Backstory: The History of the Montauk Manor

The Montauk Manor, high on Fort Hill overlooking the downtown of Montauk, was built in 1927 as the first of what were intended to be four hotels scattered around Montauk. Carl Fisher, the developer of Miami Beach, could do that because he’d bought the entire peninsula of Montauk two years earlier, intending to create here a summer resort to partner with the winter resort he’d successfully created in Florida.

The Manor as a viable hotel, however, only thrived for two years under his watch because Fisher went under in the Crash of ’29.

The Manor had 178 rooms on four floors when built. As it was built in the English Tudor style, it had an enormous lobby filled with medieval accessories that might have come from a castle – massive fireplace, suits of armor, giant colorful tapestries, spears and shields on the walls. And of course, a bank of elevators and a reception desk. Also four dining rooms. Off one side was the largest of the chandeliered dining rooms, off the other was a “writing room,” same size as the dining room.

Although the hotel went bankrupt under Fisher, it soon revived enough to reopen and continue on with modest success, but only in the summertime. There was no swimming pool, but even as late as 1960 there were busses that could take you to the Surf Club and boardwalk three miles away.An Olympic size swimming pool awaited you there. And of course the beach.

My dad moved our family from a New Jersey suburb to Montauk in 1956 when I was 16 years old. He’d bought one of the 10 English Tudor houses that Carl Fisher built on Fairview Avenue, about five miles from the Manor.

One day in the late 1950s, our English setter, who ran free all day as other dogs did back then did not come home for dinner. By the next morning, we were frantic, but soon found he had danced the night away on the Montauk Manor back patio where hotel guests enjoyed the music of a six piece band. He’d been handed off from one guest to another, then slept in the lobby. The manager called us around 11 the next morning.Come get your dog.

My dad, who had bought the Montauk drug store, did business with the Manor. We ran a little gift shop in the lobby. Newspapers, soda, candy, toiletries, magazines, roadmaps, cigars and cigarettes.

In 1967, however, the Manor shut down. The losses were too much to bear. Abandoned, it became derelict. And an eyesore.

In 1984, the building, promoted by the Montauk citizenry, was added to the list of historic places and the following year, some developers headed up by Frank Mascioli, bought the property for a reported $2 million and spent another $2 million to rebuild it as a condominium. The small rooms were re-done larger to become 140 apartments. And although the lobby was restored intact (along with the elevators), the writing room and dining room were turned into units that could be shown to prospective buyers. As these baronial rooms had 22-foot ceilings, units had upstairs sleeping balconies above the main studios.

Selling units in the Manor was slow going. But by adding a kitchen and dining room, a health club and lap indoor pool, an outdoor pool and most recently a restaurant, (the highly regarded ‘Monte’s at the Manor’). It sold out almost all its units and then sort of backed into becoming, once again, a hotel. The owners of the units could rent them out, becoming a place to stay with wonderful amenities, which include now in addition to the above a conference center, bar, three tennis courts, hot tub, picnic area, volleyball and basketball courts and a business center. Now, in the off-season, the units, all individually decorated since each is privately owned, rent for about $300 a night.