Actually, Samarkand Retirement Community on Treasure Drive has undergone two metamorphoses. It was first an innovative and ultimately controversial boarding school called Boyland. It was then transformed into a luxury hotel and finally into a retirement complex.
In 1913, Prynce Hopkins opened a school for boys on 13 acres of the Riviera. A highly educated world traveler, Hopkins was one of the earliest practitioners of the Montessori educational method. Looking to enlarge the school, in 1915 he bought 32 acres at the Samarkand site and built a facility with architectural elements reminiscent of ancient Persia. The most unusual feature of the school was the artificial lake with its map of the world. This allowed the boys to sail the “world oceans” in small boats. The continents even featured smoking volcanoes and running rivers.
Hopkins was a confirmed pacifist, and his outspoken views resulted in his arrest in the spring of 1918 under the Espionage Act, in the midst of U.S. involvement in World War I. The ensuing controversy resulted in the closure of Boyland. During the influenza epidemic later that year, which killed millions worldwide, the school became a temporary hospital. In 1920, Hopkins's mother, Mary, opened the Samarkand Hotel.