For a tiny town packed into a 15-square-mile land mass jutting into the ocean, Nahant is brimming with history. Recounting the town’s value as a strategic military location, dating back to the 19th century, has filled books and more can be written about Nahant’s role during wartime.
Its years as a recreation destination are just as interesting with bygone seaside hotels and summer estates sporting names like the Penguin Hotel, formerly the Relay House, and Drumquill Country Club.
Dubbed the “home of fried lobster” in a Daily Evening Item article, the four-story Relay overlooked Bass Point. Dating back to 1862, the Relay hosted band concerts and attracted crowds who arrived on steamboats and horse-drawn barges and, later, trolleys from Lynn and automobiles.
The “ladies string orchestra” was also in residence at the Relay and music lovers enjoyed the concerts before meandering down the midway to try their luck in bowling alleys and shooting galleries.
“More than 500 people could enjoy the exquisite shore dinners at the Relay at a single sitting,” recounted the Item.
The Relay’s history traces back to entrepreneur Nathan Mower, who made money by transporting beach-goers to Nahant for a day of sun, sea and fried fish. Mower bought the land the Relay was built on and converted a barn into a kitchen.
He made fried lobster a signature Relay dish and achieved success with his venture when the Relay became a year-round establishment doing business in Nahant.
Prohibition spelled hard times for the Relay and its business did not fully recover until World War II sent servicemen and women pouring onto Nahant. New owner John Comfort renamed the Relay the Hotel Penguin in 1940.
The iconic building dodged the 1925 fire that started in back of the Relay House burning down 60 homes as it swept over Colby Hill. But a 1955 blaze started by a lit cigarette almost leveled the then-vacant building. The fire sounded the death knell for the historic property and within two years developers were carving it up for other uses.
The Drumquill’s legacy in Nahant is also the story of mid-20th century efforts to expand golfing in Lynnfield. George Page operated four Massachusetts golf courses in the 1950s and owned the Colonial Country Club in Lynnfield. He won Lynnfield residents’ support to build an 18-hole course at Colonial, but ran into rezoning objections raised by town officials.
Not a man easily stymied, Page pitched the idea of reviving golf on the Fort Ruckman site where a nine-hole course previously existed before it was plowed over to make way for the fort during World War II.
The Nahant Golf Club, according to a Daily Evening Item article, leased land for a course in the 1920s from the federal government, only to lose its rights in 1941. Golfer Philip Sisson won the Nahant Club Championship Cup playing on the course in 1940.
The course land ended up as town property by 1951 and federal approval was sought and granted in 1964 to revive golfing.
Within two years, Arthur Johnson, former president of the New England Professional Golfers Association, had replaced Page as the leading proponent for not only building Drumquill but also a motel, marina and children’s day camp.
Named after a scenic Irish town, Drumquill found itself at the center of a contentious town land use debate in 1972 that culminated in a Town Meeting debate over land swaps.
Leave it to great local historians Ken Turino and Chris Mathias to chronicle how late baseball legend Tony Conigliaro and his brother, Billy, bought Drumquill in 1972. Turino’s and Mathias’ book, “Nahant,” recalls the great hotels that once graced Nahant, including the Hotel Tudor, formerly the Hood Cottage; the Whitney House near 40 Steps with its history dating back to Samuel Breed’s ownership in 1738; the Edgehill Inn and the Hotel Brenton, a massive seaside building that opened in 1910 with 55 bedrooms and a dining room with ocean views on three sides and capacity for 500 diners as well as a barbershop and wine room.
Not to be outdone, the Grand View Hotel had just that — a panoramic view of shipping sailing out of Boston Harbor until its demise to fire in 1915. Trimountain House had room for tents to be erected next to it for guests who could not afford the cottages.
It’s easy to think of Nahant as a residential town until you read its rich history as resort destination and outcropping fortified to protect the East Coast from European threats.
