By Sarah Kautz, Preservation Director, Preservation Long Island. Published August 2017.

A beautiful summer day to visit the newly restored Marine Dining Room at the West Bathhouse, now home to The Landing at Jones Beach. Constructed between 1930 and 1931 and clad in multi-hued Barbizon brick and Ohio sandstone, the palatial West Bathhouse conveys a sense of timelessness and fantasy. Image by Preservation Long Island.

We recently joined Governor Andrew Cuomo and several representatives from the State Parks Regional Office at the opening ceremony for the newly restored Marine Dining Room at Jones Beach State Park’s West Bathhouse.

“We disrespected our legacy. Now, we are restoring it,” said Governor Cuomo at Jones Beach State Park’s historic West Bathhouse on August 2nd, “To see it come back to grandeur fills my heart with a sense of pride.” We couldn’t agree more! Image by Preservation Long Island.

Having spent many years advocating for preservation at Jones Beach, Preservation Long Island is excited to see this magnificent landscape and architectural gem rehabilitated as part of the ongoing NY Parks 2020 initiative.

Jones Beach State Park officially opened to the public on August 4, 1929. The West Bathhouse, pictured in the circa 1930s image above, remains one of the park’s most impressive monumental structures and is a critical component of the Robert Moses-designed site plan for Jones Beach. Image courtesy Patchogue-Medford Library.
In the early 1930s, then New York Governor Franklin Delano Roosevelt (middle) dined at Jones Beach with Long Island State Park Commissioner, Robert Moses (left). In many ways, Moses’s vision for building Jones Beach State Park launched his tremendous career in public projects and set a new planning precedent for state park systems across the county. Image by AP Photo via City Lab.
The Marine Dining Room circa 1930s at Jones Beach State Park’s West Bathhouse. Image courtesy New York State Office of Parks, Recreation, and Historic Preservation.

We’re also thrilled that Preservation Long Island’s detailed study of Jones Beach State Park helped inform an historically sensitive approach to the park’s rehabilitation plan.

Preservation Long Island applauds the Governor’s leadership in renewing New York State’s commitment to the stewardship of Jones Beach State Park. We look forward to celebrating the next preservation milestone at one of the world’s most spectacular destinations for public recreation.

A Friendly’s restaurant occupied part of the Marine Dining Room in 2004. By then, several insensitive alterations had diminished the room’s design aesthetic. Most notably, the full six-bay space had been divided in half and a dropped ceiling concealed the room’s distinctive decorative beams and skylight. Image by Preservation Long Island.
Thanks to recent restoration work, you can once again enjoy the fabulous design elements of the historic Marine Dining Room! Image courtesy The Landing at Jones Beach.

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