7 Commercial Street

Delft Haven office.

On the strength of nothing more than a hunch, I believe the structure that used to occupy about half of the parking lot in front of Cottage 3 — pictured in an early promotional brochure — served as the rental and leasing office for the Delft Haven cottage colony. It certainly looks like the snug little building in which you might be scolded by a harried desk clerk for arriving late, or invited to have a Coca-Cola from the big red cooler tub with built-in bottle opener. It had a little tetrastyle entrance portico and evidently sported a large codfish-shaped weather vane; a nice landmark for westbound motorists wondering whether they would run of town before they arrived at Delft Haven. I don’t know yet when it was demolished, though it is not shown on the 1977 condominium plan.

A photo from an early promotional brochure, in the collection of Stephen Borkowski, shows what I believe was the rental and leasing office for the cottage colony, standing in the parking lot between Cottage 3 and Commercial Street.