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| Bahama Hotel circa 1959 State Archives of Florida |
401 N. Atlantic Blvd. (now Fort Lauderdale Beach Blvd)
Fort Lauderdale
By Jane Feehan
Among the hotels opened in Fort Lauderdale during the 1950s was the Bahama Hotel built in 1956. Guests were welcomed June 1 that year; it was one of several along the beach that proved to be popular among locals and tourists for entertainment and dining.
Kenneth G. Bacheller built and owned the three-story $800,000 project. The hotel’s motif was influenced by the Bahamas and featured 52 guest rooms all facing south. John B. O’Neill was the hotel architect. Its Chart Room sported a nautical theme with captain’s chairs, ship lanterns and charts of the seven seas. The pool, a scalloped design, sat in an outdoor area offering an informal breakfast and lunch bar.
Bacheller, a developer, builder, and banker, also built the nearby West Indies Hotel and Apartments. He may have had other projects in mind when he sold the Bahama Hotel in November 1957, less than two years after it opened. Realtors L.C. Judd and Lloyd E. Dutcher facilitated the sale (for a reported estimate of $1 million) to the newly formed Bahama Hotel, Inc., a group from Cleveland headed by two friends who were West Point graduates.
Ownership changed hands over the years, but its entertainment, including comedian Woody Woodbury, continued to draw for decades. Woodbury—100 years young as of this post and living in the area—first appeared at the Chart Room September 28, 1956. It proved to be a long, a years long, engagement.
His career includes subsequent stints at several Fort Lauderdale hotels and in Las Vegas. Woodbury also appeared on television and in several movies. His comedy albums remain available at https://www.woodywoodbury.net/. He helped elevate the profile of the Bahama Hotel and that of Fort Lauderdale as a tourist destination with sophisticated shows during the late 1950s and throughout the 60s.
The Bahama Hotel remained top of the list of places to stay on Fort Lauderdale’s beach for decades. But the city changed in the late 1980s; it shed its image as a spring break mecca for college students.
By the 1990s and early 2000s, beach front property became a magnet for condo developers and hotel chains. As with today’s market, properties were grabbed up by investors and resold at higher prices over many months. Nevertheless, the Bahama Hotel continued to operate through uncertainty—even opening (perhaps leasing) the popular Deck Restaurant with its acclaimed jazz music in 2002—while potential developers submitted plans and applied for permits … and waited for city decisions.
Good times ended for the Bahama Hotel in 2004. The W Hotel, a Marriott brand, now sits astride the old sites of several properties, including the Bahama, from Fort Lauderdale Beach Boulevard (A1A) toward Birch Road off Riomar Street.
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| W Hotel from Riomar Street |
The Bahama Hotel left fond memories of Woody Woodbury, the Chart Room, Deck Restaurant and something else: a time when Fort Lauderdale beach hotels served as entertainment destinations for local residents. A night on the town usually included a stop at one of the beach hotels for dinner, music or Woody Woodbury comedy.
Sources:
Fort Lauderdale News, Sept. 11, 1954
Fort Lauderdale News, June 17, 1956
Fort Lauderdale News, Sept. 23, 1956
Fort Lauderdale News, Nov. 2, 1957
South Florida Sun-Sentinel, May 5, 2001
South Florida Sun-Sentinel, Feb. 24, 2002
South Florida Sun-Sentinel, Jan. 30, 2005
Tags: Bahama Hotel, Woody Woodbury, Deck Restaurant, Fort Lauderdale in the 1950s, Fort Lauderdale Hotels, Fort Lauderdale Hotel History
