"Bad Times"...(1896-1945)

    In 1896, a devastating hurricane struck Cedar Key. Much of the town was destroyed and Parsons and Hale's General Store was severely damaged. It was the beginning of bad luck for the town. A subsequent fire and the collapse of the cedar industry marked a period of economic stagnation and decline that lasted until after World War II.
    Francis Hale, one of the two original owners, died in 1910.  Four years later Langdon Parsons, son of the other original owner John Parsons, sold the building. After an intermediate owner, it was acquired in 1915 by Simon Feinberg, a businessman with properties in Gainesville, Ocala, Lake Butter, and Dunnellon. It was Feinberg who converted Parsons and Hale's General Store into a hotel. He named it the Bay Hotel. Much of the interior reconstruction including the stairway was done after Feinberg's purchase between 1915 and 1920. A second floor balcony was added around the south and west sides of the hotel. The Hotel was managed by Mr. & Mrs. W L Markham, who moved from the White House Hotel. They remained until 1918, when they moved to manage the Hotel in Summer.
    Feinberg died at the hotel on May 11th, 1919, under somewhat mysterious circumstances. He had come to Cedar Key to collect the rent from his manager who had a lease agreement to operate the hotel. These were the days of prohibition. One story is that Feinberg, a religious man, had been most unhappy to discover that his manager was operating a whiskey still in the attic. To placate his boss, the manager had treated Feinberg to a large and sumptuous dinner. Feinberg retired for the night. He never awoke. Harold Naber, one of the later owners, found some of the copper pipe from the still in the Annex roof when he had some work carried out. He says that the pipe work was hidden behind a false roof about 12 inches below the proper roof. He could not recall if the workmen left the pipe in place or removed it -- something to be investigated during the forthcoming renovation work.
    During the next two and a half decades, the hotel passed through the hands of a number of owners and managers, including J B & Pauline Witt, and later a George T Lewis (for whom the Cedar Key airport is officially named). It was known by a variety of names, including the Cedar Key Hotel. Another owner, a Mr. Fowler, called it Fowlers Wood. A Mrs. Wilda Finlayson had a millinery store downstairs during the 20's. At different times it also housed the post office and the customs house (after the 1896 hurricane).
    A Mr. Crittenden managed the Hotel for a while in the 30's, and it was rumored that it may have functioned as a whorehouse during his tenure.
    The depression hit Cedar Key. The timber mills were destroyed in the 1896 hurricane. The railroad stopped running to Cedar Key in 1932. The wooden bridges linking the island to the mainland were often washed out. and roads were often impassable. Cedar Key was virtually isolated. The hotel was among businesses that suffered hard times. The bank foreclosed on one owner. Another owner may have tried to burn it down. The hotel was hit with a rash of fires, three within one week. Fortunately, the fire department was just across the street. Volunteers managed to douse the flames before much damage was done. Arson was suspected.
   Mr. Ray Andrews acquired the Hotel in the late 30's and his brother & sister-in-law, Forest & Nettie Andrews, ran it during the war years. Many people in the town remember the hotel as being the place where they heard about Pearl Harbor.