The Breakwater Hotel

The Breakwater Hotel was built in the 1860s at the beginning of Long Neck (presently Penzance Point) to house workers at the Pacific Guano Company factory located farther along the road. The Guano factory went bankrupt in 1889 and Long Neck was bought by developer Horace Crowell. He moved the dormitory and turned it to face Great Harbor.

In the 1890s it became a hotel and was sold in 1900 to Maria Bowman who later gave it to her daughter Annie (A.A.) Bowman. In 1924 Heloise G. Redfield became the general manager. In 1933 Annie Bowman sold it to Robert Baker and in 1940 Miss Redfield herself bought the hotel. She is the one proprietor who is most closely associated with the nostalgically remembered hotel. The hotel was bought in 1960 by the Marine Biological Laboratory and then demolished for future expansion of the Lab.