{"id":11196,"date":"2015-11-25T21:46:18","date_gmt":"2015-11-26T02:46:18","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.portlandmonthly.com\/portmag\/?p=11196"},"modified":"2015-11-25T21:46:18","modified_gmt":"2015-11-26T02:46:18","slug":"a-tale-of-2-colonies","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.portlandmonthly.com\/portmag\/a-tale-of-2-colonies\/","title":{"rendered":"A Tale of 2 Colonies"},"content":{"rendered":"

December 2015 | view this story as a .pdf<\/a><\/p>\n

We know and love The Colony in Kennebunkport. But have you met her uptown little sister in Delray Beach, Florida?<\/span><\/h3>\n

By Colin W. Sargent<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n

\"Colonies-Dec15\"<\/a>“My father bought this hotel with his father in 1935,\u201d says Jestena Boughton of her landmark Colony Hotel & Cabana Club, a Mediterranean Revival palace built on the corner of stylish East Atlantic Avenue and U.S. Route One in Delray in 1926.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cHe and my mother were newlyweds. After their wedding in Atlantic City, they drove down the Post Road to Key West and caught the ferry to Havana for their honeymoon. But there was shooting in the streets\u201d in the tumult from Batista\u2019s rise to power, so they headed back.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cDad had noticed this hotel, but it wasn\u2019t open.\u201d On the return trip, they stopped again and just stared at it. Three stories high, capped by a pair of fanciful domes and dressed in red roof tiles, The Alterap, as it was first known, was a masterpiece in stucco with distinct European flair.<\/span><\/p>\n

Designed by Addison Mizner associate Martin Luther Hampton, the creator of numerous National Historic Landmark properties (including this one), it was shuttered because its first owner had lost his shirt in the Depression. \u201cMy father, George Boughton, was just 22. He called his father,\u201d Atlantic City hotelier Charles Boughton, \u201cand said, \u2018Why don\u2019t we buy this?\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

\u00a0\u00a0 <\/span>Eighty years later, the Boughtons still own it. Not only is the Colony on the National Register of Historic Places, it\u2019s the centerpiece of the downtown revitalization of Delray as this year-round resort finds itself awash in delicious restaurants, music venues, and trendy destination shopping. \u201cHere we are, the only historic hotel still standing on Atlantic Avenue,\u201d Jestena says.<\/span><\/p>\n

As you enter from the avenue, you cross a terrace with Cuban terrazzo tiles shaded by yellow and maroon awnings on wrought-iron spears that match the original Spanish-revival lighting. Tables and wicker chairs offer views of the graceful theater of the street amid the comings and goings at this dreamy address.<\/span><\/p>\n

The way The Colony engages with the street is a miracle of welcoming. You\u2019ll want to stay here forever, reading the Miami Herald<\/em> and sipping Cuban coffee (espresso cooked with sugar) by day, or perhaps enjoying cognac after twilight as night cools the city. There\u2019s a tincture of sophistication here that flirts with time. One guest flips through The Atlantic<\/em> while her friend races through a novel\u2013Lawrence Durrell. <\/span><\/p>\n

But then you\u2019d miss the lobby. To the right as you enter is a period-perfect bar, a new addition that looks as though it were always here. \u201cBut it couldn\u2019t have been here,\u201d Jestena\u2019s cousin Hilary Roche, the managing director, says. \u201cThe hotel was built during Prohibition.\u201d <\/span><\/p>\n

The Ficks Reed rattan lobby furniture from 1926 is extant and perfectly reconditioned, layers of white paint removed to reveal the original glow and texture of the bamboo. How could it be that the hotel still has the original baby grand piano in its music room, the original brass and wrought-iron elevator from 1926 (with palazzo shards of glass on the walls, the cat\u2019s meow), and the lovely, solemn 1920s oak furniture in its 70 rooms? How could the 1926 telephone switchboard and oak writing desks filled with color postcards of the Colony still be here, deftly complemented by incredible 2016 touches? <\/span><\/p>\n

The answer is Jestena, a landscape architect by training. She earned her master\u2019s from the University of Pennsylvania before taking a job with \u201cthe city of Seattle for five years,\u201d according to a fine story in the Delray Coastal Star<\/em> by Mary Thurwachter. \u201cLater, she taught landscape architecture and urban design at the University of Massachusetts.\u201d <\/span><\/p>\n

Jestena has let slip that she\u2019s a modernist, but the Mediterranean allure of the hotel keeps pulling her in. \u201cMy dad died in 1986. When my mother died in 1994, I came here as general manager.\u201d But this city, a paradise between Fort Lauderdale and Palm Beach, hadn\u2019t taken off the way it has now. \u201cI thought of it as Dull-Ray,\u201d she laughs. \u201cThe interior walls here were pale beige.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

Now they pop in lime, persimmon, and turquoise, with fabrics decorators would give their eye-teeth for. How does she do it?<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cThat\u2019s my favorite part of the business,\u201d she says. \u201cProcurement,\u201d finding the unfindable. \u201cProcurement is even on my email address.\u201d Not to mention understanding her guests with astonishing canniness. <\/span><\/p>\n

\u00a0 \u00a0 <\/span>Today, both the Delray and Kennebunkport Colonies are famous for their repeat visitors. \u201cIn 1994 in Delray, we didn\u2019t have that,\u201d Jestena says. \u201cWhat we had was a handful of little old ladies. A few years later, the Photographic Workshop was built in Delray, so we were able to add middle-aged men who wanted to take a photography course. We used to have wall-to-wall carpeting upstairs, but I knew we had luscious, original Dade County pine floors under there. When the carpets left, the old ladies left.\u201d She waits a beat. \u201cThese floors are harder. I guess they felt if they fell, they\u2019d fall on a nice white carpet.\u201d <\/span><\/p>\n

The founding sense of the hotel was \u201cfor train travelers, who came here with their big <\/span>trunks,\u201d she says. \u201cThe season was from January 10 until April 10. Do you know why? They had to get home and do their taxes by April 15. And they weren\u2019t going to miss Christmas and New Year\u2019s in New England!\u201d<\/p>\n

For fledgling travelers in the motoring set, there were, and still are, 18 double-door garages in one of the hotel wings where the cars could be parked, from Model-T to Pierce-Arrow, with the chauffeurs staying in rooms directly above. Think Sabrina<\/em>.<\/span><\/p>\n

While the Colony proper is five blocks from the beach to be in the center of all the action, a shuttle relays guests to the Cabana, Club, with its stunning, private sweep of Delray Beach and 80-degree turquoise water. \u201cDad bought the Cabana land in 1951,\u201d Jestena says. \u201cWe had a woodie\u201d to shuttle guests to this oasis. There are umbrella tables, shaded beach lounge chairs, and above the dunes, a new edgeless pool designed by Jestena with opalescent glass tiles designed by Jestena that light up for incredible magic at night.<\/span><\/p>\n

How often is it true that there\u2019s enchantment on both sides of a looking glass? The difference here is, The Colony in Kennebunkport (sample guest across the centuries, Gregory Peck) is a complete destination in itself, taking guests into its embrace and answering their every need. The more Bohemian Colony Delray (sample guest Leonard Nimoy) connects you to urban discoveries. Hey, just because they\u2019re sisters doesn\u2019t mean they have to be the same, does it?<\/span><\/p>\n

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