Lodging New Port Richey Fl

Local Girl Scout wins prestigious award

A Plant City Girl Scout who helped restore a horse stable has earned Girl Scouting's highest award.

Kelsey Bly was among 19 Girl Scouts in this region who received the award, similar to the rank of Eagle Scout in Boy Scouting.

Bly, a member of Troop 300, loves riding horses and working with livestock, so her Circle C Ranch restoration project was a natural fit. Looking to help both horses and children, she replaced all of the stall doors with safer, lighter models and created signs to educate riders.

Bly has been involved with the FFA, serving as chapter president, and Hillsborough County Animal Services. She attends Hillsborough Community College and previously earned her Bronze and Silver awards.

The 19 Girl Scouts were honored June 5 during a ceremony at the Doubletree Hotel Tampa Westshore Airport. News Channel 8 meteorologist Leigh Spann was mistress of ceremonies.

The other winners were from troops from Brandon, Clearwater, New Port Richey, Riverview, St. Petersburg, Tampa and Valrico, said Susan Barnes, spokeswoman for the Girl Scouts of West Central Florida.

The Gold Award recognizes outstanding accomplishments in the areas of leadership, community service, career planning and personal development.

The Hacienda Hotel, once the jewel of New - Pinellas Newsboy Real ...

The 1920s was a decade not unlike the last 10 years here in Florida; the economy was overheated, people (some people, anyway) had plenty of money, and the real estate market was going crazy. Investors were looking for new ways to make money. With all the people who were flooding into the state on vacation, the hotel business seemed like a pretty sure thing.

Hotels popped up all over the state, and some of them are still standing. One of those is the Hacienda Hotel in New Port Richey.

It seems a bit hard to believe now, but some people thought that Pasco County would be a likely spot for a sort of East Coast version of Hollywood. Some actors and movie producers of the day thought the west coast of Florida would be a natural movie-making site, and a number of silent movies were actually shot on location in the area.

Some of those Hollywood types joined with wealthy Pasco County people and hatched an idea for a swanky, Spanish–style, 100-room hotel in downtown New Port Richey, just a stone’s throw from the Pithlachascotee river.

Here is what the St. Petersburg TIMES said about the project in 1925:

“Plans have been set on foot at an enthusiastic meeting of New Port Richeyites for the construction of a 100-room fire-proof hotel. Within a few minutes after the meeting was called to order nearly the entire capital required was subscribed.

“The site selected is a tract overlooking the beautiful Pithlachascotee river, north of the Gulf high school building, and in the exact center of population. The site has the further advantage of being located within a short distance of the proposed station of the West Coast railway, now an assured fact.”

The article said the hotel would be of either Moorish or Spanish-style construction, and would cost about $150,000, pretty big bucks for the day.

James E. Meighan, one of the Hollywood types, donated the land. The final design called for a $250,000 building housing 50 rooms and including a steam-heating plant, an open-air dining room, and beams in the dining room and lobby. Ground was broken on Aug. 11, 1926, and the Hacienda’s first guests were welcomed 184 days later.

More than 800 people attended the grand opening on Feb. 5, 1927.

Some pretty famous folk visited or stayed at the Hacienda in those early years – Ring Lardner, Mrs. Arthur Hammerstein, attorney Clarence Darrow, and actress Gloria Swanson among them.

The hotel did reasonably well, and it managed to survive the Depression, which came along not too long after the Hacienda opened its doors. It changed hands a number of times over the years. By the time the 1950s came around, the hotel was being sold fairly regularly, and management changes were frequent.

New Port Richey

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