A 1939 Art Deco skyscraper where U.S. Ambassador Grant Stockdale fell to his death from the 13th floor ten days after JFK's assassination
169 E Flagler St, Miami, FL 33131
Research updated June 2026
Age
All Ages
Cost
Free
Lobby accessible during business hours. Event rental rates vary; contact building management.
Access
Wheelchair OK
Downtown sidewalk, elevator access in building
Equipment
Photos OK
Est. 1939 · Art Deco Architecture · First Miami skyscraper post-1928 bust · National Register of Historic Places · Site of Grant Stockdale death, 1963
The Alfred I. duPont Building was constructed between 1937 and 1939 on the site of the former Halcyon Hotel at 169 East Flagler Street in downtown Miami. Architects Marsh and Saxelbye designed the 17-story tower in the Modern style with substantial Art Deco embellishments — ornate lobby ceilings painted by hand in cypress, wall-to-wall marble floors, and decorative ironwork that survives intact today. The building represented Miami's recovery after a prolonged economic contraction following the collapse of the 1920s land boom and the devastating 1928 Okeechobee hurricane.
Alfred I. duPont, the Delaware industrialist and banking magnate, commissioned the building to house the Florida National Bank. The bank occupied the primary commercial floors, and the building quickly became a prestige address in downtown Miami's business district.
The most documented event in the building's history occurred on December 2, 1963, ten days after the assassination of President John F. Kennedy. Grant Stockdale — a Miami real estate developer, close friend of the Kennedy family, and former U.S. Ambassador to Ireland — fell to his death from his 13th-floor office window. Miami police ruled the death a suicide. No suicide note was found. Some investigators and associates at the time suggested Stockdale may have been killed rather than having taken his own life, based on his knowledge of Kennedy-era intelligence operations and his reported agitated state in the days following Dallas — though no formal conclusion to this effect was ever established.
The building was added to the U.S. National Register of Historic Places on January 4, 1989. Today it functions as an event venue and commercial office space, with the ground-floor ballrooms available for private rentals.
Sources
The reported paranormal activity at the duPont Building concentrates on the 13th floor, the site of Grant Stockdale's 1963 death. Multiple visitors and building workers have described seeing a figure matching Stockdale's description in the corridor and near what was his office — a man in period business attire who vanishes when approached or when the observer turns away. The building's management, according to current staff, routinely mentions Stockdale's ghost during new-employee briefings. The upper floors remain closed to the general public.
Two other recurrent sightings have been reported independently by cleaning staff over the years. On the fifth floor, multiple workers have described a woman in white appearing and then vanishing in the corridor — a figure unconnected to any specific historical event in the building's record. On the second floor, a figure described as having a badly burned face has been reported, though no fire or burn-related incident in the building's history has been documented to explain the imagery.
Paranormal investigator Marlene Pardo Pellicer documented reported activity in the building through her video series Miami Ghost Chronicles. Staff have also reported running faucets in abandoned bathrooms and unexplained noises in the upper floors. The building's dual status as a functioning commercial space and a documented site of violent death gives it a straightforward historical anchor that distinguishes it from properties where the hauntings rely entirely on folklore.
Notable Entities
Media Appearances
The building's ornate Art Deco exterior and ground-floor lobby — featuring wall-to-wall marble flooring, hand-painted cypress wood ceilings, and the original iron vault — are accessible during business hours. The upper floors where Stockdale's office was located are not open to general public.
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