as one of the best black teams in the East. Ponce de Leon Hotel In the summer of 1885, around the same time the Cuban Giants were being formed, Henry Flagler made the decision to build the Ponce de Leon Hotel in St. Augustine. Flagler, a founder of Standard Oil, envisioned the hotel as a place where "he and his wealthy friends could find princely shelter from the harsh winters of the North." The hotel opened three years later on January 10, 1888. Osborn D. Seavey was the manager of the hotel, and had previously been the manager of the San Marco where he likely crossed paths with Frank Thompson. Through this connection with Seavey, Thompson was able to incorporate the Cuban Giants and black baseball into the "integrated network of leisure activities" offered by the hotel. The players were hired as waiters (just as the Athletics had been at the San Marco), but "their primary responsibility was to entertain the guests with their skills on the diamond". An 1889 article from the St. Augustine Weekly News puts it this way: The colored employees of the Hotel Ponce de Leon will play a game today at the fort grounds with a picked nine from the Alcazar. As both teams possess some of the best colored baseball talent in the United States [,] being largely composed of the famous Cuban Giants, the game is likely to be an interesting one. On one occasion, unable to schedule a game with a local club, the team played a squad made up of tennis players staying at the hotel. On another occasion, a game played against some of the hotel's guests was attended by ex-President Grover Cleveland at the invitation of Govern. If they could not find a worthy opponent the Giants would play intra-squad games amongst themselves. In 1889 while at the Ponce de Leon, Thompson put together an organization called the Progressive Association of the United States of America (PAUSA). Thompson was elected president of the organization, and Govern was elected secretary. Ben Holmes, the team's third baseman, was also an active member of the group. Thompson used his position to preach against "the unpardonable sin of racial prejudice practiced in the dining room of the Ponce de Leon" and the Cuban Giants served as an example of the doctrine of racial solidarity and self-help that the group espoused. The racially integrated