3. Oriental Hotel, Manhattan Beach
Ever wonder about the more exotic street names in Southern Brooklyn? Oriental Boulevard on Manhattan Beach is one of this handful of colorfully named (perhaps culturally insensitive from today’s perspective) streets slipped into otherwise peaceful residential areas. Walking down Oriental today lends itself to strikingly ordinary views of private residences and bits of high school property, but its name reveals what the neighborhood used to be: a hub for luxe beach resorts.
Imagine a strand of resort hotels nestled in white-sand beaches. Posh, scented with orange blossoms, perhaps the sort of place Dick and Nicole Diver would vacation. Now imagine it in Brooklyn. Such a place existed just over a century ago, and the Oriental Hotel in Manhattan Beach was the crown jewel of southern Brooklyn resorts. Manhattan Beach itself was conjured up by Long Island Railroad President Austin Corbin, who coined the name in hopes to lure Manhattanites to his new resort destination. His role within the LIRR ensured that a new train line was built to Manhattan Beach.
The Oriental Hotel was not the only grand hotel in the area. The first to be built was the Manhattan Beach Hotel, officially opened by President Ulysses S. Grant himself on July 4th, 1877. It was a popular destination for the elite of New York City, and many posh private clubs would operate out of the hotel during the summer. At the Oriental Hotel, the wealthiest of New York’s residents would book extended stays for the summer.
The Brighton Beach hotel, built in 1878 (literally picked up and moved 175 yards inland by six locomotives in 1888 to counter erosion), could accommodate up to 5,000 guests but never had the success of the others – it was deemed too close to the mass entertainment at Coney Island. Gradually, the properties along the Manhattan Beach and Brighton Beach coast would be sold off for residential development.