3 Photos
The Montauk Beach House, formerly known as the Ronjo Resort Motel.
The Montauk Beach House, formerly known as the Ronjo Resort Motel.
The Montauk Beach House, formerly known as the Ronjo Resort Motel.
AIA Peconic, the East End chapter of the American Institute of Architects, will host an architectural walking tour of Montauk on Saturday, September 30, at 10 a.m., focused on the hamlet’s motels.
“The oceanfront was mostly undeveloped after World War II with just a few lodging options in the area,” AIA Peconic notes. “By 1960, there were more than 70, and the oceanfront was a seemingly nonstop string of resort options.”
The tour will explore the many architectural styles among the motels and will foster discussion of the development of the historic rural resort community, according to AIA Peconic.
The walk begins at the heart of the traffic circle at Alimentari, the original spot of the pancake breakfast house, and offer the tour’s first view of the pre-World War II mock-Tudor Montauk Tower. The tour will proceed to the Montauk Beach House, formerly known as the Ronjo Resort Motel, with its tiki motif and sculptures. The next stop is South Elmwood Avenue, where both The Bird on the Roof and Daunt’s Albatross Motel are found.
At the west end entrance to town, the tour will pass the Pizza Village, opened in 1957, and the “Smiley Face Motel” with its winking smiley face and repetitive butterfly roof. Returning to the center of town, the tour will see the Memory Motel, which gave its name to a Rolling Stones song, and will conclude at the Tower, built by Carl Fisher in 1927 as an office building and repurposed as residences in 1986.
Andrew Caracciolo curates the tour, which will be followed by a luncheon mixer hosted by Bulthaup.
Visit aiapeconic.org/meetinginfo.php for registration information.
Staff Writer on Sep 11, 2023