Title	Carolina Beach.
Subject	Carolina Beach, Hotel Royal Palm, Fountain's Rooms and Apartments, Hotels
Description	People pose on the front porch of the Royal Palm Hotel. Fountain's Rooms and Apartments are next door to the right. Carolina Beach is located on the Federal Point peninsula, bounded on the west by the Cape Fear River, and on the east and south by the Atlantic Ocean. An attempt was made to settle the area in the early 1880s by Joseph Winner (1843-1902) and his wife, Anna. The development of the Town of St. Joseph failed largely because of a very poor roads to the coast. By the mid 1880s, the New Hanover Transit Company was operating a steamship line from Wilmington to Southport and the company bought property on the peninsula for development. With the river steamers providing easier access to the area, the Transit Company built a quaint little railroad (later known as the "Shoo Fly") to take passengers from the wharf on the river to the beach. It was then that Carolina Beach became a popular destination for people from Wilmington and across the state. The Town of Carolina Beach was incorporated in 1925. Hotel Royal Palm, located on Harper Avenue, was built in 1935, by W. G. Fountain, an oil distributor in Wilmington. In recent years, the hotel's name was changed to the Hotel Astor.
Source	Louis T. Moore Collection 084