The Hotel Chautauqua was built in time for the first Florida Chautauqua Assembly in 1885. It was located on the site that was until recently occupied by Gulf Power on Circle Drive. The photograph above was taken by G. Willard Shear in 1887. Note the fence on the lakeside, which kept cattle in the lakeyard and off the road.
The Hotel was owned by Col. D. K. Hickey, who also owned the New Continental Hotel in Pensacola (below, in 1886).
The Hotel Chautauqua used the theme of the Florida Chautauqua Assembly on its stationery, “Winter Assembly in the Land of Summer.” The Assembly season was, no doubt, its busiest time each year. In 1912, the hotel’s name was changed to the Walton Hotel. Its name was changed again in the early 1920s to the New Walton Hotel. The hotel continued in service for several more decades and was demolished in 1963.