Discovered by the Byrd Antarctic Expedition in 1929 and named for John McEntee Bowman, president of the Bowman-Biltmore Hotels Corporation, who donated headquarters for the preparation of the expedition.
A horse lover and Thoroughbred racing enthusiast, Bowman was president of the United Hunts Racing Association and the National Horse Show, and for a time served as the president of the Havana-American Jockey Club that operated the Oriental Park Racetrack in Marianao, Cuba.
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Bowman was responsible for the building of the golfing country club, the Westchester Country Club in Rye, New York and counted the New York Biltmore Hotel in New York City, the Millennium Biltmore Hotel, in Los Angeles, California, the Coral Gables Biltmore Hotel in Coral Gables, Florida, and the Sevilla-Biltmore Hotel in Havana, Cuba as part of his extensive hotel holdings.
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Prominent hotelier John McEntee Bowman, owner of Westchester Country Club in Rye, New York and president of Bowman-Biltmore Hotels Corp., which counted the Seville-Biltmore Hotel in Havana as part of its hotel properties, served as president of the Havana-American Jockey Club, as did Harry D. ("Curly") Brown, owner of Arlington Park in Chicago.
The Commodore was designed by Warren & Wetmore and leased by The New York State Realty and Terminal Company to The Bowman-Biltmore Hotels Corporation of which John McEntee Bowman was President.