Shortly after 1950, there were only two simple tourist hotels on Aruba: the Coral Strand Hotel, now Talk of the Town Resort, and the Basi Ruti on Palm Beach, where Playa Linda Resort now stands. But in the mid-1950s, plans were made to build a luxury tourist resort and a company was established to finance the hotel: N.V. Aruven, in which the island territory was the largest shareholder.

Juan Enrique Irausquin and Oscar Henriquez resolutely took on their task of getting the finances in order. Irausquin was Minister of Finance in the Antillean government and managed to obtain not only the necessary money for the construction of a resort, but also for the expansion of the infrastructure (roads, the airport, water and electricity supply) that had to go with it. Henriquez was the first director of the Tourist Office and deputy of Finance and Tourism and he immediately put his shoulder to the wheel for this enterprise. Both gentlemen began with a working visit to leading tourist resorts in the region, particularly Puerto Rico and Miami Beach, where they studied the tourist resorts and beaches. Their conclusion: Aruba is miles behind in terms of accommodation, but the beaches there were not nearly as beautiful as those of Aruba.

In order to have the first luxury tourist resort on Palm Beach designed, both Arubans visited Morris Lapidus. He was very surprised to receive a visit from 29-year-old Henriquez who had come to negotiate about designing a million-dollar hotel on an island he had never heard of! The arrival of both Arubans even made the newspaper: the Miami Herald devoted a short article to it.

Lapidus and his colleague Leo Kornblath created a design that was very suitable for the tropics, with an open lobby where the wind provided cooling. The design had a herringbone-like shape so that all rooms looked out over the sea.

To select the site, Morris Lapidus, Deputy Ernesto Petronia and Oscar Henriquez, Director of Tourism, started checking the white sand inch by inch until the beach at the middle of the bay was selected.

The Aruba Caribbean Hotel opened on July 18, 1959. Juancho Irausquin cut the ribbon and Padu Lampe played the piano. Morris DeWoskin, general manager of Executive House of Chicago, the company that would manage the hotel, made a prophetic comment at the ceremony about the effect the hotel would have on the island: “Aruba will never be the same.” He was to be proven right.

Lapidus had a number of large stone blocks that can be found all over the island brought in for the tropical garden and provided a clear ‘touch of Dutch culture and history’ by creating a wall with Delft blue tiles at the front desk.

Among other things, the wall included an image of the first salute from Sint Eustatius to the American flag on ships of the yet to be founded United States in 1776. The name ‘Klompenclub’ of the nightclub also spoke for itself.

The biggest problem they faced was keeping out the wild goats, thousands of which roamed the island. They came to feed on the fresh green leaves of the newly created landscaping. Fences of tall cacti were built and a cattle grid was placed in the road at the entrance gate. Despite these precautions, the wily animals managed to get in by wading through the water along the fences. Barbed wire had to be installed to keep the goats off the property.

The Aruba Caribbean became a great success and was nicknamed ‘Grand Dame’. All the big names from the American entertainment world flocked there to stay and/or perform: Liberace, Harry Belafonte, Bob Hope, Tony Martin, Roger Moore, Elizabeth Taylor, Jack Benny, you name it. And the rest is history, as they say.

Roger Moore, Morris Neme and Harry Belafonte were regular guests at the Caribbean.

The Caribbean was renovated several times over the years and changed names accordingly, like the Golden Tulip Aruba Caribbean Resort in 1986 and the Radisson Resort in 1997. It is currently one of the Hilton Resorts.

Morris Lapidus returned to this island several times with ‘his’ tropical creation. He died in 2001, aged 98.

Aruba owes him…