West Spit History

Hotel Manitou
Turn of the 20th Century

The storied and memorable past of Hilton NY's "Manitou Beach" included a trolley across the mouth of Braddock Bay across the west spit and past the Hotel Manitou. 

An amusement park, a baseball field for the "Hilton Peaches," the Elmheart Hotel, Odenbach's Dance Hall, rum runners and and lines of carriages along Manitou Beach Rd. . . . . it had to have been a wonderful time.  

The map of old Manitou Beach shows the west spit and environs in 1924. The original piers are still there as well as some old breakwaters.

The Manitou Beach point is "Braddock Point" but the Lighthouse Service placed the "Braddock Point Lighthouse" three miles to the west on "Bogus Point."  

The Manitou Trolley and its piers, many of which are still embedded in the causeway across the mouth of Braddock Bay, must have been an incredible journey in 1890 from Rochester to the wilds of the lake. 

Boaters have long encountered the old pilings submerged across the mouth of Braddock Bay and embedded in the rubble used to anchor them.

The open mouth of the Bay from time immemorial - or at least the past 10,000 years - will be damaged by the Town of Greece/Army Corps project to place breakwalls across the baymouth and dredge a channel for boaters.