Tobacco baron Lewis Ginter planned the hotel as a top property for the city. Carrère and Hastings, the New York architects who later designed the New York Public Library, designed it in the Spanish Baroque style. It opened on October 31, 1895.
On March 29, 1901, a fire destroyed three-fifths of the hotel. The marble statue of Thomas Jefferson was carried to safety, but its head broke off in the rescue. It was repaired later. The hotel reopened in 1907.
The actor David Niven wrote that he saw a full-sized alligator swimming in a pool near the reception desk. Old Pompey, the last alligator in the Palm Court pools, lived until 1948. Today bronze alligators decorate the hotel.