An Island landmark is the St. Rita Hotel on Engleside Avenue, in Beach Haven. Today St. Rita is the oldest operating hotel on Long Beach Island.
When her ailing husband got too sick to work, Elizabeth Deitz added a few rooms to her private home which was constructed in 1840, turned it into a hotel and named it the St. Rita after her patron saint in 1870.
She prayed to St. Rita to guide her into making a living for herself and her family.
It was over a hundred years ago that "Ma Deitz" started the Hotel, which she rented only to clergy. The hotel is a resting place for travelers and a landmark that many tourists return to year after year.
The lounge is filled with antique furniture, and its walls are dotted with old photographs of the hotel; the March 1962 storm; and some scenes that few people around today can remember.
The Hotel has had three owners over the years. The third and present owner remodeled according to the changing whims. Some rooms have private baths; the others have a common bath in the hall, all have running water. We preserved a lot of the old and combined some of the new.
The Hotel is on the National Registry of Historic Places, so you cannot change it completely.
At the turn of the century, the front of the Hotel served as Beach Haven's first post office.
The Hotel's Engleside Avenue location, the highest spot on the island, has protected it from any storm damage. The oak building also has the only concrete foundation dated prior to World War II.
This structure, among many historic homes on the Island, have touched the lives of those who have spent time under their roofs during the past century or so. They have become special to guests as well as owners who sense (or know) what stories the walls could tell.
