from the Archives

Hotel Leonard 54 Ocean Drive

Read Time: 5 mins

The Hotel Leonard at 54 Ocean Drive was built in 1925 by the owner H.E. Glickman, who named it after his son Leonard. Across from Hardie’s Casino, it was designed by Pfeiffer & O’Reilly, as a three floor Spanish-Mission style hotel with a classic roof-line Mission parapet. It had 53 hotel rooms, all surrounding an indoor courtyard designed with ornate railings and decorative tile floors. By 1926, they had their own restaurant featuring home cooking.

Photo of interior courtyard of the Leonard Hotel at 54 Ocean Drive.

Miraculously, after surviving the Great Storm of 1926, a benefit dance was held in November on the hotel’s rooftop garden for the “Cuban Hurricane Relief”. In 1929, a naturopathic doctor practicing out of the hotel, advertised “Sun Bathing, Massage and Salt Baths” on the rooftop, for nerve and stomach disorders. Unique to most of the hotels in South Beach, this hotel actually had a parking lot on the south side of the building. Also unique was Emanuel Reiss, who from 1934 stayed on as the longtime manager of the Leonard Hotel for the next 50 years.

April 1929 Miami Herald classified ad for Dr. Singley practicing at the Leonard Hotel

In the 1930s, illegal gambling became very prominent in this area. Many a raid of gambling houses with bookies turned out to be residents of the Leonard Hotel. In 1940, a City permit was granted for the hotel to build 18 new apartments; six on each floor; and 17 hotel rooms. During the WWII years, the Leonard was not requisitioned for military housing, as classified ads still showed the hotel was open with rooms for rent at $10 a week. In the ’40s and ’50s, the Leonard became a favorite for dog track patrons.

1965 photo of the Leonard Hotel at 54 Ocean Drive.

Fast forward to 1986, South Beach had become over-run with crack dealers, drug addicts and prostitution. At the time, the hotel was purchased by brothers Tony and Kent Kay, who also had just bought the Clevelander Hotel, in hopes of turning the Leonard into a more-resort style hotel. However, in March of ’88, a Philadelphia lawyer, Ray Page and other investors offered the Kays $900K for the run-down building . Following the purchase, the crack addicts, prostitutes and transients were evicted. Renovation began with repainting the exterior in pastel shades of white, coral and blue. The new owners then applied for approval to add an outdoor cafe in front and a restaurant in the rear yard. In addition, they sought to build another 24 hotel rooms and 8 apartments that would replace the parking lot. The City approved the cafe but denied replacing the parking lot, stating “not providing any off-street parking…would have a negative impact…in an area that already has a significant shortage of parking”.

1989 photo of the New Leonard Beach Hotel after a new paint job of pastels.

From a February 1989 Miami Herald article, “Preservationist Nancy Liebman is trying to focus some attention on the oft-neglected Art Deco relics at South Pointe by holding her upcoming Miami Design Preservation League happy hour at the Leonard Beach Hotel, a 1925 Mediterranean-style building. “It’s to make a statement about the building, one of the oldest hotels here on Miami Beach,” Liebman said. “We hope that one day it can be restored.”

1987 Miami Herald photo entitled “Preservationists are trying to save Mediterranean structures like the New Leonard Hotel…”

In June 1989, fifteen artists, all of them part of an artists’ group from New York’s East Village, came to decorate rooms in the hotel. A deal was made with the new owner that in exchange for round-trip airline tickets and three rent-free weeks in the hotel, the artists would paint their rooms in their own original funky designs. From this project, the hotel gained national recognition and was photographed by many magazines, “At $25-$40 a night, a bargain for any oceanfront hotel in the trendy Art Deco District on Miami Beach. The New Leonard is a temporary home for surfers, artists, models and students – anyone with a taste for a hip lifestyle on a shoestring, and who can live without air-conditioning, telephones and room service.”

May 1990 New York Times article “Reviving a Florida Hotel with Paint and Fantasy”.
Room 301 painted by John Schweitzer, was called “The Bed Chamber of the Whore of Babylon”.
From a 1989 Miami Herald article, “Richard Hofmann was the most classical of the painters, working in traditional, thickly swirled oils. His room, 218, was untitled but described as ”an organic internalization of humanity.” Crossing the threshold is like stepping inside a van Gogh.”

By 1992, German developer Thomas Kramer began purchasing large chunks of real estate in the South Pointe area. He proposed a remake of the Leonard Beach Hotel with all new construction, except for a restoration of the hotel’s 1928 facade and indoor courtyard. Before that, he would turn the hotel into a three story dance club designed by the legendary Norman Gosney, called “Hell”. With seven rooms dedicated to the Seven Deadly Sins, it was described as “an experience, a fantasy, a place to forget your mortal life and get lost in make-believe purgatory”. Two months later, a lawsuit was filed alleging structural problems that didn’t meet city and state codes, forcing the new club to be condemned. Many had the sentiment that Kramer was looking to have this historic hotel suffer the fate of “demolition by neglect” and by June 1993, the Leonard Beach Hotel sadly was demolished.

Leather jacket with the logo for the dance club “Hell” opened at the Leonard in October 1992.
Vintage 1920s photo of Leonard Hotel at 54 Ocean Drive.

What would Miami Beach be like without Historic Art Deco, Mediterranean, and MiMo buildings?

Join Us: Become a Member

Help MDPL remain independent and sustain our mission to preserve, protect, and promote. Annual memberships start at $50 and include free walking tours and more.

Explore the MDPL Archives

Capitman's Cardozo Leads Way (1979)

Capitman’s Cardozo Leads Way (1979)

Read Time: 3 mins Andrew Capitman, son of Miami Design Preservation League leader Barbara Baer Capitman, was a leading Art Deco rehabilitation pioneer in the late 1970s and 1980s. In 1979, he purchased the Cardozo Hotel with a group of enthusiastic investors who believed in the resurgence of the city through the preservation of its past. Mr. Capitman instinctively knew that a 1930s revival would dramatically improve tourism.

Read More »

Six Art Deco Hotels Facing Renovation (1984)

Read Time: 2 mins In 1984, six hotels underwent major renovations that would mark the second wave of an Art Deco revival in South Beach. According to a Miami Herald article written by Paul Shannon on July 8, 1984, Royale Group Ltd. officials secured a $13.5 million loan to pay for the planned renovation, which included painting and refurbishing in the original Art Deco style.

Read More »