The El Vernona Hotel: Spanish Architecture at its Finest

The building of the El Vernona Hotel in1925 brought national fame for Owen Burns. The fanciful, six-story, 150 room hotel was touted as the purest example of Spanish architecture in Florida. It was designed to look as if it had been standing for centuries and the details were exquisite: the rough honey brown stucco walls showed snatches of brick; antique barrel roof tiles were imported from Seville; and colorful, hand-painted tiles from Europe decorated stair risers, walls, fountains and footpaths.

The El Vernona Hotel on Sarasota Bay