the off-season, including the razing of much of the north wing and replacing part of that section with two pergolas and a conservatory. Workers also renovated existing rooms, with the Chicago Tribune noting "there are new baths, new furniture, a two-story colonnade; the great dining room opened for the first time since the 1928 hurricane, and the famous cocoanut grove restored to its former beauty." Upon opening for the following season, the capacity for the Royal Poinciana Hotel stood at about 900 guests, down from 1,200 prior to the storm. However, business at the hotel struggled in the aftermath of the Wall Street Crash of 1929 and the subsequent Great Depression. After the end of the Royal Poinciana Hotel's season in March 1930, its closure appeared to bear little relevance to activity at other businesses and resorts in Palm Beach, a stark contrast to previous years. In January 1932, the Royal Poinciana Hotel opened for what would be its final season. Following a conference between Bemis and Florida East Coast Hotel Company officers such as president William R. Kenan Jr., vice president L. C. Haines, and general counsel Scott Loftin, the company announced on October 27, 1932, that the Royal Poinciana Hotel would not open during the upcoming tourism season, but did not intend to keep the hotel closed permanently. However, after failing to re-open for a second consecutive season in 1934, the Florida East Coast Hotel Company decided on August 15 of that year to demolish the vast majority of the hotel, aside from the north wing, greenhouse, and colonnades, with work to be completed by December 1, 1935. Beginning in September 1934, Maxwell Co. of Miami conducted a sale of every item remaining at the Royal Poinciana Hotel, including furniture, fixtures, and pieces of the structure itself, attracting approximately 4,000 buyers. Lumber scavenged from the hotel built at least 40 homes and parts of hundreds of others. The initially planned demolition work was completed by November 1935, although the Scott and Whittaker firm, under contract from the Florida East Coast Hotel Company, demolished the north wing in 1937. In 1960, a marker was placed at the former site of the grand hotel which had helped establish Palm Beach. Pre-Negro leagues baseball team In the winter of 1915–1916, the Royal Poinciana Hotel hired the services of C.I. Taylor and many members of his Indianapolis ABCs pre-Negro league baseball team