Swampy's Florida

Here’s the Riverview Hotel in New Smyrna Beach. To the right, where the white signs hang, is the original part of the hotel built in 1885 by Captain S.H. Barber. The building he originally built got raised in 1910 and became the second and third floors so that a lobby and restaurant could be built. At the same time he changed the name from ‘The Barber Hotel’ to the ‘Riverview Hotel’.

The rest of the building you see on the right side, as seen also below, was built in 1936 by Fred Tyron. Steam heat & individual bathrooms were also added. The Coast Guard took over the hotel in WW II, as mostly happened to hotels across the country. After Tyron died, his daughters took over in 1954. As time went on the hotel fell in disrepair. It was extensively renovated throughout the early ’80s by a new owner, John Sprang, who had owned the esteemed Park Plaza Gardens in Winter Park. The current owners, the Kelseys, have had the hotel since 1990.

A barber chair by the porch at the hotel.