Jacob Perry Stoltz (November 1, 1870 - September 4, 1945) was an American businessman and real estate developer. Self-styled as 'Commodore J. Perry Stoltz', he was born in Reading Township, Ohio. He made a fortune designing 'go-ball' a forerunner of the modern pinball machine. He sold these games to amusement park arcades and later sold the company. He invested this money in apartment buildings in New York City and, in 1913, purchased land in Miami Beach, Florida. There he built the Fleetwood Hotel, a fifteen story fireproof luxury hotel that opened in the 1920s. He also operated Miami Beach's first radio station, WMBF, from the Fleetwood Hotel's ballroom and had a transmission tower on the hotel's roof. In 1925-26, Stoltz began an ambitious series of projects, including building new hotels in Hendersonville, North Carolina, and purchasing the Fruitland Nurseries in Georgia. He also planned an entire development called Daytona Shores in Florida based around a new Fleetwood Hotel. A hurricane devastated Miami and Miami Beach in 1926 and destroyed the Fleetwood Hotel in Miami Beach. Between the destruction of his flagship hotel and the bust of the Florida land boom, Stoltz had to file for bankruptcy. None of the projects he had in progress were completed and he moved back to Ohio, where he reportedly lived in poverty for the rest of his life. As a historical side note, the Fruitland Nurseries are now Augusta National Golf Club.



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