Postcard: Another One From Manhattan Beach

I know, I know – most of the entries in our Postcard series have depicted Manhattan Beach. Well, what do you want? It was a resort! With all the postcards being from the end of the 19th Century and beginning of the 20th, those hanging out in Sheepshead Bay were too busy gambling at the racetracks and shuckin’ oysters to be sending out postcards to their pampered sisters out in… wherever. Postcard sending then, as now, was a woman’s duty (Ed. – We have no historical evidence to support that fact. Just that this manly writer hates sending postcards.), and, like all women on vacation, they just wanted to sit around the hotel and… uh… stare at walls, or whatever you do at hotels.

Anyway, back to the point. This one came from eBay, and the seller says:

This perhaps is the nicest of all images I have come across that pictures the famous Oriental Hotel which was located at Manhattan Beach just above the Coney Island section … The image is captioned at the lower margin and reads Oriental Hotel , Coney Island , NY. There is also an additional caption in the upper right corner advertising the hotel was painted inside and out with King Paint , a company located in Brooklyn New York City … The reverse side mentions the publisher as being American Views , NY. It has a divided back, is postally used, bearing a 1915 cancel.

I decided to briefly look into King Paint. According to Who’s Who in New York City and State, published in 1917, it was a Williamsburg-based company, located at 449 Kent Avenue. It was owned by Robert M. King, who lived at 941 Ocean Avenue in Ditmas Park, and he also had some ownership stakes in local hardware and other companies. The business was established in 1852.

How’s that for information you’ll never use?