This Resort Hotel Site on Long Island was never fully completed
Montauk Manor, Montauk New York

Montauk Manor is a major resort hotel associated with the extensive development scheme of self-made millionaire Carl G. Fisher, founder of the Montauk Beach Development Corporation.
The large, conspicuously sited local landmark has a distinctive English Tudor Revival style exterior which is representative of popular American architectural taste during the early twentieth century but is quite different from the ubiquitous shingle-covered frame architecture found on eastern Long Island. The former hotel was constructed during the height of Montauk's resort transformation and represents the central component of Carl Fisher's ambitious plan to transform the small, isolated fishing village of Montauk into a major resort community.
During the early twentieth century, Carl Fisher had every intention of transforming the relatively undeveloped, eastern Long Island community of Montauk into a fashionable ocean-side resort. Fisher had successfully developed Miami Beach (Florida) into a thriving vacation spot and had similar plans for Montauk. Before Fisher's Montauk Beach Development Corporation began acquiring large parcels of land in Montauk, the village was a sparsely settled fishing community approximately one hundred miles east of New York City at the end of Long Island. Although the nearby village of East Hampton gradually became a popular summer vacation community for the wealthy during the late nineteenth century, Montauk remained somewhat isolated until Fisher arrived in the 1920's.
Fisher had hoped to develop Montauk into one of the most fashionable resorts on the North Atlantic Ocean and the community underwent a rapid transformation during the mid- to late-1920s. The Montauk Beach Development Corporation constructed an extensive array of resort-related structures and support facilities in an effort to attract tourists and increase development. The list of resort improvements is impressive including extensive roadwork, water reservoirs, polo fields, a golf course, docks, indoor tennis courts, swimming pools, stables, a beach club, boardwalks, and the hotel property. In addition, Lake Montauk was dredged and an inlet opened between it and Block Island Sound creating one of the best protected harbors on the northeast coast. Other related improvements followed including a new yacht club, a new Long Island railroad station, ferry service between Montauk and Connecticut, and the opening of two new nearby state parks.
Carl Fisher chose the Montauk Manor's hilltop site during a visit to Montauk in 1925 and commissioned the architectural firm of Schultze and Weaver to design the hotel. It was the largest and most expensive building in Montauk when it was completed in 1926. It remains today as the most conspicuous architectural landmark on the South Fork.
Standard sources offer little information about Schultze and Weaver except that they were responsible for designing the following structures in New York City: the General Electric Building (1931), Hotel Pierre (1928), and the Waldorf-Astoria Hotel (1931). Schultze and Weaver's design for Montauk Manor is a somewhat "free" interpretation of English Tudor Revival style. The exterior, which incorporates numerous Tudor characteristics such as brick, stucco, half-timbering, cross gables, and small-pane sash, is more elaborate than the interior, which contains two hundred standard-finish hotel rooms and many large, formal common spaces on the main floor. The use of English Tudor Revival stylistic elements for the hotel reflect an important aspect of popular American architectural tastes during the 1920s, especially in nearby suburban, western Long Island where Tudor-style estates, clubhouses, and public buildings were fashionable.
Carl Fisher was born in Indianapolis and had worked as a shoeshine boy, a newspaper correspondent, and a bicycle repairman. He also repaired and raced automobiles and set a world speed record in 1904. In the same year, Fisher began manufacturing auto headlamps and within a few years made his fortune. He then invested in and built the highly successful Indianapolis Speedway and made more money. Fisher retired briefly and then became involved in developing Miami Beach and Montauk into resorts. Unfortunately for Carl Fisher, just as his Montauk resort complex was gaining popularity, the 1929 stock market crash hit. The Depression ruined him because he had invested heavily in developing a resort at Montauk which did not have a chance to produce substantial income. Receivers took over and Fisher moved to Florida. Virtually all of Fisher's resort construction except the manor soon went to ruin.
The Montauk Manor Hotel was the centerpiece of Fisher's Montauk Beach development and is the local historic resource most importantly associated with Montauk's halcyon early twentieth-century resort transformation.
Building Description
Montauk Manor is located on an undeveloped hill overlooking Fort Pond (to the west), the Atlantic Ocean (to the north), and Montauk's small central business district (to the southwest). The unincorporated village of Montauk is a thriving summer resort community at the eastern end of Long Island. It is situated at the end of the island's south fork and also has a prosperous year-round fishing industry.
Since the surrounding area is relatively flat, the former Montauk Manor Hotel's hilltop location commands sweeping unobstructed views in three directions including Fort Pond (below west), Block Island Sound (north), and the Atlantic Ocean (south). A long driveway climbs the hill (beginning at the Montauk Railroad Station) and approaches the building from behind, then runs along its south side and ends in a paved court at the west side main entrance.
The brick and stucco former hotel building stands alone on its level site surrounded by a variety of thick, overgrown scrub plantings. The three-and-one-half-story structure has a steel frame, and a symmetrical H-shape plan with intersecting gable roofs, and is sited on the western end of the hilltop to take advantage of the panoramic view.
The building's exterior is primarily stucco with extensive brick quoining, random brick gable end walls with sawtooth pattern borders, and half-timbered gable ends (some with projecting bays). A large tower with stucco walls, brick quoins, and copper-sheathed bellcast roof projects from the building's south side and breaks the manor's overall symmetry.
Large multi-paned, round-arch windows punctuate the main first floor and create a continuous arcade around the building. The upper floors have numerous rectangular, multi-paned windows. Numerous dormers also punctuate the roof at each elevation. Dormer shape and size vary including plain stucco with gable roofs; wood and stucco with hip roofs; and large, half-timbered double gable ends,
Brick chimneys, some with twin gauged brick stacks, pierce the roof at several locations. A gauged brick round arch frames the main (west) entrance which has a chamfered lintel and massive, wood-paneled double doors. Secondary entrances occur at rear and side elevations.
Montauk Manor is a 200-room hotel whose main floor contains a variety of public rooms and associated service areas. The second and third floors contain the hotel rooms and the attic is generally unfinished. The main floor is relatively unchanged and retains several original common rooms at the front of the building. The main entrance leads into a large lobby. Rectangular in plan, the lobby is an arcaded room with columns supporting blind and open arches, white stucco walls, an elaborate wood ceiling with exposed trusses, flagstone floor, a stucco fireplace with a Tudor arch, and an alcove with iron grills enclosing a secondary staircase. North of the lobby is another original common room or parlor. This north parlor has square columns (forming a colonnade) with chamfered corners and simple capitals, stucco walls, and a fireplace with Tudor arch. South of the long lobby is the large, original dining room, which runs along the building's south side. Unfortunately, extensive water damage has destroyed much of the dining room's plaster finishes including walls, ceiling, and ornamentation. The remaining main floor common and services areas have received some alterations. The building's upper floors contain hotel rooms arranged along H-shape hallways. Most of the hotel rooms are undecorated and have simple wood moldings.
Sections of some floors have experienced modern alteration during an unsuccessful condominium conversion. In addition, several modern balconies have been added to the building's exterior; at the north side of the northeast wing and to the southeast wing.
A large swimming pool is situated on a low terrace behind (east) the hotel. A flagstone terrace also runs along the building's north side main floor. The hotel is situated on a twelve acre parcel which is much less than Carl Fisher's original holding. The hotel and its original swimming pool are still surrounded by open, undeveloped land. There is evidence of some formal landscape planting (now completely overgrown) around both hotel and pool.

Main West Facade (1980)

Main West Facade (1980)

North Elevation (1980)

North Wing Detail (1980)

Rear East Elevation (1980)

Main West Entrance (1980)

Lobby Arcade (1980)

Lobby Fireplace (1980)

Lobby Staircase (1980)
