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The Sandlass Family

Also recorded as: Sandlas, Sandloss

The Sandlass family ran Highland Beach for three generations, from William's 1893 lease to Henry's forced departure in 1963. What outlasted them — a lease, a bar, a private club, a lawsuit — is the arc of what the New Jersey shore was in the twentieth century. The last of the family's built environment on the peninsula still standing is Building 600.

4 people

Helen J. Sandlass

Named with Henry J.

William Sandlass Jr.

1863–1938

In January of 1893 William Sandlass Jr.

Henry Sandlass

1913–1969

Henry Sandlass was born upstairs in the family building at Highland Beach in the middle of a hurricane.

Marguerite "Midge" Sandlass

1920–2001

Marguerite Sheehan married Henry Sandlass in 1942, just before he shipped out for the war.

50 objects in this collection

A sepia-toned photograph of the Bamboo Room's exterior sign at Highland Beach, ca. 1930s — the letters BAMBOO ROOM cut from bamboo pieces, framed in bamboo poles, with the stucco building behindThe Bamboo Room signThe Sandlass Beach Club at Highland Beach on a summer Saturday ca. 1948 — the Bamboo Room building with parking lot full of 1940s American sedans, families walking toward the beach, the Highlands ridge behindThe Sandlass Beach Club, Highland Beach, ca. 1948A hand-colored postcard of Highland Beach ca. 1908 titled HIGHLAND BEACH, HIGHLANDS, N. J. — bathers in period costume in the surf, safety rope on posts, spectators on the sandHand-colored postcard — Highland Beach, Highlands, N.J., ca. 1908A black-and-white photograph from the ferry pier at Highland Beach ca. 1900 — the sawtooth wooden Sandy Hook bridge crossing the Shrewsbury, Twin Lights on the ridge, two figures in period dressThe pre-Route 36 bridge from the ferry pier, Twin Lights on the ridgeThe Highland Beach ferry pier ca. 1905 — pedestrians in Edwardian dress arriving from the covered station platforms, a horse-drawn wagon on the pier, the iron-truss Shrewsbury bridge crossing behind, a Cigars and Tobaccos stall at rightThe Highland Beach ferry pier and Shrewsbury bridge, ca. 1905The Sandlass Beach bathhouse row at Highland Beach, ca. 1925 — the long low structure with HIGHLAND BEACH painted in white block letters across its seaward face, the cottage colony at left, the Basket Pavilion at rightThe HIGHLAND BEACH bathhouse row, ca. 1925

All 50 objects in this collection

Where this family is documented

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