Spring Training

On rare occasions, it seems true love can bridge all boundaries and even last into the afterlife. For this to happen, however, there must be extraordinary circumstances, a history to rival the best novel, and a charming but perhaps haunted palace where dreams come true.

Less than half a day’s journey from anywhere in Southwest Florida rests a historic hotel known as the Don Cesar. The story of the hotel, the builder, and his lost love that some say still haunts the beachside resort today is a Spring Training tale that originates as a ghost story.

Thomas Rowe was born in Massachusetts in 1872. When he was a young, handsome, and dashing scholar, he attended university in England where he became a fan of the opera. After attending the opera Maritana, Rowe became smitten with the beautiful young Spanish girl who was the leading lady of the performance.

As the last notes of the orchestra fell silent, Thomas hurried to the back of the London theater where he waited for the striking young heroine to appear. When Lucinda finally emerged as the dark-eyed beauty with the long brunette curls, she became as smitten as her obvious admirer, and a forbidden courtship began that was stronger than life on earth.

From love at first sight, Thomas and the sultry Lucinda were enamored. As their spirits rose and their private romance bloomed, the two would-be lovers kept a watchful eye toward Lucinda’s strict and unwavering parents.

Lucinda was a highborn member of the Spanish aristocracy, and her parents wanted nothing to do with a lowly American who was abroad for an English education. Thomas, it seemed, would never be able to capture the heart of the rare Spanish beauty.

Unbeknownst to Lucinda’s staunch parents, Thomas and Lucinda began a clandestine affair. Whenever the London weather permitted, and the Spanish parents were preoccupied, Thomas and Lucinda would meet under the moonlight at a closed courtyard with a beautiful fountain.

As the bubbling water in the fountain rose, splashed, and coursed down the stones, Thomas and Lucinda fell in love. The overwhelmed young couple began their own version of the stylish opera and called each other after the heroine and the hero in the theater.

From the first moments at the fountain, Lucinda was “Maritana,” and Thomas Rowe was “Don Cesar.” With every whispered breath and every written love note, the London opera became much more than a theatrical performance.

As the secret couple became even closer, and as the opera’s last night drew near, Thomas and Lucinda made plans to meet after the final performance. Consumed with desire, the two lovers were planning an escape to Southampton, where passage on the next ship to America was waiting.

When the final night of the performance arrived, Lucinda sent a note to confirm the plan and the rendezvous, but the letter fell into the hands of Spanish servants. After the last notes of the opera fell silent, Lucinda’s parents were waiting and swept their daughter immediately back to Spain and into isolation.

When Lucinda did not appear, Thomas waited by the fountain until the sunrise found him hopeless and heartbroken. After countless attempts to contact Lucinda, Thomas was tortured with years of returned and unopened letters. After his return to America, his business achievements became legendary, but his life was never the same without his beloved Lucinda.

After the passing of years, a letter with an English postmark arrived, and Thomas was once again heartbroken. Inside the envelope was a newspaper clipping announcing Lucinda’s death. There was also a note addressed to: “My beloved Don Cesar” The note begged Thomas to forgive the Spanish parents and promised continuing and undying love.

With the news of the loss of Lucinda, Thomas fell ill, and his doctor prescribed a warmer climate away from the melancholy winters of the northeastern seaboard. In 1925, Thomas founded St. Petersburg and began building a monument to his beloved Lucinda. The Don Cesar was to be a replica of the Royal Hawaiian and would be a Pink Palace to entertain winter-weary guests during the high season of January through Easter.

Just before the stock market crash, Thomas had a premonition. In a dream, Lucinda appeared and whispered a financial forewarning about the great depression. When he awoke, Thomas stashed large amounts of cash in a secret compartment hidden within the seaside resort.

During the early months of the Great Depression, the Don Cesar weathered the monetary storm with Lucinda’s foretold secret cash, but with the financial slump wearing on, Lucinda again appeared during a dream and whispered an idea that would change the world of baseball forever.

The next morning when he awoke, Thomas telephoned New York and pitched Lucinda’s idea. He rationalized that if the New York Yankees came to Florida and practiced every day before the official beginning of the baseball season, the Yankees would have a head start on every other team. When the idea sounded too good to be true, Thomas explained that the Yankees could stay at his hotel and eat steak dinners every night. He finalized the pitch with an offer to build a baseball field if the famous New York Yankees would come for Spring Training. 

With the New York Yankees staying and eating at the “Don” and practicing at his nearby field, Thomas Rowe hit a home run for baseball and created a tradition that flourishes throughout Florida.

In the lobby of the Don Cesar, Thomas constructed a replica of the courtyard and fountain he and Lucinda had fallen in love beside, and wearing his traditional white Panama hat and tropical weather suit, he spent hours reminiscing over his lost Lucinda.

In 1940, Thomas Rowe suddenly died, and the Don fell into disrepair. In 1942, the US Army purchased the Pink Palace, and the Don Cesar became a convalescent hospital for aviators of the Second World War. As the years passed and as the army and the government no longer had a use for the property, the Don became derelict with boarded-up windows and barricaded doors.

During the days the Don was an abandoned hulk, stories of lights shining through boarded windows began along with rumors that baseball greats were walking the grounds as ghostly apparitions.

In 1972, a local group of historic enthusiasts rescued the Don from demolition and began a multimillion-dollar restoration. With the passage of time, and new management working at the resort, strange manifestations began to suggest that apparitions from the past were still haunting Thomas’s Don Cesar.

On one occasion, a new front desk clerk had just arrived and was on the beach for sunset with her husband. The setting sun was low on the horizon when the new staff member saw two strange figures walking hand-in-hand along the shore. As the sun slipped below the water, there was a man dressed in an old-fashioned Panama tropical suit with a wide-brimmed hat, and a beautiful young woman dressed in a flowing gown. The man was so out of place and the woman so striking that the front desk staffer turned to her husband who was watching the sunset.

“Look at that beautiful couple,” she whispered.

“Where?” the spouse turned to look.

As the new receptionist turned back to point, the couple disappeared.

Today, the legend remains that Thomas and Lucinda still appear at sunset on a field of dreams.