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Florida in the late 1800s was a paradise waiting to be discovered. During this period, two visionary tycoons of the Gilded Age set out on separate ventures that would transform the Sunshine State from America's last frontier into a destination for the rich and famous. The grand hotels that Henry M. Flagler and Henry B. Plant opened at their planned resort sites offered a fantasy stay surrounded by all the accoutrements expected by sophisticated, Gilded Age patrons. Florida's Grand Hotels from the Gilded Age provides a look at these magnificent structures during their glory years, along with the fashionable entertainment and social and recreational pastimes that engaged their gilded guests.

In the late 1800s, men like Jacob Brock and Henry Addison DeLand introduced civilized comforts to the wild interior of West Volusia, which resulted in a tourism boom that is still ongoing. Brock built the Brock House hotel and used his steamboats to bring such notables as DeLand and American presidents Ulysses S. Grant and Rutherford B. Hayes there to vacation. Continued tourism growth brought about the need for more hotels. The Ponce de Leon Hotel was built around the fabled Fountain of Youth, while the bustling town of DeLand offered several more hotels, like the Putnam, Carrollton, College Arms, and DeLand. John Batterson Stetson vacationed in DeLand and then built a home, bought a hotel he renamed College Arms, and extended the railroad to his hotel's doorstep for the convenience of his guests. These and other hotels helped shape the growth and history of West Volusia County.