed to do it 120 years ago, and we do not have the vision and the drive to keep it or do it now? Where did we lose? 120 years ago Orlando was a nowhere place. Are we moving at full speed ... going backwards?
Jon Zolsky, your daytona Beach connection
www.BeautifulFlorida.com
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