A high-resolution color interior photograph ca. 1948 of the Bamboo Room bar at Highland Beach — a curved bamboo-clad bar with Bentwood stools, glassware and bottles on bamboo shelves under a bamboo-battened ceiling, a Hawaiian-dancer mural with palm trees on the far wall, a Wurlitzer jukebox at right

COLORIZED

Inside the Bamboo Room — the definitive interior, ca. 1948

ca. 1948

Highland Beach, foot of Sandy Hook

The Bamboo Room bar at Highland Beach in its fullest surviving interior view, ca. 1948 — a modern high-resolution restoration of a period photograph. The curved bamboo-clad bar counter runs the full length of the room; Bentwood stools evenly spaced beneath. The back bar carries three tiers of glassware and bottles under a bamboo-battened ceiling. A small placard on the far left reads BANGNO TANIS (near-illegible; likely a period drink-menu banner). At right: a Hawaiian-dancer mural on the wall — palm trees, hula figure, mountain-and-bay coastline — flanked by real potted palm trees. A period Wurlitzer-style jukebox stands at far right. This photograph is the visual capstone of what William Sandlass built when he shipped bamboo home from Cuba in the twenties.

Sepia source and AI-colorized reinterpretation

A sepia interior of the Bamboo Room bar at Highland Beach ca. 1948 — wider angle showing the full curve of the bamboo-clad bar, Bentwood stools, bottle shelves, a partial jukebox at right, the Hawaiian-mural walls in the corner

Item record

Title: Inside the Bamboo Room — the definitive interior, ca. 1948
Date: ca. 1948
Source: Sandlass Family Collection · via ATH archive
Contributor: Sandlass Family Collection
Rights: Sandlass Family Collection — permission granted for ATH publication
Slug: hb-family-img-9397

Verification: unverified.

Cite this item

Inside the Bamboo Room — the definitive interior, ca. 1948 (ca. 1948). Sandlass Family Collection · via ATH archive The Highlands History Project, https://history.abovethehook.com/archive/hb-family-img-9397/.