My Turn: Silver Sands recalls simple summertime tradition

Sadness, disappointment, regret — I experienced all of these emotions when the Silver Sands Motel, a longtime family-run business in Greenport, was sold earlier this year.

I’m sure I wasn’t alone in my feelings of loss. For more than 60 years, Silver Sands was the vacation destination of countless North Fork visitors. People came to the motel, with its vintage sea horse logo, from all over Long Island, as well as the city and points beyond.

My wife and I, along with our kids, were part of this happy annual migration. For the Conway family, summer wasn’t summer without at least a few days at Silver Sands. No matter where our vacation travels might take us, it was a given that sometime in June, July or August we would pack our bags and head east to our favorite motel. Our visits were a family tradition everyone looked forward to.

What was the appeal of Silver Sands?

Simplicity.

In the late ’70s, weary of the razzle dazzle of the Hamptons, my wife and I decided to explore Greenport, a quiet fishing village we’d heard about but never visited. Searching for a place to stay overnight, we stumbled upon Silver Sands, a half-mile outside of town on the Peconic Bay.

Though its property was breathtakingly beautiful, the motel itself was on the modest side: fifteen or so units flanked by a handful of small cottages. Its rooms — linoleum floors, paneled walls and small functional bathrooms — were not likely to grace the covers of high-end hospitality magazines.

Yet there was something wonderfully unpretentious about Silver Sands. Like the rest of Greenport back then, it was charming in a rustic, sometimes quirky way. It was also just the right fit for young marrieds eager to escape glitz.

The Jurzenias, the family that owned Silver Sands, were lovely. From the get-go, they went out of their way to make us feel at home. After checking in, we received a welcome package of North Fork wine and potato chips and learned that breakfast, coffee and a newspaper would be delivered to our room the following morning.

Our brief stay at Silver Sands was enough to convince us to return the following summer — and an endless string of summers after that.

As the years passed, Greenport grew upscale, opening Manhattan-style restaurants, replacing local shops with trendy boutiques and salons, and gradually leaving much of its old-salt past behind.

But at Silver Sands, little changed. The motel’s environmentally conscious owners continued to highlight the area’s natural beauty, at one point setting up a video monitor in the living room so guests could view ospreys nesting in a nearby wildlife preserve.

The motel also remained kid friendly, offering ample activities for youngsters. Our sons swam, paddled around the bay, tried to best their father at pingpong and pinball, and even played in a treehouse on the edge of the property. No one was ever bored.

When my wife and I visited Silver Sands last year, it still felt like an oasis of summer innocence, a place where kids could splash in the gentle waters of the Peconic, as our children, now grown, once did. The motel, including its rooms, hadn’t changed much since our first visit decades earlier. And that was just fine with us.

I’ve read that the new owners plan to renovate the property, add a bar and other amenities, but retain the motel’s original “feel.” I’m sure the new establishment will be interesting and inviting. But it will be impossible for anyone in my family to forget the old Silver Sands — a link to a sweet and tender time for all of us.

Richard J. Conway,

Massapequa