This two-and-a-half-story brick hotel facing the Delaware River, its tall original windows remarkably intact, was built by Messrs. Grier and Aiken to serve ship travelers. Later in the nineteenth century, St. Augustine Piers became a popular pleasure ground, with beach, bath houses, and amusement park, the excursion boat Thomas Clyde bringing Philadelphians here as late as the 1920s. During the Great Depression, the place was the scene of the Farmer's Day Picnic in late summer. World War II brought a slump, but the resort revived somewhat in the 1950s. In 1963, the state Board of Health closed the beach due to bacterial pollution and the hotel was sold by sheriffs sale. Today, it houses a bar popular with motorcyclists.