Tarragona Tower: Daytona's Mediterranean Folly
Near Daytona, Florida
In Daytona Beach, the Tarragona Tower, built as the gateway to the Daytona Highlands development, is a small but striking remnant of the Florida land boom of the nineteen twenties. Completed in nineteen twenty-five at the height of the speculative frenzy that swept coastal Florida, it was designed in a Spanish Revival style popular among developers trying to sell subtropical Florida as an exotic paradise. The tower is named for the Spanish city of Tarragona, a nod to the Mediterranean aesthetic that boosters believed would attract northern buyers dreaming of Europe.
When the boom collapsed in nineteen twenty-six and the devastating hurricane of that year struck South Florida, construction across the state stalled or stopped entirely. The Tarragona Tower survived, eventually earning a listing on the National Register of Historic Places as a compact but genuine artifact of the moment when Florida briefly believed it could build an American Riviera on the Atlantic coast.
