| Joseph McDonald and James McGuire – The Builders
Joseph Albert McDonald was born at Prince Edward Island, Canada, February 13, 1842. His father was James McDonald and mother Ann McKinnon. In 1870 he married Miss Elizabeth Wallace. James A. McGuire was from New England. Joseph was born in the Province of Prince Edward Island. He started in the business of ship carpentering for twelve years. In 1870 he married Elizabeth Wallace of Derby, CN. Joseph McDonald came to Florida in 1881 and established his business partnership with James McGuire. He built the Episcopal Church in Green Cove Springs. In Green Cove Springs, Seavey contracted with him to build the Magnolia Hotel on the St. Johns River. The McGuire and McDonald Company also built the San Marco Hotel that Henry Flagler visited in St. Augustine. Before the Ponce de Leon was started they built the Seminole Hotel in Winter Park. For Henry Flagler, the firm built the Ponce de Leon (1888), Alcazar (1888), Union Station in St. Augustine (1888), Kirkside (1893), Ormond (1891), Royal Ponciana (1895), The Royal Palm in Miami (1897), The Colonial in Nassau, Bahamas (1899), and The Breakers (1905). McDonald became a St. Augustine Alderman in the 1890 city elections. When the Royal Palm in Miami was built, McDonald was in charge of the entire construction; plans, specifications, design, and arrangements were all under his supervision. In 1896 in Miami, McDonald built the Biscayne Hotel for himself and established the J. A. McDonald Lumber Company in 1902. He was the president of Halcyon Hall Hotel Company and vice-president of the Miami Transfer Company. He was a Democrat, a member of the Roman Catholic Church, Knights of Columbus, Jacksonville Lodge of Elks and the Jacksonville Seminole Club. In 1896 John B. Reilly, the son-in-law of Joseph McDonald became the first mayor of Miami. John was a member of the Board of Directors of the Biscayne Bay Bank. John's son and McDonald's grandson was the first white child born in the city of Miami. On July 8, 1907 Joseph McDonald was elected President of the bank and remained President until January 10, 1910 when he became chairman of the Board. He was chairman of the board until his death in 1918. The McGuire and McDonald Company had offices in the Ponce de Leon Hotel after it opened. In the company’s long career they also completed the following hotels in Florida: Sanford House (Sanford), Seminole Hotel (Winter Park), Hotel Ormond (Ormond Beach), and The Continental (Atlantic Beach). In addition, they built the Hotel Royal Victoria and the Hotel Colonial in Nassau, and the water works in St. Augustine and Palm BeachThe firm built a home for James Ingraham in St. Augustine and Henry Flagler’s residences in St. Augustine and Palm Beach, Kirkside and Whitehall, respectively. James McGuire stayed in St. Augustine and Flagler called on him for all kinds of repairs or supervision of repairs. The firm had some other interesting business opportunities as they held the liquor licenses for the Alcazar and the San Marco Hotel in 1889.McGuire also became the builder and owner of the Valencia Hotel in St. Augustine in 1891. McGuire supervised the early repairs to the Ponce de Leon, rebuilding the Casino after the fire, and the addition to the Alcazar. In the early 1900s, he supervised construction of the mausoleum addition to Memorial Presbyterian Church and other extensive repairs made to the Church and manse. Both McGuire and McDonald were active pallbearers at Henry Flagler’s funeral. McGuire was given $10,000 in the Flagler will Obituary of Joseph A. McDonald in the Miami Herald, Wednesday, November 6, 1918, page 1 Joseph McDonald Dies At His Home Here Death came at 12:30 pm Yesterday, Ending a Long And Brilliant Career As A Builder and Developer on Florida East Coast Joseph Albert McDonald, an early pathfinder of the Florida East Coast passed quietly away yesterday at 12:30 pm at the residence of his son-in-law, John B. Reilly, on Avenue B. He had been in failing health for the past six months and was confined to his room for eight weeks before succumbing to arteriosclerosis. It is for his indomitable persistence and tireless energy, displayed a quarter of a century ago in the building of the seven palatial winter hotels of the Florida East Coast system, that he is best known to a multitude of friends; but there is an inner circle who revere the man whom business success failed to spoil and who was ever ready to help the needy. This representative Miamin was born in the early fifties in the Canadian providence of Prince Edward Island. He relied upon experience to furnish his education, as his schooling was limited, being confined to the public school of his native town. Practically every one followed the sea in those days, and, while quite a youth, he learned the trade of a ship carpenter, which he followed twelve years. Five of these were spent in the United States, where he located in Derby, Connecticut. In 1870 Mr. McDonald married Miss Elizabeth Wallace, and in ten years before they migrated to Florida, three children were born, only one of whom is now living. In the early eighties the family moved to Florida, where the rugged Canadian, use to the arctic winters of Prince Edward Island was soon to accomplish the seemingly impossible in a semitropical country. After a partnership covering five years with J. P. McGuire, who died in Brooklyn in September, Henry M. Flagler appeared and the first link in the huge winter hotel enterprises was undertaken. Just as the far-sighted vision of Mr. Flagler was essential to success, it required a lieutenant of Joseph McDonald's caliber to meet and overcome the natural difficulties of the undertaking. While the construction of the Ponce de Leon and Alcazar hotels at St. Augustine were the initial links in the string, it was the amazing enterprise of the Royal Poincianna in 1893 that demanded the last ounce of this Scottish Canadian's ingenuity to carry to completion. To fully appreciate the difficulties involved, it must be remembered that the entire Florida Atlantic coast from Jacksonville southward was a jungle, trackless except for an occasional hamlet and the Seminole runways through the low country. The railroad, that had been finished as far south as Cocoa, was of little use in transporting supplies. All materials for the Palm Beach hotelry was loaded upon flat boats and floated down the Indian River. It was not until the hotel had closed its first season that the railroad was finally in running order to Palm Beach. This has long been the largest resort hotel in the world and the task of furnishing it, provisioning it and bringing its guests by water can readily be imagined. However, the building of the structure was an infinitely harder problem. Of the chain of Flagler hotels, the two at St. Augustine were first built under Mr. McDonald's supervision in 1881; then followed the oceanfront development at Ormond ten years later; in 1893, the Royal Poincianna and shortly afterward the Breakers at Palm Beach. A year later, in 1896, the Royal Palm, here in Miami, was begun, while the only hotel constructed by Mr. Flagler upon foreign soil, the Colonial, at Nassau, Bahamas, immediately following the Spanish-American war, completed the system. In the evolution of this gigantic undertaking, Mr. McDonald had the cooperation of his partner, J. P. McGuire. The Breakers burned in 1905 and was rebuilt the same year. The palatial White Hall, the winter home of Florida's railroad wizard, was completed in 1901 by this firm. With his retirement from building hotels, he did not step out entirely but identified himself in 1896 with the infant town of Miami. While a member of the first city council, he built for himself the Biscayne hotel, and from then on until his exit from active business, Mr. McDonald accomplished in a way for Miami what Henry Flagler did for the state. In 1902 he organized the J. A. McDonald Lumber Company, of which he was President, he also headed the Halcyon Hall Hotel Company for several years, and was at one time vice-president of the Miami Transfer Company and at the time of his death, was chairman of the board of directors of the Bank of Biscayne. His interest in the progress of Miami was unfailing. He took a prominent part in the work of organizing and incorporating the infant city, and was a city council member for the first three years of the town's history. As an intimate of Mr. Flagler, he was in no small way responsible for the improvements inaugurated here by the financier. He was a very devout Roman Catholic and a beloved member of the Miami lodge of Knights of Columbus. This society will hold special exercises tomorrow morning at ten, the time set for the funeral. Mr. McDonald was also prominent as a Miami Elk and member of the Seminole Club, of Jacksonville. Joseph A. McDonald is survived by a daughter, Mrs. John B. Reilly, carrying his name in France is an elder grandson, Joseph A. Reilly, US Marine Corps, while Wallace Reilly is attending the Staunton Military Academy in Virginia. He also has a granddaughter, Miss Eleanor Reilly. |
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| Picture from Florida Heritage Collection |