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In the summer of 1923, the 250-room Mason Hotel began to rise on the corner of 4th Street and First Avenue North at a cost of $1,500,000. It was built in the Neo-classical style by a company headed by Franklin J. Mason, a retired New York contractor. The architect was F. Jonsbeg from Boston. The hotel was not Mason's first contracting venture in the city, but one of his grandest.
Mason, who had relocated from New York after closing his successful contracting and building business, was smitten with St. Petersburg after wintering here in 1920. Mason quickly secured contracts to erect 46 bungalows near the new Euclid/St. Paul neighborhood. Following the completion of the new Pinewood subdivision, the Franklin J. Mason Co, Inc purchased the downtown corner lot for his hotel. Franklin Mason spared no expense in designing, building and decorating his hotel.
The construction timeframe was an impressive feat. Mason purchased the property on March 8, 1923. The steel frame work was ordered two weeks later and delivery began on June 2nd. The ten-story steel frame structure was completed on July 31. The exterior of the Mason Hotel was clad in 300,000 red bricks with all stone trimmings and decorated with white cast stones. The interior of the hotel was equally as impressive. With high ceilings and a sweeping grand staircase beckoning, guests were transported into optimal luxury. From plush velvet carpeted hallways to over 15,000 sq ft of Spanish mosaic tiles in the main foyer, guests would have been pampered with world-class dining before retiring to their private ensuite hotel room.
While the construction crews, designers and decorators worked at impressive speeds around the clock, nothing was overlooked. The hotel's basement maintained steam furnaces, boilers, water purification, chillers, and water softeners all with the aid of an onsite 250-foot artesian well. After only 6 months of construction, the Mason Hotel opened the first weekend of January, 1924.
Although the opening season was deemed a great success, the hotel was soon up for auction, and in early June of 1924 it was bought by a company headed by William Muir, who changed the hotel's name to Princess Martha, in honor of his wife. The June 17 edition of the St. Petersburg Times noted the name change and opening date of December 15, 1924. However, a Times article on November 17, 1924 stated a Thanksgiving Day grand (re)opening was planned.
As for Franklin Mason, he continued adding to St. Petersburg's skyline with department stores, office buildings and other structures. Mason assisted with renovations of Central National Bank, and was the contractor for the new Gulfport High School and St. Petersburg's new million dollar High School on 5th Ave North in 1926. He even had contracts to build 50 homes in the growing city of Belleair, and for the expansion of the Biltmore hotel. Many of Mason's contributions to the area remain and are a tribute to solidly designed buildings with quality craftsmanship like the Mason/Princess Martha Hotel.
The Princess Martha regally stands today and has her own stories. Like many of the boom-era hotels in downtown St. Pete, the Princess Martha housed military recruits during World War II, and many major league baseball players stayed here during nearly 50 years of Spring Training. Even the Babe called Princess Martha home during some training seasons. After swapping hands and extensive renovations in the 1980s, she reopened as an upscale residential retirement community. Like William Muir once gushed to his wife, "You're a Princess, Martha."