| One of the fanciest hotels in Atlantic City’s heyday, the Brighton was built in 1873 at Indiana Avenue and the Boardwalk. It was the first hotel in Atlantic City to remain open during the winter, after the 1876 Philadelphia Centennial Exhibition drove customers away from the seashore in the summer. The hotel soon set a standard of year-round service in Atlantic City. The Brighton was famous for its potent “Brighton Punch” concoction, which was created by the hotel’s very first bartender, William DuBois. An adjacent building known as the Brighton Casino fronted the Boardwalk, though it was more of a recreation center than a casino in the modern sense of the word. In the 1920s, a portion of the casino building became an RCA Victor Store and showroom, and later housed the Needle Craft women’s fashions shop. The casino building remains standing today as a restaurant. The Brighton Hotel was one of the last wooden hotels to remain standing in Atlantic City, and at one point was the only hotel with an outdoor swimming pool. It was torn down in 1959 and replaced with the Colony Motel. The memory of the Brighton was briefly incarnated again in the modern Brighton Casino that opened in 1980, but the name was changed to the Sands the next year. |  |
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The Brighton was the premiere hotel for high-class vacationers in the early days of Atlantic City. From the Atlantic City Heritage Collections, H084.Brighton003. |
| An undated postcard from the Brighton advertises its famous drink. From the Atlantic City Heritage Collections, H084.Brighton001. |
For more information, see these resources in the Atlantic City Free Public Library, Atlantic City Heritage Collections: Local History Subject Files – Hotels |