The Resorts Property

The Resorts site was originally occupied by two threestory wooden Quaker rooming houses The Chalfonte House was built in 1868 and named for Chalfont St Giles, the town in Buckinghamshire where William Penn is buried. It was expanded and moved oceanward twice, in 1879 and 1889. The Haddon House, named for the Quaker family who founded Haddonfield, New Jersey, was built in 1869 It was sold to Leeds & Lippincott in 1890 In 1896 they rebuilt The Haddon House, naming the new, larger hotel Haddon Hall.

Henry Leeds bought The Chalfonte House in 1900 and constructed a modern hotel on the site, the Chalfonte Hotel This eight-story iron-frame and brick-face building, Atlantic City’s first “skyscraper,” opened its doors to guests on July 2, 1904

The current Haddon Hall building was constructed in stages in the 1920s The 11-story wing facing the Boardwalk was constructed first, with the 15-story center and 11-story rear wings added later in the decade

Soon after the modern Haddon Hall was completed, it was merged with the adjacent Chalfonte. The new Chalfonte-Haddon Hall complex consisted of 1,000 rooms and was Atlantic City’s largest hotel by capacity.

During World War II, Chalfonte-Haddon Hall was requisitioned by the U S Military and put to a new use, as the Atlantic City Air Forces Training & Reception Center Hospital, renamed Thomas England General Hospital

Resorts International, formed in 1968, purchased Leeds & Lippincott Inc in 1976 to open a hotel and casin th Haddon Hall property

Resorts International, the first casino to operate in Atlantic City, opened its doors at 10:00 AM on May 26, The 1904 Chalfonte Hotel building, which could not be remodeled to fit modern requirements, was left va and finally demolished in 1980 to make room for a parking lot for Resorts International