By Randy Jaye

The original Coquina Hotel was built in 1889 near the ocean front at the southeast corner of present-day East Granada Avenue and A1A Highway. In 1903, John Anderson and Joseph Price, original owners of the Ormond Hotel, purchased the hotel and renamed it to the Bretton Inn. Many famous people spent their winters in the Bretton Inn.

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In 1923, the structure was demolished. A new 200-room hotel was constructed on the site in 1923 by James P. Vining (former clerk of the original Coquina Hotel). Vining died before the new hotel was completed, and Harrington Mills of the Mills Hotel Chain purchased it and coincidentally named it the Coquina Hotel.