By Vicky Campaniello
The beauty of the Port Washington peninsula has attracted visitors for generations, and in earlier years hotels were available to accommodate them. One of the largest was the Sands Point Hotel built in 1867 at the tip of Sands Point, east of the lighthouse. It was a three-story building with 80 to 100 rooms, with bathhouses on the ground level. The daily room rate was $1 to $2. Guests could enjoy clam bakes, daily concerts and dancing on a candle-lit piazza. Local people came by stagecoach for 25 cents to spend the day. Some sailed into the Sands Point Dock on their yachts, while others came by steamboats. One of the grandest was the Seawanhaka, which picked up passengers at many North Shore docks, including Sands Point. In 1880 it caught fire near Hell Gate and 40 passengers, many from North Hempstead, lost their lives. In 1893 the hotel was also destroyed by fire.
Another grand hotel was the Bradley, which overlooked Manhasset Bay with its own dock, now the Town Dock. Originally there was a smaller hotel on the site called the Port Washington Hotel, which opened in 1872. In 1905 Charles Bradley, who owned other local properties, bought the hotel, enlarged it and renamed it Bradley’s. Fine but costly dining was provided to its millionaire customers. Lobster dinners cost $4 in the days when an average worker made $20 a week. To those seeking continental cuisine, French specialties were offered. Local organizations and prominent residents celebrated major events at Bradley’s. People were proud to be seen at an establishment frequented by Astors, Vanderbilts, big name politicians and sports stars. On Feb. 18, 1962, 500 guests attended a cocktail party at the hotel, which had a 90-year-old fabled history. The next day the hotel was in flames, thought to be caused by a careless smoker.
In 1872, Gideon Seaman opened the 37-room Old Heidelberg Hotel on the corner of Main Street and Shore Road. In 1892, Seaman’s son sold the hotel to Jerry O’Brien who changed the name to the Central Hotel and later to the Cove Inn. It was advertised as being very modern, even having electricity. At the time, it was the largest building in town. The town board met there on a rotating basis with other North Hempstead organizations until the present day town hall on Plandome Road in Manhasset was constructed in 1907. Many of the early Port residents stopped at the hotel in summers before they bought homes here. The hotel was torn down in 1933 and the land is now a parking lot.
On the corner of Main Street and Haven Avenue stood the Victoria Hotel, which was built in 1905 by Walter Mullon. Adjacent to the hotel was Mullon Hall, which had a large space where silent movies were shown, boxing matches were fought and basketball games were played. The space was also rented out for dances, plays and bazaars. In the 1920s it was converted into stores. The hotel was razed in 1928 to make room for the Port Plaza building. Mullon Hall was destroyed by fire in 1967.
Happily there is one building still in existence which had once been a hotel. It was the Renwick, now the site of Diwan, an Indian restaurant. The Renwick was built in 1890 by Lorenzo Smull in what was then a bustling part of town with two grist mills, a post office in the McKee’s General Store, a tackle and bicycle shop and a fish market. After the arrival of the railroad in 1898, uptown Port saw new businesses and stores opening up, a clear challenge to the Renwick. Smull sold the hotel and new owners operated it under other names—Bayview and later DeMar’s. In 1938, Gildo’s opened and became one of the Island’s best known dining establishments. In more recent years, the building was occupied by other restaurants such as Winston’s, Darby Doyle’s and the Bay House. Diwan opened there in 1989.
Family-run hotels are rare these days when most hotels are national and international brand names. Plans are in the offing for the construction of a $32 million, 165 room Hilton Garden Inn in the Corporate Park on West Shore Road. Groundbreaking is scheduled for this fall with completion in early 2017.
If you are looking to dock your boat and walk to your hotel room, such as visitors did in the old days, it is still possible. Six hotel rooms are available by reservation on the first level of the Knickerbocker Bay Club on lower Main Street. The “boatel” is a separate entity from the Bay Club, but there is a dock and boat slips may be reserved. While the old hotels are long gone, the bay continues to delight us with its timeless beauty and attract new visitors to our town.
