Exploring Historic Nye Beach

After 37 years of going to Newport, we finally decided to explore the actual beach at Newport. For some reason we have always gone to the bay front instead. Maybe it's because we both grew up vacationing on different beaches along the coast. So one afternoon we followed a sign that read 'Historic Nye Beach'. We found a delightful little 'village' within the town itself. It has it's own ambiance and character. We got out and explored and came back several times over the next few days. It seems that the bay front was the first place to develop in the late 1800's and then Nye Beach came quickly after. Back then passengers had a long arduous journey to reach the coastline, and were often mired in mud. After arriving, they had to take a ferry across the bay and were then taken by carriage to a hotel on the bay front or Nye Beach. We saw lots of fun photos of ladies in long white dresses and holding parasols on the beach in the sand (and even a few in the water) and men with striped jackets and boater hats. The visitors spent weeks if not the whole summer there, enjoying clam bakes, beach parties, bowling tournaments on the sand, dances on barges in the bay and lots of music. They did not spread out on the beach, so the photos show the Newport beach totally crowded with people and children (most more crowded than anything we see today). This is how Nye Beach looks today. The road at the bottom of the photo is Elizabeth Ave. and it runs parallel to the beach, and there is a small avenue of cute shops and restaurants that slopes down to the beach at the bottom.

This is a photo looking down the avenue from Elizabeth Avenue. The shops and restaurants run for several blocks on both sides of this and along Elizabeth Ave.

This is looking North along the coastline. They have wonderful old lamps and the area is all lit at night.

A pretty flower box outside one of the shops. I just loved the bright johnny-jump-ups.

Next to the flower box was a concrete bench with a purple sign. It's always all about the details!

All the architecture was different on each building and unique. This was a very pretty building that housed the 'Tea Party' shoppe. Always a favorite of mine.

And this is the very cute door that led into the 'Tea Party'. It reminded me of something out of Alice and the Looking Glass.

Here we found a wonderful beach look, with white shingles and blue trim and shutters. We didn't actually eat there but it looked tempting!

Another sign for a cute shop. What creativity!

This is an original old hotel from Nye Beach. It was HUGE, and right on the waterfront. It would be a fun place to stay I'm sure. I think part of it is rented out in apartments.

At the bottom of the small street is a parking lot with access to the beach. Since it is almost at sand level, it was a good spot for me to access the beach without climbing up and down stairs. It is even handicap accessible, but I wondered how a wheelchair would maneuver in the sand?

We traveled south from the parking lot, along several little streets on the beachfront, and found several interesting things. This was an old house, as you can see, 'Historic Minthorn House', built in 1902. The house has been maintained really well, and their sign is lit up at night with the little white lights surrounding it.

It had a lot of wonderful detail, including the grey weathered shingles, white gingerbread, a glassed-in porch and that great Victorian screen door.

Here's how the whole thing looked. I wonder if they are used to crazy tourists taking pictures of their home?

One of the houses had this sign for their street address. God made people so creative!

And last for now...we ran across the Nye Beach Bums. They rent out really tiny 'Seaweed Bungalows' along the beach. Here is one of the bungalows, and you can see the 'Bums' are into collecting in a big way!

Thanks for being armchair vacationers along with me as I share our finds and good times.... and always the beauty around us.