When you hear of Sea Isle City, the last thing that would probably pop into your head is history. Known for its beaches and as a lively tourist summer destination, the small town of Sea Isle City is in fact home to a beautiful piece of Victorian-style building – The Colonnade Inn.
The Colonnade Inn, built in 1883, was built a summer hotel back in the day when the city was even more popular as a summer destination than it is now. During that time, summer hotels cropped up around the place to accommodate the crush of tourists that came during the summer months and disappeared the rest of the year. Nowadays, while tourists are still plentiful in Sea Isle City during summer, the summer hotels are gone with only one of the old historic hotels left standing.
The summer hotels were not the only pieces of history that have slowly been erased from Sea Isle City’s map. In fact, just recently, backers of a really old lighthouse lost the battle to developers, resulting in the historic lighthouse being torn down.
The Colonnade Inn is one of the last pieces of history that is still standing in Sea Isle City, and perhaps the only one that is worthy of being called historical due to the restoration process it went through in 2004. Perhaps the fact that it is a hotel, making it profitable, that has allowed it to survive the ravages of time. Or perhaps it is the love of formers owners, the Dorsem family, who clung on to it for a really long time. Whatever it is, it’s a good thing that a small piece of history still has its place in Sea Isle City.
