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Venice's El Patio Hotel: Home away
from home
Local hostelry owner recalls building's glorious past
Venice Gondolier Article. By Tim A. Gielau, Features Editor.
| There's a hotel where? And it's been their how many years?
If you didn't know about the only hotel in downtown Venice, it's
probably because you are new to the area.
The El Patio Hotel has been a landmark in the downtown area since
1926. And for the last 57 years, 97-year-old Faye Miles has been its
Grande Dame.
"My late husband, Walter Leslie, and I had a hotel in Marion,
IN., for about four years. But he had a heart condition and his doctor told
him to move to Florida for his health. That was in 1947 said Faye.
"We heard this place was for sale so we bought it. I've been here
ever since?
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Faye Miles, the owner of El Patio Hotel in downtown
Venice, sits on the patio that faces Venice Avenue.
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Located at 229 W. Venice Ave., the El Patio has become the home for scores of
winter visitors, many of whom return year after year to the familiar
surroundings of Faye's hotel.
"When we bought the place, I think there was a bank, a hardware store
and a doctor's office, and that's all there was to downtown. But we were still
the center of the community, just like today," said Faye. "We had
diagonal parking along Venice Avenue, and it seemed like somebody would hit the
building with their car about once a month."
The first year in business was a slow one, she said. About the only folks that
stayed at the hotel were the parents of students at Kentucky Military Institute,
a private military academy in Linden, Ky., that spent its winters in Venice.
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El Patio Hotel is above the storefronts on Venice Avenue. Visitors
get a view overlooking the downtown area.
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"A few of them were fathers, but mostly it was the mothers who stayed
here," she said. "We checked in 17 guests one day who had come for the
tarpon fishing. That was a pretty big day for us."
But with each subsequent year, the El Patio’s guest register grew and grew.
Before long, they had developed a steady stream of guests who would begin coming
around Christmastime and stay until Easter.
"People like being in the center of town," said Faye. ‘They liked
to spend their time window shopping. Then, when it was time to leave, they would
go make all their purchases?
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The lobby of the hotel used to be on the ground floor, accessible from the
open arcade. But after a stream of unwanted visitors began using the corridor,
Faye’s husband took measures to close it off.
"We were getting people in bicycles, on motorcycles and even a horse
once in a while that would just come tiding through. So Leslie went to the city
to get it closed off," she said.
The arcade is still there, but you have to go up the stairs to get to the El
Patio’s lobby. On the second floor, 32 rooms line the lobby on either side.
And each of the rooms also opens to the outdoors on the exterior walls.
"We didn’t have any restaurants in Venice, so we held these big
potluck dinners for the guests. Sometimes we’d have as many as 60 people for
dinner. When we did want to go out, we would go to this restaurant in Sarasota
by the airport where they had a woman who played the piano recalled Faye.
Faye Miles stands in one of the 32
bedrooms in El Patio Hotel. |
A drawing of how the
hotel used to look hangs
in the stairway leading
to El Patio Hotel.
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The hotel isn’t as full as it used to be during the winter months, but Faye
still has a few regular guests who count on seeing her every year. And though
running a hotel can be a lot of work. Faye isn't showing any signs of slowing
down any time in the near future. Especially since she took up competitive
ballroom dancing when she was 75.
"I don't know of any secrets to living a long life," said Faye.
"It's just not something I think about."
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Faye W. Miles and the El Patio Hotel
from the July / August 1999 issue of
Venice Gulf Coast Living
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Faye W. Miles
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Faye has been the manager of the El Patio Hotel in the Arcade Building on
Venice Avenue for the past 57 years. Life on Venice Avenue has changed; guests of the hotel could go downstairs
after a good night’s sleep, get something to eat at Dick and Meadows Pharmacy lunch counter, have prescriptions filled, purchase necessary items, get a haircut, buy something for
a friend at the gift shop, have their shoes repaired, pick up or post their mail, and never leave the building. Faye remembers,
"When we first got here it really was the center of activity. There were about 800 living in Venice at that time. The post office was in the Arcade and people could hear when their mail was coming in on the train. It always went out at 8am and was
supposed to return at 4pm, but sometimes it could be midnight. Whenever it was, people would walk right through the Arcade to get their mail, you got to know everyone in town that way.
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I first learned of Faye from John, of the Arcade Barber Shop. She is his landlord and he enthused,
"She is 91 years young, and she is amazing. She’s very active, always out doing something, and she always waves
'hello’ as she goes by the barber shop window. She can tell you some great stories of back when in Venice.”
I, along with John, love her stories. She talked of the people who stayed at the hotel and those who worked for the circus. She recalled the digging of the
Intercoastal. She painted word pictures of how Venice Avenue looked, the
unpaved single lane of traffic, the angle parking, the people, and the orange tree filled landscape between the two sides of the street.
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Even now, the hotel has the look and feel of a stage set for a play. It was built
European style in 1926 by the Brotherhood of Locomotive Engineers, founders of Venice. It is the only remaining in-town hotel, and
the only one that was built by the engineers, giving the town its upscale reputation.
Guests at the El Patio share a long central lobby that is more like a living room with bedrooms opening onto it. Coffee perks all day, and guests bring breakfast foods from their room refrigerators as they greet each other.
There are 32 rooms arranged in pairs, joined by a common bathroom, and are now rented as suites. Each opens into the living room area and also outside
onto overhung side porches.
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A postcard from the hotel in 1948
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In my conversations with Faye I found her to be a sweet, interesting woman with an exuberance for life. Born in
1908 and raised in Indiana, she learned to survive as second to the youngest of four siblings. Faye had to create her own identity, which she continues to do with style. She met her husband, Walter Leslie Miles, in college. They were
both teachers and were married May 9, 1928. They had children, Bob and Mary
Jo. Leslie became a principal.
Looking for a change, they managed a hotel in Indiana for four years. Leslie’s health failed, and his doctor recommended a move to Florida. Hearing about the El Patio, Leslie came down and bought it May 2, 1948. Faye followed the next fall with Mary Jo, who finished her senior year at
Venice / Nokomis High School in a graduating class of 17 students.
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The El Patio Hotel as it looks today
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On one of my visits with Faye, Mary Jo joined us. The two reminisced
over pictures in several albums of happy days and smiling faces. The stories they shared of potluck
dinners and vast amounts of food, prepared in Faye’s kitchen, sounded
more like the rememberings of family gatherings rather than a business. Mary
Jo also talked about her mother, “My father had his first heart trouble when I was in 7th grade. My mom knew that there was a possibility he would not be there to help raise their family. When you think you have that to face it either breaks you or makes you strong. It made mom strong.” Faye added, “That is where I spent my time, being there ...
helping my kids and him, that helped me, too."
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Leslie’s health stabilized and he took care of maintenance around the hotel. Faye took care of most of the rest. From
renting the rooms to decorating, she had her hand in all of it. Right after her husband died in 1979, Faye concentrated her energies on the hotel. She sewed, fixed and repaired and then found that she needed to be out with people again. She became involved with the Arthur Murray Dance Studio and began traveling all over the world and competing in
ballroom dancing. She proudly displays her trophies.
Walking through the building with Faye was like looking through the picture albums. She told me about each change that had been made from stairways to gardens, furniture to trash disposal, from the draperies she made to the cushions she re-upholstered. She pointed out so many little things about the building that what I once looked at as unique and special,
began to feel rare, precious and irreplaceable. Countless original items remain: mirrors, metal furniture, even the
original wooden-slat Venetian blinds at each window. In an age of throwing out or destroying the old to make way for the
new, it is seldom that we get to experience something truly historical; something that is a part of our past and remains a part of our present. We still can at the El Patio Hotel. What a great place to enjoy the charm and magic of days gone by, set
in the present day uniqueness of Venice Avenue. Spend the night and step back in time, treat yourself and your out-of-town friends to a taste of the real Venice.
When I asked Faye for some words of wisdom on how to stay as vital as she has, she laughed, “I guess just staying active. I am really lucky to have had the life I have had... I have been able to meet so many wonderful people here that I wouldn’t
have experienced any other way. This city and hotel are in my blood. I’ve lived here longer than anywhere else and it’s been
quite an experience for me; and still is. Maybe I can’t do everything I want to anymore, but I can do most things.”
Then, she had to get going. She had to get her hair done; she was off to the symphony that evening.
CLICK HERE FOR RATES
and TO REQUEST RESERVATIONS
or Call
(941) 488-7702
Toll Free: 800-941-0993
EL PATIO HOTEL
229 W. VENICE AVENUE
VENICE, FLORIDA 34285
bob@elpatiohotel.com
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