The Historic Cavalier Hotel & Beach Club, Autograph Collection Hotel (Virginia Beach, Virginia) | resort, Neoclassical (architecture), NRHP - National Register of Historic Places

 hotel, resort, Neoclassical (architecture), NRHP - National Register of Historic Places

4200 Atlantic Avenue
Virginia Beach, VA 23451
(757) 425-8555
cavalierresortvb.com/cavalier-hotel/

The Cavalier is the oldest hotel on the beach. It opened April 4, 1927 to a design by Neff & Thompson with George B. Post & Sons as consulting architect. It was sold in 2013 and closed for major reconstruction. The enormous grounds were converted to a housing development, with the hotel building restored with only 85 luxury rooms. It reopened in 2018.

The Cavalier's Hunt Room served as a private men's club for hunters. Guests' hunting dogs could be kept on the hotel grounds, and fish and game caught by guests would be taken to the kitchen to be prepared for dinner. After dinner, the men could join the ladies for a dance in the ballroom, the largest hotel ballroom in Virginia to this day.

The rooms had every amenity available at the time. Each bathtub at The Cavalier had a fourth handle for salt water. In 1927, many people believed that sea water was medically beneficial. Most women loved how their complexion looked and felt after a sea water bath. As for the sinks, each had an ice water spigot on it. Refrigeration as we know it today did not exist. The only way known to refrigerate then was with blocks of ice. On the roof of the hotel, a large wooden tub contained ice blocks and water. Gravity would cause the water to flow to the rooms, and cold water was achieved. The hotel's swimming pool was filled with filtered ocean water until the mid-70s.

The lower lobby of the new hotel was filled with an amazing array of shops. Guests could get their hair cut, shop for dresses, purchase medicine and gifts, and get a scoop of ice cream. A doctor also kept office in the lobby, as well as a commercial photographer. However, the most unique shop in The Cavalier was a stock brokerage office which had a ticker tape directly from the New York Stock Exchange. For the guests who arrived in their Rolls Royces and Essexes, the hotel set aside a dining room off the lobby which was solely for their chauffeurs. The radio station WSEA was also located in the hotel.

The hotel is listed on the National Register of Historic Places for its significance in the areas of architecture, social history and entertainment/recreation (NRHP #14000239).

usmodernist.org/AF/AF-1929-12-1.pdf