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In the good ol’ pre-condo days plenty of folks found safe refuge in Clermont Harbor.
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Harbor
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time to take us fishing.” Later, during the war there was a complete blackout along coastal areas, with blackout shades being drawn in the evenings. “You couldn’t even light a cigarette on the beach,” Guerin said. “Cars had their headlights painted black on top so they only shone down. We still went foundering, but we learned to do it during the day. More than once I remember seeing fires in the distance (across the water) and I thought that it
was German submarines firing on ships coming out of the Mississippi.”
After the war Wilfred Sr. bought the old Clermont Harbor hotel, originally built in 1914 by Charles Hopkins. The grand old place had seen its up and downs, but Wilfred Sr. completely remodeled the building. Russell remembers being up in the attic and looking at the old cypress beams and the beautiful view of the sound from the high window there. There
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was a pavilion next to the hotel where bands would play for hotel guests and for community dances.
When the remodeling was complete, the two-story hotel opened for business on June 1, 1946 with about 40 registered guests occupying the 40 rooms, which shared 20 baths. On the morning of June 2 a fire broke out in the building. The hotel burned to the ground with many guests escaping in only their night clothes.