In 1888 a large wooden hotel was erected on St. Simons Island by a business called The Brunswick Company. The structure, located in the vicinity of present day Massengale Park, was three-stories in height and included in its design a stately tower and a majestic wrap-around porch. The hotel also included twenty rental cottages, which were situated on the northern side of the structure.

A streetcar line, also owned by The Brunswick Company, operated between the Hotel St. Simons and a wharf located south of the lighthouse.  The route was along what is now Beachview Drive. This was a horse or mule pulled passenger car on rails near the sandy beach in areas and was named Railroad Ave. The main wagon route to the Hotel was Demere Road to Arnold Road. Ocean Blvd did not exist. The 1964 hurricane washed out a section of Beachview Drive and the old trolley route.

On December 13th 1898 the Hotel St. Simons, which had operated for ten years, was destroyed by fire

By 1910 the New St. Simons Hotel, a resort constructed by businessmen from Waycross and located on the site of the razed Hotel St. Simons, offered vacationers year-round accommodations. Not Victorian architecturally as the Hotel St. Simons had been, the New St. Simons Hotel consisted of a three-storied structure built of wood. A large wrap-around porch encompassed the side of the hotel facing the beach and several rental cottages, complete with hotel maid service, were also available for short or long-term lease

In 1916 the New St. Simons Hotel burned to the ground and for a brief time the former Bellevue Hotel, a resort once located near the St. Simons pier, operated under the name St. Simons Hotel.