Briny Breezes Trailer Park ~ June 1958

By Lynn Thomas

from Notes my father gave me….

The Briny Breezes Story

June 17, 1958 – Briny Breezes Trailer Park

After three and one-half months of a long series of negotiations, Paul L. Miller and Chalmers C. Miller, who were the Trustees that owned Briny Breezes Trailer Park, have sold the Park to the trailer-ites, called “Brinyites”.

The purchase price was $1,500,000.00; the contract was signed Monday afternoon in the law offices of Coleman & Cook at West Palm Beach; J. Clinton Scott, Delray Beach attorney, represented the Briny Breezes Club, which is the non-profit corporation, organized by the Brinyites to take title to the Park.

Briny Breezes Park consists of about 40 acres of choice ocean frontage midway between Gulfstream and Ocean Ridge; it encompasses some 600 feet along the ocean and some 1700 feet along the Intracoastal Waterway; there are approximately 600 trailer sites in the Park, which also includes a 700-seat Auditorium, an ocean-front restaurant, a Yacht basin, and a number of retail shops along Highway A1A.

Approximately 400 of the Brinyites banded together, each contributing from $2500 to $5500. depending on the value of the lease they occupy, to raise the necessary money.

The officers of the owning corporation which took title are President, Hubert W. “Bert” Aiken, of Plattsburg, New York; First Vice-President, Harold A. “Hal” Hallstrom, of Wakefield, Mass.; Second Vice-President, Fay M. “Jim” Tenny, of Hendersonville, N.C.; Secretary, Frank J. Seeley, of Mt. Arlington, N. J.; and Treasurer, Joseph J. “Joe” Gaudi of Marseilles, Illinois.

These addresses are illustrative of the far reaching representation of the Brinyites, with nearly every state in the Union and Canada being represented.

Approximately 10% of the Brinyites are year-round residents in the Park but the greater majority come from all over the United States and Canada for several months each Winter to enjoy trailer community living on Florida’s fabulous Gold Coast.

Pending the final transfer of funds in this tremendous land deal, Delray Beach National Bank has been designated by the Club as depository.

In a statement made Tuesday morning at the conclusion of the signing of the papers, Mr. Aiken said, “This action is the culmination of events and efforts on the part of many of us to preserve ‘the way of life’ at Briny Breezes Park. We decided that after 22 years of paying rent, the reasonable solution would be to buy the Park for our own enjoyment and the preservation of our winter playground.”

Mr. Seeley, Past President and Director of the Trailer Association of N.J., stated, “This deal is unique in being the only large scale operation of its kind anywhere in the United States and sets an entirely new precedent in the mobile home industry.”