ALCAZAR HOTEL - The Encyclopedia of Cleveland History

The ALCAZAR HOTEL, at 2450 Derbyshire Rd. in CLEVELAND HEIGHTS, was built in 1923 as a residential apartment hotel, one of the earliest suburban hotels in the Cleveland area. It is designed in a Spanish-Moorish eclectic idiom, intentionally reminiscent of the complex in St. Augustine, FL, that includes the hotels Ponce de Leon and Alcazar, built in the 1880s for HENRY FLAGLER†, one of the original partners of Standard Oil. The Spanish style is established by the overhanging red tile roofs, the arcade of long windows on the 4th floor of the facade, and the covered arcade in the patio. The hexagonal interior lounge is decorated with colored glazed tiles similar to those in the Alcazar in Seville. In the center of the patio garden is a circular fountain with a palm-tree finial and spouting frogs and turtles, copied from the one in the court of the Hotel Ponce de Leon. The architect was Harry T. Jeffry, and the sculptural work was by the firm of FISCHER AND JIROUCH, the primary decorative artisans of Cleveland in the 1920s. The hotel catered to a residential and family clientele but also sheltered such guests as Geo. Gershwin, Jack Benny, and Mary Martin. In 1963 the hotel was acquired by Western Reserve Residences, a Christian Science organization, which runs it as a combined hotel and private retirement residence. It was placed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1979. In 1985, the hotel received a community improvement award from Cleveland Hts. It also is a designated Cleveland Heights Landmark.

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