Have you ever visited the "Miami Beach of the North"? If you've been to Montauk, the answer is yes.
Montauk was once a small, rural fishing village. In the early 1920s, however, Carl G. Fisher (1874-1939), entrepreneur and automobile fanatic, decided that it was going to be the next big thing. Having met with great success in developing Miami Beach, Fisher turned his attention to the eastern tip of Long Island, which he believed had the potential to be a premier "summer resort for sport-loving people."
In order to entice those people, Fisher published the promotional booklet seen here with the Montauk Beach Development Corporation, detailing the fabulous amenities of the Montauk Manor hotel and the abundant charms of the surroundings. He wanted the Montauk Manor to represent the height of luxury and comfort.
Fisher's resort officially opened on June 1, 1927, to great fanfare. A formal dinner to celebrate the occasion was given, with guests including officials from the Long Island Rail Road and some famous sportsmen of the time. The hotel had 178 guest rooms, four separate dining rooms, and a telephone in each room.
This was no mean feat, as the hamlet of Montauk did not have the infrastructure to accommodate so many separate phone lines at the time. The construction of the Manor required the running of 26 miles of telephone cable in order to service 300 internal and 15 external telephone lines.
In its first season, the Montauk Manor was host to many social events, among them weekly tea dances (dances held between 4 and 7 p.m.), bridge parties, and something called the Pirates Dance, which presumably played into the nautical history of the area.
The Montauk Manor has gone through many changes since its auspicious first season, but it still operates as a hotel and condominium complex to this day.
Julia Tyson is a librarian and archivist in the East Hampton Library's Long Island Collection.
