One of the last traditional Dune Road bathhouses in Westhampton Beach has been sold, and will soon be demolished for a new oceanfront home. A moment of silence. The early 1900s bathhouses, many of which didn't survive the hurricane of 1938, have been passed down and patched up for generations on the oceanfront land, most sticking around until families were no longer able to keep up the uninhabitable homes used chiefly for freshening up after the beach. Such is the case at 85 Dune Road, where the five local families that have rinsed off in the cabana for the last 65 years were forced to give it up after skyrocketing property taxes.
The 800-square foot bathhouse and its adjacent lot were sold for an undisclosed amount on Tuesday, after the families decided that the cost of maintaining a property which is used 'two months a year' was too much. The land has been in the same family since 1892, when their ancestors cultivated seaweed for a local farm, and most were too upset to talk to the Press about it. Though historians can't say if this is truly the final bathhouse standing (renovations and rebuilding make it hard to tell), it is certainly among the last, as rising property values made demolition very popular over the past few decades. R.I.P. Bathhouses of Dune Road.
· Family Says Goodbye to Westhampton Beach Cabana [SH Press]