Nassau, Bahamas - Sheraton British Colonial Hotel - postcard c.1960s

• Postcard

   

• Picture / Image:  Sheraton British Colonial Hotel, Nassau, Bahamas
• Publisher: Calypso Distributors
• Postally used: no - written not posted
• Stamp:  n/a
• Postmark(s): n/a
• Sent to:  n/a
• Notes / condition: slightly bumped corner

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Text from the free encyclopedia WIKIPEDIA may appear below to give a little background information (internal links may not  work) :

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The British Colonial Hilton Nassau is a luxury five-star or AAA four-diamond colonial hotel in downtown Nassau, Bahamas, located on the only private beach in Nassau, on the site of the Old Fort of Nassau. The hotel, originally opened in 1924, is located in a grand colonial building and has been described as "the Grand Dame of all Nassau hotels",[2] "the most elegant and most expensive hotel in town",[3] and "the most distinctive and pleasant of the island's large hotels".[4]

The site was occupied in the 19th century by the Old Fort of Nassau to protect the western entrance to the Nassau Harbour until it was demolished in 1873.[5] Long before the fort was built, the first settlement was established here in 1666, when Nassau was known as Charles town, which had developed in a haphazard manner lined with brothels and taverns visited by pirates, cheats and vagabonds. The presence of pirates in the town caused attacks by Spaniards when the town people fled to American colonies. The town was rebuilt later with a fort and called Nassau, on the site now occupied by the Hotel. The town was attacked again in 1703 by the allied forces of the French and the Spanish who destroyed the fort. Piracy was decimated when the British Governor Woodes Rogers took over in 1718. Over the next two centuries, the town developed under American influence during the 18th and 19th century witnessing glamour and many buildings of architectural excellence being built with slave labour. It was not until the Greeks came in the 20th century to man the sponging industry that rich started frequenting the island. Prohibition in USA encouraged at that time (1920 to 1933) the GIs and tourist to visit the island for hooch. It was during this period that major hotels started coming up like the British Colonial Hotel and Fort Montagu, which initially operated for three months during the winter season till the Washington Ball was celebrated.[6]

In 1900, the land was purchased by Henry M. Flagler, responsible for the Breakers Hotel in South Florida. He built an enormous wooden hotel on the site, the Colonial Hotel, which opened in 1901.[5] On March 31, 1922 the hotel was gutted by fire.[7] The Bahamian government gave a loan to the Munson Line, which purchased the land and built a brand new seven-story hotel, The New Colonial,[8] on the site within six months. The hotel celebrated its grand opening on January 7, 1924.[1]

In 1932, the hotel was purchased by Sir Harry Oakes.[9] The local legend is that Oakes bought the hotel on a whim, after experiencing bad service there.[7] Oakes renamed the hotel the British Colonial Hotel. He was a powerful man and a friend of the Duke of Windsor.[5][10][11][12] He was later murdered in 1943 under mysterious circumstances (the mystery remains unresolved), which was called the "murder of the century".[13]

The hotel was bought by Florida-based Gill Hotels in 1960[14] and became part of Sheraton Hotels in November 1962[15] as the Sheraton British Colonial, the chain's fourth ever franchise. Sheraton operated the hotel until 1989, when it became part of Best Western Hotels as the British Colonial Beach Resort. The old hotel building was gradually closed up over the course of the 1990s, with rooms eventually operating in only a small portion of the complex. Finally, in 1997 it was purchased by RHK, who renovated it at a cost of over $90 million.[16] They completely gutted and modernized the interiors, but retained its façade of towers, galleries, and molded reliefs. Since the hotel reopened in 1999 it has been managed by Hilton Hotels as the British Colonial Hilton Nassau.

The hotel was sold on October 24, 2014 to the China State Construction Engineering Corporation.[17] The group is now building a $250 million resort complex known as The Pointe adjacent to the British Colonial, located on the hotel's former parking lot.[18]