Former Normandie Inn building, rumored to be haunted, is torn down
The site of the dilapidated former Normandie Inn restaurant in Bohemia is one of five Long Island locations where Jersey Mike’s restaurants will open in 2022. Credit: Management 360/Seth Goldstein
A former Bohemia speakeasy building rumored to be haunted is now just a memory.
The dilapidated Normandie Inn, a former restaurant at 1500 Smithtown Ave. that had been boarded up for years, was supposed to be partially demolished to be redeveloped as a new Jersey Mike’s Subs restaurant.
“The only section [that was supposed] to remain were the first-floor block walls on the southerly side of the building,” said town of Islip spokeswoman Caroline Smith, who said the two-story building was 6,000 square feet in size.
The developers, who had planned to demolish most of the building, said the remaining walls were structurally unsound, forcing them to demolish the entire structure. Credit: John Roca
But during construction work in mid-May, the existing walls began to crumble, so the whole building was demolished, said Seth Goldstein, a partner in Management 360, which will operate the Jersey Mike’s franchise and owns the Bohemia property through an affiliate, Normandy Inn Property LLC.
“As we were excavating what we were supposed to take away, the walls collapsed. … It wasn’t a safe building to begin with, which is why we didn’t just use the exterior and renovate it,” he said.
The new building will be constructed to look similar to the gothic-styled Normandie Inn, Goldstein said.
An architectural rendering of the planned Jersey Mike’s Subs, which developers say will be similar in style to the former restaurant. Credit: Management 360/John R. Bracco
The original building was constructed as a home for a man who claimed to be a Czech baron in the 1920s, according to Newsday archives. The building, later called Chateau La Boheme and described as a “castle,” served as a speakeasy during Prohibition.
The property was rumored to be haunted by the ghost of a woman who was killed there.
The Normandie Inn opened in the building in the early 1970s and operated for about 30 years.
The Town of Islip issued a permit for partial demolition of the building Oct. 14, Smith said.
There will be no penalties to the property owner for the full demolition occurring, she said.
“They will have to revise the original demolition permit and provide a signed, sealed statement from the structural engineer/architect stating that portion of [the] building to remain was structurally unsafe,” Smith said.
The new Jersey Mike’s restaurant will be a 3,447-square-foot building with 16 seats, she said. The approximately 1,500-square-foot second floor will be for storage only.
It will be Management 360’s seventh Jersey Mike's on Long Island.
Tory N. Parrish covers retail and small business for Newsday. She has worked at the Pittsburgh Tribune-Review and Observer-Dispatch in Utica, N.Y.
