The Lido Club Hotel officially opened in June 1928 as a swanky oceanfront resort adjacent to the world-class Lido Golf Course at Lido Beach, Long Island.
Built by Senator William H. Reynolds, who previously bought and developed the nearby City of Long Beach, the Lido Club Hotel featured a striking architectural design with twin cupolas and became a playground for socialites, industrialists, and politicians. In 1942, the US Navy requisitioned the hotel as a naval training and separation center. After the war, the Lido Club Hotel was leased to the newly formed United Nations and housed over 500 of its personnel.
The hotel returned to civilian hands in 1947 and was once again a fashionable seaside resort with a wealthy clientele. Over the next 30 years, many well-known entertainers such as Sammy Davis Jr. and Barbra Streisand performed in Lido’s Starlight Room. In 1980, the Lido Club Hotel was sold to developers and converted into a luxury oceanfront condominium, Lido Beach Towers, that remains a local landmark with a fascinating past.
The Nassau County Historical Society will host a virtual program on the history of the Lido Club Hotel set for Sunday, April 11th. The speaker, Joanne Belli, is the archivist for the Long Beach Historical Society and author of The Lido Club Hotel, a photo-history published by Arcadia in 2020, in its Images of America series.
The program will begin at 2 pm and is free and open to the public. Registration is required and can be completed online.
Illustration of the Lido Club Hotel provided.
[…] As he mentions in his message home, the building in the background used to be a hotel called the Lido Club Hotel that opened in June 1928. In 1942, the Navy requisitioned the hotel to use as training and […]