Vol. 3, No. 11, November 2006
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Skyscraper by the Sea
The Claridge was once the city’s centerpiece
Today’s Atlantic City skyline is dominated by the new: towering skyscrapers, a renovated Pier at Caesars, and the promise of more buildings to come. The Claridge tower, one of the old stalwarts of the skyline, is now considered venerable, but it too was once the symbol of a newer, more modern Atlantic City.
The Claridge was a relatively late arrival to the Boardwalk. Before the high-rise hotel occupied the land at Pacific Avenue and Park Place (once Belmont Ave.) behind today’s Brighton Park, this piece of prime real estate wasn’t empty. In 1872, the wife of Philadelphia sawmill entrepreneur Henry Disston built a lavish summer home for her husband there. Though Disston died only six years later, the land remained in his family until 1926, when the Sealands Corporation bought it for $2 million.
The Sealands Corporation began planning to build a large skyscraper on the site, and decided to name the new hotel after a famous London hostelry, Claridge’s. The Claridge’s roots went back to 1812, but it first achieved fame in the 1860s, when it was one of the city’s poshest resorts. Completely demolished and replaced by a modern hotel in 1898, Claridge’s remained one of Europe’s most exclusive hotels, and is still open.
The Atlantic City Claridge (at some point, the builders opted to drop the apostrophe and “s”) was planned to be just as fancy as its London namesake. Philadelphian Charles H. Roberts, the building’s architect, capped the 24-story structure with an iconic 5-story cupola—the 23rd floor had a large solarium, and the entire structure contained over 400 rooms, with running fresh and salt water baths.
The Hotel Claridge cost $5 million to build and was, at the time, the city’s highest tower. Planning for the hotel started during the Roaring Twenties, when the stock market was booming and the future seemed to be getting constantly brighter. Atlantic City was in the middle of a boom, enjoying record visitation levels and rising convention sales.
Few would have predicted, at the time, that the Claridge marked the end of an era. Despite its high hopes, when the Claridge finally opened, on December 17, 1930, the future looked anything but bright for the United States and Atlantic City. The Great Depression was getting worse, as more Americans were losing their jobs—and their hope—with each passing week. With the Depression, the bottom dropped out of new hotel construction, and no further skyscrapers would be built until the advent of casino gaming, nearly a half-century later.
Despite the Depression, the Claridge did a steady business in the 1930s, hosting visiting dignitaries, millionaires, and convention groups. One highlight included the Boardwalk Persian Cat Club’s annual competition. Throughout the decade, the hotel remained a bright spot amid the gloom.
In World War II, the Claridge was an essential part of “Camp Boardwalk,” the American military’s conversion of resort facilities to wartime use. On July 7, 1942, it became the fifth Atlantic City hotel “drafted” for the duration of the conflict. The hotel was most famous as the birthplace of the United Nations Relief and Rehabilitation Agency—the Claridge hosted the group’s first session in November 1943.
After the war, the Claridge resumed its place as a major hotel, welcoming visitors and hosting numerous convention groups.
But as the city fell on hard times in the 1960s, so did the Claridge. While most of the classic hotels were torn down or converted to apartments, the Claridge hung on. But when the hotel was auctioned off after bankruptcy proceedings in May 1976, just months before the legalization of casino gaming, the court found no takers.
After the property was sold in 1977, hundreds of pieces of hotel property were auctioned off, including the desk that Lyndon Baines Johnson wrote his will on and a bed in which Frank Sinatra once slept.
In 1979, Connecticut entrepreneur Fiore Francis D’Addario announced plans to renovate the Claridge, add additional rooms, and open it as a casino. He hired the Del E. Webb Corporation, then the nation’s biggest casino operator, to manage it. But Del Webb proved to be a liability, as the company had difficulty getting licensed by the stringent Casino Control Commission. The casino struggled from its opening in July 1981, and Del Webb sold its interest in 1983, though it continued to manage the casino.
Over the next 20 years, the Claridge remained competitive, taking advantage of its status as the city’s smallest casino by reminding patrons that “smaller is friendlier.” But smaller wasn’t more profitable, and the casino sank into bankruptcy in 1991 before being bought by Park Place Entertainment in 2001.
Now part of Bally’s Atlantic City, the Claridge still stands tall over the center Boardwalk. With at least one new neighbor coming, the Claridge will remain a link to Atlantic City’s past.
