Qualla: The Claridge Hotel (Atlantic City)

The Claridge Hotel (Atlantic City): Introduction

Mon, 01 Jun 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit Lisa Andres, CC BY 2.0. When the Claridge opened in 1930, the country was sliding into the Great Depression and the Atlantic City Boardwalk was already cluttered with sprawling grand hotels built decades earlier - the Marlborough-Blenheim, the Traymore, the Chalfonte. The new arrival did not look like any of them. Philadelphia contractor John McShain built the Claridge - designed by the firm Ritter and Shay - as a slender 24-story tower, narrow and vertical and faintly metropolitan, when every other hotel was wide and horizontal and Edwardian. People started calling it the Skyscraper by the Sea, and the nickname stuck. It was the last great hotel built in Atlantic City for thirty years. Marilyn Monroe judged Miss America from one of its suites. Today it is one of the few pre-casino-era Boardwalk hotels that has actually survived intact - and it is now home to the first legal combination cannabis dispensary and lounge in the State of New Jersey.

Image: Lisa Andres | CC BY 2.0

The Claridge Hotel (Atlantic City): The Last Grand Hotel

Mon, 01 Jun 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit DrVenkman at English Wikipedia, Public domain. John McShain - the son of a Philadelphia building contractor who would later become known as the Man Who Built Washington for his work on the Jefferson Memorial, the Pentagon expansion, and the rebuilding of the White House - was 32 when he built the Claridge, which was designed ...

Image: DrVenkman at English Wikipedia | Public domain

The Claridge Hotel (Atlantic City): Del Webb's London Theme

Mon, 01 Jun 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit W. Reichmann, CC BY-SA 3.0. In February 1977, a Connecticut investment group led by F. Francis D'Addario bought the Claridge with intentions of converting it to a casino. They quickly realized they needed a partner with deep pockets and Nevada gaming experience. They got both in 1979 when they brought in th...

Image: W. Reichmann | CC BY-SA 3.0

The Claridge Hotel (Atlantic City): Absorbed Into Bally's

Mon, 01 Jun 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit Andy Borysowski. B64 (talk), CC BY 3.0. By the late 1980s, much larger casinos were opening along the boardwalk and the Claridge had no room to expand vertically and no land to expand outward. To compensate, the hotel built the elevated People Mover in 1988 - the moving sidewalk that connected the Claridge through the ...

Image: Andy Borysowski. B64 (talk) | CC BY 3.0

The Claridge Hotel (Atlantic City): TJM Comes Calling

Mon, 01 Jun 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit User:dtcdthingy 3:30 pm 30th July 2004 (Minolta Dimage X20), Public domain. On October 29, 2013, Caesars announced it was selling the Claridge tower to TJM Properties of Clearwater, Florida. TJM specialized in revitalizing distressed hotels in resort markets. The sale closed on February 24, 2014. The Claridge reopened in May 2014 as what it had been at t...

Image: User:dtcdthingy 3:30 pm 30th July 2004 (Minolta Dimage X20) | Public domain

The Claridge Hotel (Atlantic City): High Rollers and the Skyscraper

Mon, 01 Jun 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit The original uploader was Nightscream at English Wikipedia., CC BY-SA 2.5. In 2023, the New Jersey Cannabis Regulatory Commission approved a new tenant for the Claridge: the High Roller Cannabis Dispensary and Lounge, leasing 10,000 square feet of space on the Park Place side of the building. New Jersey had legalized recreational cannabis in 2022 but pr...

Image: The original uploader was Nightscream at English Wikipedia. | CC BY-SA 2.5