SANDY HOOK -- Tucked in the concrete and steel confines of the winding bridge over the reach to Sandy Hook Bay, a 122-year-old house stands abandoned, the last physical structure of a largely forgotten summer resort that once thrived on Sandy Hook.
The house, first situated on a tract by the ocean where an early type of roller coaster once stood, was the heart of that community as the building where the proprietor ran the business while three generations lived under its roof.
But now, as it becomes another victim of Hurricane Sandy, the white shingled house that survived so many storms over its existence is slated for demolition, and family members and other supporters want it saved as a testament to an era they say will likely never be replicated at the Jersey Shore or elsewhere.
"I'd like to see it go on surviving and be something wonderful for our community," said Susan Sandlass Gardiner, granddaughter of the resort's owner, William Sandlass. "It's still a piece of the resort. It's all we've got left."
The Sandlass house (right) as it looked soon after being built on Sandy Hook in 1893. The National Park Service, which now owns it, wants to tear it down, but family members and some residents want it preserved. (Photo courtesy of Susan Sandlass Gardiner)
Known as Highlands Beach Resort, the business operated more like a community for nearly 75 years, catering to residents of New York and North Jersey seeking refuge from the stifling city heat in summer.
While Gardiner was mounting a personal crusade to save the house, Fair Haven resident Chris Brenner was digging up his own history about the resort, which eventually inspired him to create a documentary about it.
Brenner, whose parents had met at the resort, said he was inspired to take on the project last September while fishing in the Sandy Hook Bay and seeing the remnants of pilings sticking out of the sand at low tide on Sandy Hook where the resort's cabanas once stood.
The online video, finished last month, has been viewed thousands of times.
"I've always had a love for things that don't exist anymore," said Brenner, 49. "It turns out a lot of people feel the same way."
The resort may be familiar to those who knew it while it was operating in the 1940s and 1950s, but most people - like himself - don't know it actually dates back to the 1880s, Brenner said.
Gardiner said her grandfather first operated the 5-acre beach resort through a lease arrangement before buying it in 1920 to eventually transform it into the sprawling hub it was, with hundreds of buildings on the property, including bathhouses, beach cottages, cabanas, stores, homes, a bowling alley, pavilions and a merry-go-round.
Unlike today's beach clubs, which are private and require membership, for much of its existence Highland Beach was open to members of the public who flocked there mainly by train and ferry, Brenner said.
But the situation changed after train and ferry service gave way to automobiles as the popular mode of transportation, and the Garden State Parkway's opening in the 1950s allowed greater access farther south of Sandy Hook.
That was around the same time private beach clubs along that peninsula in Monmouth Beach and Sea Bright became so popular, Gardiner said. By that time, her family had owned two other private beach clubs in Sea Bright -- Chapel Beach Club, which still exists but has new owners, and Sandlass Beach Club, which, under new owners, is now known as the Sands Beach Club.
For much of its operation, the more than 1,500-square-foot house, which was officially a part of Sea Bright at the time, served patrons downstairs where there was a fruit-and-vegetable stand, a luncheonette and a candy and cigar shop. The family lived upstairs.
In 1940, the Sandlasses were forced to move the house to the river side because, as the country was gearing up for World War II, the federal government needed better access to and from Fort Hancock at the northern most tip of Sandy Hook, Brenner said.
Gardiner said her grandfather didn't have much of a leg to stand on in his legal fight to keep it in place. After all, part of the house had been situated on the federal access road, she said.
"My grandfather had unknowingly built over the boundary line," she said.
With that move, an adjacent bowling alley and billiard room was detached and also moved to the river side. It became the once popular Bamboo Room nightclub. After that, the Sandlass family used the entire house as their private residence, Gardiner said.
And a rough, desolate existence it was. Gardiner, who was born four years after the house was moved, said she remembers sleeping with no fewer than seven blankets in winter. The only time she got to see her friends was when she went to school. And every spring, her father, Henry Sandlass, who eventually took over the family business, had to repair the damage winter storms had inflicted on the buildings.
In summer, though, the resort was teeming with children and their families. Cars were parked on every available inch of space. Gardiner said the spot was so popular that it wasn't unusual to see 15,000 people there on a single weekend day in the early days.
"It was a very happy existence out there on Sandy Hook as isolated as it was," Gardiner said.
The Sandlass house, as it looked before the family moved out in 1963. The National Park Service says the house, on Sandy Hook, has to be torn down, but family members and some residents want it preserved. (Photo courtesy of Susan Sandlass Gardiner)
By the 1960s, New Jersey officials wanted the property to create a state park. The Sandlasses found themselves in another legal battle to keep the house but the state in 1962 took the house and land by eminent domain.
That was their last fight. The Sandlasses moved out in June of 1963, taking with them 75 years of Sandy Hook's history but leaving behind the house that was at the center of all those memories.
For 11 years, the southern half of Sandy Hook, leased from the federal government, was operated as a state park. When Fort Hancock was decommissioned in 1974, the park, including the former Sandlass property, reverted to the federal government.
From the time that Highland Beach Resort was started, three successive bridges connected the peninsula to the mainland, the most recent - and massive - completed in 2010 now almost envelops the house.
John Warren, a Sandy Hook spokesman, said park personnel lived in the house - now known to park officials as Building 600 -- until Hurricane Sandy made it uninhabitable.
But Gardiner doesn't agree. She said that while on a recent visit inside her family's former house, she didn't see much damage. Except for some minor cosmetic changes, she said not much had been changed, including the carpeting and appliances.
"It was like a time warp. It looked mostly like it did when we left and turned the key in the lock," she said.
Gardiner, who lives in Maryland, said she's always been interested in having the house saved, but her fervor increased after Sandy. She said she's spoken with park officials, historic preservationists and Sea Bright Mayor Dina Long to see what can be done.
She said she's been told the house has no architectural features that would quality it for inclusion on the state or federal register of historic places.
Now supporters who've gotten wind of the fate of the house have started a Facebook page to spread the word.
Brenner said he borrowed from documentary filmmaker Ken Burns' philosophy while making his video about the resort.
"If you know the history of the place, you get to experience it in another time, not just in your time," Brenner said. "That's how I experience Sandy Hook right now."
MaryAnn Spoto may be reached at mspoto@njadvancemedia.com. Follow her on Twitter @MaryAnnSpoto. Find NJ.com on Facebook.