The Changing Fortunes of Port Soderick Bay and Hotel

Is that the roar of motorbike engines I can hear? Is that Bushy's beer tent I can see from my window and are those leather clad men I can see wondering around Strand Street?

It seems so, which can only mean that TT is upon us again and so all my blog posts for the next fortnight will be Manx related.

Port Soderick got a brief mention in a previous post but it deserves a post of its own.

The Isle of Man is known for its glens and among them is Port Soderick. Its Wikipedia entry makes for rather grim reading, describing closed and abandoned buildings, filled in padding pools and unsafe walkways. Strangely, or perhaps not, it's one of my favourite places to visit on the Isle of Man.

In visiting the glen I'm following on from many a tourist from previous generations.  The site was first developed as a tourist attraction by the Forrester brother and advertised as "the only free glen on the island". Holiday makers in the late Victorian era flocked in their droves to the Port Soderick Hotel where they enjoyed the private beach, camera obscura and the funicular. The railway, built in 1898, which still runs today, was once the busiest in the island such was the popularity of the place.

The card below dates to the Edwardian era and shows the funicular, which was destroyed in 1914, as well as the hotel and holiday makers.

This is actually my favourite card in all my collections.

Here it can be seen from a different angle but from the same era.

Although the hotel closed in the 1950s, tourists still came to the hamlet and enjoyed the bay as the card from the early 1960s shows below.

    The hotel was sold to private hands in 1984 but did go through something of a renaissance in the 1990s when celebrity chef Kevin Woodford  had the Anchor Hotel there. This was closed in 2002 and the building has been derelict ever since.

However, in March this year we received news that Heritage Great Britain is interested in buying the site and bringing it back to life. This is great news if it happens, though part of me will miss the quiet secluded Port Soderick I like to visit.

Grossinger's - The Dirty Dancing Hotel.

Grossingers Resort Hotel was a  family run affair in the  Catskill Mountains, a popular tourist spot for urban Jewish families and the starting point for many Borscht Belt style comedians.
It is said to have been the inspiration behind the hotel in Dirty Dancing, a film which premiered the year after Grossinger's closed.

It was founded in 1919 by married couple Asher and Malke Grossinger but really hit its stride in the 1950s and 60s when Jennie, their daughter, acted as hostess. The emphasis was on glamour but with a personal touch and it soon gained the nickname "The Waldorf of The Catskills"

The outside of the building as shown on the postcard below (sent in 1967 by someone attending a banquet for School Business Officials) is fairly uninspiring looking.

However, the site itself was very impressive with  35 buildings in 1200 acres of land which included its own airstrip and post office complete with its own zip code.

The card (written in 1965 to someone's mum, someone with handwriting so terrible that's all I can make out) below gives some impression of the size.

The rooms such as the Terrace Lounge and The Pink Elephant Bar were bright and colourful. The former was modernised by Morris Lapidus a name synonymous with 50s and 60s hotel architecture.

There were a variety of activities the guests could enjoy, they didn't even have to wait for winter to go skiing as the hotel became the first place to use artificial snow in 1952.

There was also an ice rink and indoor and outdoor swimming pools.

  

Jennie died in 1972 but the hotel did still attract guests until cheaper foreign air travel in the late 70s and early 80s and changing tastes meant that resort hotels fell out of favour.

It was closed in 1986 and thirty years later the buildings remain decaying and abandoned. That is all except the golf course which is still active and possibly one of the eeriest golf courses around.

More information including photos of before and after can be found here

http://joe4speed.com/grossingers.htm

The Short and Tragic History of New Brighton Tower

I have to admit that when I was looking through my old cards recently, this one barely registered until I realised that New Brighton doesn't have a tower anymore.
I investigated and found an interesting and  rather tragic history.

It's not easy to tell from the postcard but when construction was completed in 1900 the tower, at 567, was the tallest building in Britain. It is said that from the top of the tower you could see the Isle of Man, The Lake District and the Welsh Monuntains.
The grounds of the tower were 20 acres and contained a boating lake, complete with gondolars ;  funfair and gardens. The tower itself contained a menagerie which included bears, leopards and the now extinct Barbary lion. (what I wouldn't do for a postcard of those.)
The contruction itself was beset with problems. 6 workers were killed in accidents and a fireman also met his death extingingusihing a fire which broke out during construction.
Sadly, the tower only enjoyed 14 years as a tourist destination as with the outbreak of WW1 it was closed for national security reasons and fell into disrepair. The dismantling started in 1919 and was completed in 1921 . The brick portion at the bottom which contained a theatre and ballroom remained until 1969 when another fire destroyed all but the shell. The site was eventually cleared and now contains a housing estate and football pitch. Plans to build a new tower in New Brighton have been rejected, perhaps knowing the history of the old one this is for the best.
The postcard itself is undated but is similar to others I have seen dated  1912. It was published by Valentines and is a devided back postcard.

Edits

This postcard isn't mine but it does show the size of the place rather well.

Also, I received a message on Facebook asking why I didn't mention the connection with Beatles. I agree that this was an oversight. The Beatles played at the Tower Ballroom a total of 27 times, second only to the Cavern club for UK venues. A Blue Plaque was erected in 2011 to honour this.

The Rise and Fall of the Lee Plaza Hotel, Detroit

I would to take a look at something which may have a happy ending.

The Lee Plaza Hotel in Detroit was once the cities biggest apartment hotel. The 15 storey building was constructed in 1929 in the Art Deco style.

Although it was originally conceived as hotel, it spent much of its life as an upscale apartment block with hotel services. The cities rich and powerful who resided in the building could choose one of 220 rooms which ranged from 1 bedroom to 4 bedrooms. They could also take advantage of a concierge, Servidor, 24 hour valet parking, beauty parlour, games room, library and a supervised children's play room.

While some people probably did stay there long-term, and who can blame them, many more used the place as a temporary residence such as the sender of our postcard who stayed there in 1941 while her place was being decorated.

Sadly the good times were not to last. The hotel changed ownership several times, was declared bankrupt at least once and guests dwindled as residential hotels fell out of favour.

In 1969 it, along with other famous buildings in Detroit, became a senior citizens' complex. However its troubles were not over and when an elderly resident was murdered there in 1987 more residents began to leave and the place was finally closed in 1997.

This century the building has been seen by many as a symbol of Detroit's decline from prosperity to poverty.

The building may yet prosper again. A Detroit native by the name of Craig Sasser bought the building in 2015 and there are plans to renovate the building and develop the surrounding area.

This is not the first time hotels have been redeveloped from seemingly hopeless cases. The King Edward Hotel in Jackson, Mississippi was empty for 40 years before restoration began in 2007. Closer to home, another Art Deco masterpiece the Midland in Morecambe underwent expensive restoration to be returned to its former glory.

For now though, The Lee Plaza remains an example of an abandoned building and symbol of the turbulent nature of the past 80+ years.

More information about the Lee Plaza and other buildings in Detroit can be found at the excellent historicdetroit.org

Varosha, Cyprus.

We are moving into more controversial territory with today's cards, yet strangely perhaps more familiar territory too.

Varosha is perhaps one of the most famous abandoned towns of the latter 20th century. It is a favourite of many websites profiling abandoned towns, and the BBC, ITV and The Independent have all published articles on this ghost town, which is now out of bounds and beyond repair.

Before I show the cards, I'd like to point out that the Turkish Invasion of Cyprus was no trivial matter. There were roughly 6000 deaths, military and civilian; a further 1400 are still considered missing as of 2015 and tens of thousands of people were displaced.

The reason Varosha seems to have caught the imagine is because prior to the bloodshed which led to it being abandoned it was a popular holiday destination and amongst its many visitors were glamourous Hollywood stars. Elizabeth Taylor was said to have been particularly fond of the Argo Hotel on JFK Avenue.

It is because of its popularity as a resort that postcards of the town in its heyday are not hard to find.

The above is a typical 1970s tourist card, published by the famous John Hinde. It depicts Varosha beach in the bottom right hand corner and the blurb on the  back describes the place as the ideal place for holiday makers and one of the main seaside resorts of Cyprus. It was written and posted in July 1972 and the senders of the card state they are having an excellent holiday.

The second card is a single view of the beach. It is postally unused and not dated but seems to be from about the same era as the previous card.

Both cards are an good example of how events can dramatically change things many of us take for granted. They are a historic records of a different world and demonstrate the essence of this blog perfectly.