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Post by MMM on Jul 25, 2006 21:32:19 GMT -5
Wow is right - it looks quite different, especially without the hut.
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Post by hulk007 on Jul 25, 2006 23:22:57 GMT -5
According to the doo wop home page giving info about the motels the a-frame office was a year after this postcard in 1965. Does anyone know exactly when the Tangiers was built? I'm guessing early 60's or even late 50's.
It is an interesting postcard seeing nothing around this place. The Nassau Inn wasn't even a vision in anyone's eye when that postcard was made.
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Post by hulk007 on Jul 25, 2006 23:51:16 GMT -5
Also if you look at the postcard there seems to be some neon lights far off in the background. What motels would have been in that general area at the time?
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Post by writhinganacondo on Jul 26, 2006 4:55:48 GMT -5
According to the doo wop home page giving info about the motels the a-frame office was a year after this postcard in 1965. Does anyone know exactly when the Tangiers was built? I'm guessing early 60's or even late 50's. It is an interesting postcard seeing nothing around this place. The Nassau Inn wasn't even a vision in anyone's eye when that postcard was made. The beachfront was all empty between the Pan American and Ocean View (originally Admiral) until the late 60's. Many older motels started off as one or two story concerns, 2nd and 3rd stories added later. The Bel Air was originally one floor. Jolly Roger two, for examples. Actually south of Farragut the motels are older than the proposed "historic district" on the east side of Ocean Ave.
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Post by Rob Ascough on Jul 26, 2006 10:16:31 GMT -5
Wow, what a great postcard!
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Post by fuzzyscorpio on Jul 26, 2006 18:26:30 GMT -5
According to the doo wop home page giving info about the motels the a-frame office was a year after this postcard in 1965. Does anyone know exactly when the Tangiers was built? I'm guessing early 60's or even late 50's. According to this article on philly.com, discussing the doo-wop tour, it was built the year of the alleged postmark on the eBay postcard--1964. tinyurl.com/nw5j6Seems odd that the A-frame structure would have been added in only its second year of operation. Hey, Al, are ya there? Do you have anything definitive on the birthdate of the Tangiers in your data collection? Isn't that something to see? I remember those days, although dimly . Glorious, lazy, dreamy days. The image reminds me how incredible the handful of motels that did exist in the Crest then seemed, because it wasn't a motel corridor yet, and each property was more individually distinct, like an oasis in that lovely seaside setting. And, of course, they were spanking new. It really makes my heart go pitter-pat to look at that photo. How beautiful the original neon logo was... The bidding on the postcard is up to $12.75 already, so I guess I'll settle for saving the little image of it in my digital scrapbook
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Post by hulk007 on Jul 26, 2006 23:56:43 GMT -5
That is the first time in my many ebay searches I have seen such an early photo of the Tangiers. I would love to see an orignal Casa Bahama postcard show up on ebay
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Post by Rob Ascough on Jul 27, 2006 9:57:12 GMT -5
So was the Crest just a bunch of empty blocks at one point?
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Post by FlyinGN on Jul 27, 2006 11:02:05 GMT -5
at one time, yes.. Then in the 50's that all changed.. So was the Crest just a bunch of empty blocks at one point?
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Post by Rob Ascough on Jul 27, 2006 12:33:27 GMT -5
Was it a grid of streets and empty blocks waiting for developers, or were roads built as they were needed? I guess what I'm asking is, was the Crest planned or did it evolve as more and more land was purchased?
I'm having a hard time trying to picture the Tangiers with absolutely nothing around it!
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Post by hulk007 on Jul 27, 2006 18:06:17 GMT -5
The pyramid and the Blue Marlin and others go back to the late 50's early 60's. They must have stood alone with nothing around them since they are further down the crest.
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Post by fuzzyscorpio on Jul 27, 2006 22:46:01 GMT -5
According to family lore, the Atlantis Lodge (at St Paul Ave, pretty far down--now the Atlantis condo as noted in my sig) was the first motel on the beach in the Crest, and our first stay there was during the inaugural summer of its operation. I was about two years old, so probably 1954. My mother recalled that there was "nothing around it for miles." This photo of yours truly on the Crest beach is from around that time, maybe '56, and may give you an inkling. Looking inland you can see some power lines there, I guess, but not much else. Dad or I may have a vintage photo around somewhere with the Atlantis Lodge behind us, all by its lonesome. I'll post it if I come across it. As writhinganacondo's earlier comments indicate, it wasn't until the 60s that the beach really started to get populated with motels. I do seem to remember a grid, though, going pretty far back.
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Post by writhinganacondo on Jul 27, 2006 23:12:21 GMT -5
That looks like one of those WW II watch towers in the background. I'm trying to remember if there was one up in the Crest. The one in N. Wildwood (which became a residence) was torn down recently. There was a lot of static about developers building in the Crest in the late 50's, just as controversial as the current round of development. Also south of Rambler Road is much newer in the residential areas because once they filled in the inlet that was there (1930's?) plenty of building went on in the post-war prosperity. Recently the Boyer Museum acquired some amazing photos of the Diamond Beach Resort just after it was built in the 1950's.....very large and modern, quite impressive...(.I had always thought this was built in the 60's.) We never ventured to that area, it was too remote!
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Post by fuzzyscorpio on Jul 27, 2006 23:51:40 GMT -5
That looks like one of those WW II watch towers in the background. I'm trying to remember if there was one up in the Crest. It might be... I have a lot of sleeping bits and pieces buried in my memory from those years, and your mentioning a WWII watchtower seems to be nudging one of them awake... creepy Cold War era memories? But maybe I'm only remembering the Coast Guard presence on the beach down in Lower Township, which always used to sort of awe me. Not that I ever saw them doing anything, it was just the signs and the fences and all that official-ness. You were allowed to walk that part of the beach but you felt like you had to be on extra-good behavior Also very exclusive as I recall, and you weren't supposed to sit on their slice of the beach if you weren't a guest there, right?
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Post by hulk007 on Jul 28, 2006 0:02:22 GMT -5
Its still kind of like that now in diamond beach.
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