They Dig History

Amateur archeologists were seen last week with shovels, trowels and sifting screens on the Foundation Block.

There, just south of East Broadway at Riverside Boulevard, ten members of the Long Beach Island Landmarks Association dug and searched for remnants of the Long Beach Hotel, which burned to the ground in July 1907.

The team excavated and discovered the burned remains of the hotel and soon picked out artifacts that included tiles, bottles, nails, bricks and pipes from that bygone era.  

“The discoveries serve as a reminder of our recent past,” said Doug Sheer, who took part in the dig.  

Long before there was a City of Long Beach with streets filled with beach-goers headed to its shores, there was the Long Beach Hotel that was built in 1880s. The structure, billed as the largest seaside hotel, drew the rich and famous to the barrier island.  

“The Long Beach Hotel was built on the sands of Long Beach and was over 1,100 feet long and contained 700 rooms,” Sheer said. “... It offered amenities to rival the best of hotels anywhere.”

The pictorial history book, features several photos of the long lost hotel. As a caption to one of its images reads: “Free from the crowds of transient visitors found at other seaside resorts such as Coney Island, the Long Beach Hotel stood as a charming retreat for tired and heated New Yorkers. They could enjoy the cool breeze and refreshing surf while participating in leisurely activities.”

Although the hotel stood for just 27 years, for some people it's remains have not been forgotten.

“As we walk the beaches and streets of Long Beach today,” Sheer said, “it is easy to forget those who walked our island home over a century ago and enjoyed the same lure of the sea and salt air.”

* Doug Sheer contributed to this article.