HISTORY

HISTORY OF BREAKERS END

Known among locals as "The Old Bath House" or "The Dunes" this home was originally built in 1927 and served as a public bath house for beachgoers visiting Neskowin. While there are cottages of similar age in Neskowin, Breakers End is the oldest “public” structure still standing. In 1947 it was converted to a private residence and remodeled.  The living room previously featured a Jade Tree built into the floor of the interior with roots in the crawl space. This Jade Tree is approximately 70 years old and now enjoys the sunny back deck in a planter. As a public bath house for beach goers, the "Men's Tower" was where the kitchen & dining area currently stand, the "Women's Tower" was the current guest bedroom, and the living room was originally a breezeway with benches connecting the two towers. In the 1960s the master suite was built on the side of the original cottage structure.

For decades, both as a beach facility on a treeless dune and then as a cottage, Breakers End stood alone, but in the 1970s most of the cottage's large sandy site became the subdivision named "The Point at Neskowin" - The Hirsch family, the owners at that time, divided the large sand dune into smaller lots and homes were built around Breakers End. The Hirsch family was instrumental in keeping commercial development away from Neskowin and Cascade Head, and as you enter Neskowin you’ll see a large wooden fish donated by the Hirsch family, hanging with the public parking lot sign to honor the root of Neskowin’s name - plenty of fish. The Hirsch family was philanthropic at both the Oregon Coast & in Portland, where they started the White Stag ski wear clothing company which is perhaps most well known for its iconic neon white stag on their old building in downtown Portland.

We have owned Breakers End since 2015 when we stumbled across this cottage for sale and fell in love with the history and charm. We overlooked the low ceilings that measured in at 6' 8" high, and peeked into the attic to see amazing vaulted ceilings hiding above. We could see the potential to renovate it with the goal of finding just the right balance between modernizing and highlighting the historical significance of this unique cottage. It has been an exciting transformation and we're happy to welcome guests to this special cottage. After the final phase of our renovation in 2020, we renamed the cottage Breakers End, as it sits at the end of Breakers Ave, which is the main drag through Neskowin Village.