The Biltmore Hotel

150 Bradley Place

Palm Beach, Florida

Built in 1926 as a boutique hotel for $7 million by winter Palm Beach resident, Gustav Maurice Heckscher, the Alba Hotel was a grand 12-story, 550-room Palm Beach landmark designed for wealthy socialites.  Heckscher had developed properties in California and named the new hotel after his polo-playing friend, the Spanish Duke of Alba. The Duke was supposed to have attended the grand opening, but records show he didn't.  But who cared?  A Who's Who was still present.  

While Eva Roberts Stotesbury along with Paris and Lillie Singer, among others, helped with activities among the older crowd, Stotesbury's son from a previous marriage to Olver Eaton Cromwell, by the name of Jimmy Cromwell, who later married the richest-girl-in-the-world, Doris Duke caroused with a younger A-list group in the Alba's Isabella dining room and Muleteer Grill. Throughout its hotel years, it hosted famous visitors including the Duke and Duchess of Windsor and President Franklin D. Roosevelt.

The Alba was the talk of the town.  Unlike previous wooden Palm Beach hotels that succumbed to fire, it was a fortress of stucco, reinforced concrete and quarry-key rock. Though however robust its structure, the Alba Hotel wasn't strong enough to weather the financial crisis that lay ahead.  By the spring of 1926, the hotel was bankrupt as Florida's land boom began to bust.  By 1927, under new ownership, it reopened as part of the national Ambassador Hotels system and would be renamed The Ambassador. 

The Alba Hotel 

Circa 1920s

In 1934, under yet another owner, the name changed again and this time it stuck:  The Palm Beach Biltmore which drew guests equally as prominent as before.  Then everything changed all over Palm Beach.

The island in the early 1940s remained a resort town as ever, but one on wartime footing with a local Civil Patrol and numerous periodic blackouts as German U-boats lurked offshore during WWII.  The Breakers was pressed into service as an Army hospital while locals opened their homes to provide meals and comfort to servicemen stationed in the area.

At the Biltmore in 1943, "elaborate furniture and most everything else that once represented civilian luxury and comfort at the hotel had been removed in favor of austere double-decker cots, plain scant furniture and rigid discipline" a visiting Miami News reporter wrote.

Until February 1945, the nation's largest indoctrination and training center for the U.S. Coast Guard Women's Reserve was at the Biltmore.  Not long after, the Biltmore served as a U.S. Naval convalescent hospital with a doctor and nurse staff with rooms for 1,400 patients.

Circa 1943-1944

After the war, the hotel underwent other ownership changes, first with Hilton Hotels of America which lightened and brightened the building's Spanish theme dating from its Alba Hotel days. A new lounge was added called the Cascades along with a party room called Fiesta.  

By 1970, insurance magnate and philanthropist John D. MacArthur had bought the Biltmore for a reported $1.5 million after the previous owner filed for bankruptcy and closed the hotel which then temporarily lost its occupancy license. MacArthur was a force in the area.  He had already made a fortune investing in Florida real estate and by the mid-1950s alone, he reportedly had purchased hundreds of acres in today's Lake Park, North Palm Beach, Palm Beach Gardens and more.

Surely, he'd breathe new life in the Biltmore though after tussling with town leaders over what the building's future would look like and also suffering health issues, MacArthur put the property up for sale.  On more than a few occasions, he made it clear there was a contingency:  If you want to buy it, no demolishing the building.

It wasn't until 1975 that a sale gelled:  Stanley J. Harte, a developer with a local sensibility, paid $5.3 million for the Biltmore property.  He planned to convert it all into condominium apartments. Since that time,the residences have been fully renovated and remodeled to reflect the chic South Florida style. Condos at the Biltmore offer two bedrooms, two bathrooms with approximately 2,000 square feet of indoor living space.  Common appointments include marble floors, 10-foot ceilings, custom cabinets, gourmet kitchens, ample storage, private balconies, laundry rooms, floor to ceiling windows, impact resistant glass plus high-end fixtures and furnishings.

"Its high time that the unpleasant sight of a beautiful building deteriorating before our very eyes should be stopped and its beauty restored to the fullest extent."

Stanley J. Harte

The 128-unit Palm Beach Biltmore Condominiums debuted in 1981 when Harte received an award from the Palm Beach Daily News.  "In simple terms, Mr. Harte's history in Palm Beach is written in the promises he made and kept" the Daily News then-publisher Agnes Ash said at Harte's winning Business Leader of the Year,

Back then, a one-bedroom condo might sell for $105,000. Today, units which include up to four-bedroom residences, start at significantly higher price points, of course.  A recent online search showed condos there with asking prices ranging from $3.975 million to $9.25 million. Amenities include a doorman and concierge service, an onsite building manager and other staff, as well as party rooms, gardens, a heated Olympic-sized saltwater swimming pool, private cabanas, locker rooms with infrared saunas, two Har-Tru tennis courts, bike and jogging trail, fitness center, conference rooms, on-site security, courtesy bus, valet and boat slips in the Intracoastal Waterway.  Nearby on Sunset Avenue is the Biltmore's beach club with a restaurant. It also offers a Grand Salon for grand parties.

Residents appreciate the deep dock access, private beach club and restaurant.  With its central location, residents of the Biltmore are never short on things to do.  From casual social events to black tie galas, the Palm Beach area is a mecca for charitable fundraisers, theatrical performances, symphonies, ballets, upscale shops, polo matches, championship golf courses, fishing excursions and equestrian events.

The historic building is situated on the lakefront just over a block north of Royal Poinciana Way facing the Intracoastal Waterway.  Opening in February 1926 with major society fanfare, it was built by a 1,400-member crew on the site.  Despite its luxurious debut, the hotel went bankrupt by May 1926 coinciding with the collapse of the Florida land boom through it continued to operate.  Known briefly as The Ambassador (1929) before being acquired a renamed the Palm Beach Biltmore by Colonel Henry Doherty in 1934. The hotel was famous for its glamorous parties and notable guests, reportedly including the Duke of Alba and mobster Al Capone.

The Palm Beach Daily News issued dated February 16, 2026 printed an article titled The Biltmore at 100, from Glamourous Hotel to Prestigious Address.

"Its halls have been roamed by everyone from royals to Hollywood stars and by social and financial elites from July Garland, Dorothy Parker and Arthur Hammerstein.  When it debuted 100 years ago this month, it was Palm Beach's tallest building:  Rising 12 stories with an architectural design bookended by towers, it was reminiscent of what The Breakers looks like today, an iconic 1896 founded Palm Beach property. In February 1926, the oceanfront Breakers was temporarily absent .. still under construction after an all-consuming 1925 fire.  So imagine the awe when, just a stone's hurl west, the soaring Hotel Alba on the lake opened just after the midpoint of the Roaring '20s.  With a Spanish flair to its architecture, it was tall and stalwart and grand.

Known as The Palm Beach Biltmore condominum since 1981, it has been a sought-after residential property.  The town designated the building protected landmark in 1991. 

A by-invitation centennial celebration took place Feb. 5 at the lakeside property at 150 Bradley Place, a little more than a block north of Royal Poinciana Way.  Among those present at the centennial party was longtime Biltmore resident Ambassador Eric M. Javits who has wintered in Palm Beach for years including the stays of his childhood.  He recalls how his late parents likely were the first overnight guests on the property in 1926 and weeks before The Alba debuted on February 17. The opening event complete with two orchestras onsite included such chairpersons as then so-called Palm Beach society queen Eva Stotesbury, who lived on the island's then-most extravagant estate, El Mirasol with her financier husband, Edward.  

With 500-plus guest rooms, the massive twin-towered Alba had risen, phoenix-like on a six acre property.  "The Alba", a local reporter noted, "towers above all other Palm Beach hotels and clubs in its commanding position facing the palm-fringed city across the way" .. a reference to West Palm Beach.

Logo of Palm Beach Condominium on gate leading to dock on the intracoastal waterway.

Sunrise over the Biltmore Condominium