The old photographs published on this page during the past three weeks have depicted scenes from Isle of Wight’s popular Morgart’s Beach Hotel, a summer resort that flourished during the early decades of the 20th century.

The hotel was built in 1902 by John Addison Morgart, a Pennsylvania native who had moved to Isle of Wight as an investor and manager of the Day’s Point Land Co. The company had purchased a large portion of Day’s Point from the Bergen family, who had also moved here from the North, in their case New Jersey in 1872.

Morgart and his wife, Olive, constructed the two-story hotel and an adjacent combination dining and dance hall. They built a bathhouse located on the beach, connected by steps from the top of the bluff where the hotel was located. To entertain summer guests, they built a slide that would deliver the more daring from the top of the bluff into the James River below (presumably at high tide). 

According to historian Helen King, who wrote extensively about the development of Day’s Point, including the hotel, Mrs. Morgart was responsible for the dining facility and became well known for the quality of food she offered, including Smithfield Ham, fried chicken and homemade ice cream. Shad and shad roe, considered delicacies throughout much of Virginia’s history, were offered during the spring shad run up the river.

The hotel became popular during the early days of automotive travel, when the poor quality of roads limited the distance people were able or willing to travel. A trip from Richmond to Isle of Wight was quite manageable even before Route 10 was paved. 

Morgart had an artesian well dug that flowed on the beachfront for many years. Quite the entrepreneur, Morgart bottled the water and sold it widely as having medicinal qualities that were beneficial for constipation, gout and diabetes, among others.

Visitors to the resort simply enjoyed cold showers under the well head after swimming in the often-muddy James River.

Morgart died of an apparent heart attack in July 1918 while swimming ashore from a boat he had anchored offshore during a summer storm. Soon after his death, his name became attached to the community around the hotel and “Morgart’s Beach” has been its designation ever since.

While the hotel Morgart built was popular, it apparently was never profitable, because it went through successive owners during its operation, which lasted about four decades.

Having such a facility in the community was a decided plus, despite the hotel’s shaky financial history, and prominent Smithfield businessmen stepped in to see that it continued. In 1919, the Morgart’s Beach Hotel Inc. was chartered by a group of businessmen whose names read like a Who’s Who of that era.

George F. Whitley Sr. was president of the board that included James R. Rowell, Dr. Rea Parker, C.S. Betts, Andrew Cofer, R.A. “Gus” Edwards, E.L. Bloxom and George Dallas Chapman Jr.

Profitable or not, the hotel was a rousing success as a community asset for years, especially in providing activity for young people. 

Community-sponsored dances became popular activities. The Woman’s Club of Smithfield sponsored regularly scheduled dances, and in a Smithfield Times report on one of the activities in July 1933, every attendee was named. 

The Smithfield Times had reported in April 1929 that the dance held at the hotel to open that year’s season had attracted the largest crowd ever.

Social activities were scheduled there, including a bridge luncheon given to honor Miss Anna Delk prior to her marriage to A.E.S. Stephens, who would in time become lieutenant governor of Virginia.

In the late 1930s, the Smithfield Ruritan Club sponsored a summer camp for area children at the hotel.

In the end, however, the hotel wasn’t financially supportable, and Chapman went looking for a buyer. That search ended with the Future Farmers and Future Homemakers of America Association. The association had been looking for a suitable location to conduct a summer camp for farm children from throughout Virginia. The FFA and FHA bought the old hotel and gave it a new lease on life, known for the next half-century as the FFA Camp.

The FFA-FHA camp operated into the 21st century, while the site was also used by local organizations for a variety of activities. It became the location for a decades-long Pork-A-Rama, a barbecue sponsored by the Smithfield Jaycees as their primary annual fundraiser. It also became home to a fall event known as Smithfield Days, sponsored by the local Chamber of Commerce. That event at one time attracted state and national political candidates.

Not all activities were designed to raise money, however. 

Fred Walls, who lives near the FFA Camp site, organized a day camp for area children in 1988. It operated first under the auspices of Walls’ church, Carrollton Baptist, and was later adopted by the Blackwater Baptist Association. The camp operated for two decades, providing a camp-life setting for area children who didn’t have the resources to attend a residential camp.

The FFA and Family Career and Community Leaders of America (formerly FHA) sold the old hotel/camp site in 2008, ending a century of various public activities on a bluff overlooking the James. 

 

John Edwards is publisher emeritus of The Smithfield Times. His email address is j.branchedwards@gmail.com.