Jacksonville Architecture

When this thirteen-story hotel building opened on September 1, 1926, it was known as the Carling Hotel. It was owned by the Dinkler Hotel Co. of Atlanta and was named after Carling L. Dinkler who, at age 31, was vice president of the hotel chain and claimed to be the youngest hotel executive in the U.S. Newspaper articles in 1926 described the hotel as having "300 rooms with bath, running ice water, fans and the latest equipment in the rooms." "The three lower stories are faced with Indiana limestone above which is a shaft of red brick. The upper stories are trimmed with terra-cotta, and surmounted by a balustrade with limestone coping. The building is of completely fire proof construction." Unlike the other tall hotel buildings in Jacksonville at this time, the Carling was built in the middle of the block instead of on a corner, resulting in a rather expansive but bland facade. In 1936 the hotel's name was changed to the Roosevelt. On the night of December 29, 1963, a $350,000 fire killed twenty-two people in the hotel, which was filled with visitors for the Gator Bowl game on the following day. The next year the hotel closed. In later years it reopened as Jacksonville Regency House, a retirement community apartment building, and in recent years it has been converted to luxury apartments.