The History of McCann's Atlantic Hotel
as retold by Patrick J. McCann Jr.
"To the best of my recollection, which is not too good..."

History tells it that the main part of the hotel was brought in from Philadelphia after the Philadelphia Centennial Exposition Fair of 1876 (year?). The 15th and 16th Avenue wings were added later.

Patrick J. McCann Sr.

My father (Patrick J. McCann Sr.) came to the US from Ireland in 1912 and met my Mother (Kathleen Gilmore) in NY. They married and had three children, Marian 1928, Yours truly in 1933 and James in 1935. He brought the family back to Ireland in 1937 because the US was still fighting its way out of the Great Depression and things were not good for a poor Irishman with only a 6th grade education. After 6 months in Ireland, he found that things there were worse, so he left the family there and came back to the US to find whatever work he could.

He found work in Macy's Department store shoveling coal into the furnaces, tending bar, fireman, etc. (He eventually became a Court Attendant and Tavern owner in Newark.) He brought us back to the US after a year.

When World War II started in Europe in 1939, his cousin Jim told him about a tavern that might be available in Belmar, and wanting to get his family out of Newark, he made an inquiry. I believe the owner's name of the hotel and tavern might have been Silverstein. A lot of his friends told him not to touch it because it was a losing proposition. But he was desperate to get out of Newark, so he rented the bar which was downstairs from the Atlantic Hotel, and did pretty well.

Pat McCann Sr. at his bar in the basement of McCann's Atlantic Hotel

When the US got into the War in 1941 the bar business boomed because of the influx of soldiers and sailors into Fort Monmouth and Earle Naval Depot. However, the hotel trade didn't do too well because the beach was loaded with oil from tankers being sunk off the coast by German submarines. The good Mr. Silverstein wanted out of the Hotel business at this time , so "the old man" took another flyer and bought the whole complex. I believe that was in 1942, but I'm not certain. My Mom worked the Hotel and my Dad worked the bar. They changed the name to McCann's Atlantic Hotel shortly after they bought the place. As the tide of the war turned in favor of the Allies, the beach got better and the hotel business took off.

McCANN'S ATLANTIC HOTEL Ocean Front and 15th Ave., Belmar, N.J. Telephone: Belmar 611 - 612 When in Belmar visit us by the Ocean front - delicious food, perfectly served. A Grand Place for a Good Rest and a Great Time.

1947 Advertisement from Belmar Log

We kids weren't much help being kind of young, but "the old man" got all the mileage he could out of us by turning us into bellhops and handymen. Around 1947 or 48 he leased the bar out to a war veteran named Vince McCarthy who had won the Purple Heart and other medals in the War. He turned the bar into a "tropical island" and called it the "Aloha". After two or three seasons, my dad found out that his great friend Vince McCarthy wasn't such a great friend after all. He discovered that he had manipulated the electric in the cellar so that the Hotel was getting charged for all the electric and he wasn't paying a dime.

My father refused to renew the lease and took over the bar himself and called it the "Claddagh Inn". I believe the year was either 1956 or '57. When I got out of the service (June '58) I started tending bar in the summer and was offered the coaching job at St. Rose by Msgr. Teston that September. I married Irene Purcell and worked ten summers for my father before I had to tell him I needed more money. I was going to work for Jimmy Byrne because I had heard the tips were phenomenal and the family was growing (Karen '60, Pat III '61, and Rod '62). He had been promising me all along that someday I would take over the whole operation and own the entire place, but it just never materialized, and I couldn't wait any longer. Shortly thereafter he had a stroke and that was for all practical purposes the end of the hotel business. He sold the business to Joe Finn and a group of guys from the Bronx. (year?) They had it for a few summers, then Joe Finn got out of it. Then it burned to the ground in 1972. My dad died in 1975 and my Mom in 1983. End of story!