I kept thinking “Oh! Darling” — and not because my husband languished in a hammock while slurping a Bahama Mama rum cocktail.
Along pale pink sands, on the Bahamian island of Eleuthera, we were staying in the Potlatch Club cottage where music icon Paul McCartney and wife Linda honeymooned in March 1969. While here, the Beatles heartthrob jotted down lyrics to “Oh! Darling,” and “She Came In Through The Bathroom Window” on Potlatch-logo stationary; both songs appeared on the Fab Four’s final album, “Abbey Road,” later that year.
A walk along the Potlatch Club’s beach is a remarkable, solitary experience on the island of Eleuthera. (Photo by Norma Meyer)Believe me darlin’: This chic, renovated one-bedroom had been abandoned and buried by the smothering jungle for nearly 40 years. In fact, the entire original Potlatch Club, once a 1960s and ‘70s hideaway for elites and celebrities — including Greta Garbo, Cliff Robertson and Richard Widmark — had been swallowed up by nature, looted, lashed by hurricane winds and long forgotten.
The grounds of the Potlatch Club include meandering paths and manicured lawns leading to aquamarine seas. (Photo by Norma Meyer)That is, until Caribbean-born entrepreneurs Hans Febles and Bruce Loshusan spent almost eight years meticulously raising the decrepit Potlatch from the dead; 11 accommodations in whitewashed cottages debuted last summer on 12 gorgeously landscaped acres that feel like your own private oceanfront estate.
“We bought the property not knowing its history,” Febles said. And that’s a crazy story in itself.
Queen’s Bath is a striking collection of natural warm pools carved by crashing waves along the Atlantic side of Eleuthera. (Photo by Norma Meyer)Eleuthera is a rugged, low-key, 110-mile-long, twig-thin island with crystalline aqua seas, no traffic lights, a strip dubbed “the narrowest place on Earth,” one two-lane potholed main road, and wondrous skylit caves shielding bats and spirits of shipwrecked Puritans. A major happening is Eleuthera’s annual pineapple festival, when contestants draped in 30-gallon trash bags frantically try to devour a strung pineapple as fast as they can. The island’s 100 or so largely empty, pristine beaches are gaspingly beautiful (and just a 40-minute flight from Miami). Tourists can snorkel and book fishing trips, however because it’s so relaxed, the island’s candid slogan is: “Eleuthera, it’s not for everyone.”
The original Potlatch’s three owners relax by the pool at their Eleuthera getaway. From left to right, Diana Adams, Elizabeth Fitzgerald and Marie Driggs. (Photo courtesy of the Potlatch Club)In 1967, a trio of moneyed New York socialites opened the Potlatch Club after building homes and cottages on what had been a 1923 pineapple plantation. They did so at the urging of a friend, Elizabeth Taylor (not the actress) who went to golf in Eleuthera and decided a plethora of posh pals needed a discreet tropical resort. The three Potlatch owners included two former debutantes and Junior Leaguers — Diana Adams, then married to a top-drawer tax attorney, and divorcee Marie Driggs, whose son, Tony, became Potlatch’s tennis pro on the cork-turf court. Joining them was Driggs’ partner, Elizabeth Fitzgerald, an outstanding pianist who studied the ivories in Paris.
An undated photo of the first Potlatch Club, which became a secret VIP hideaway on the island of Eleuthera in the 1960s and ‘70s. (Courtesy of the Potlatch Club)The Potlatch was an invitation-only retreat with thatched tiki umbrellas poolside and rooms filled with classy European antiques such as an oak wainscot chair dated 1657. Since guests were “invited” many didn’t feel the need to pay anything.
A renovated 1923 clubhouse serves as the main lobby for the Potlatch Club hotel on the island of Eleuthera. (Photo by Norma Meyer) In the new Potlatch lobby, black-and-white checkered tiles remain where they were a century ago. (Photo by Norma Meyer) At the new Potlatch, Paul McCartney’s honeymoon cottage had to be rebuilt after being trampled by the jungle for decades. (Photo by Norma Meyer) The Sand Bar pavilion — next to one of two Potlatch swimming pools — serves up kiwi tequila drinks and other refreshments. (Photo by Norma Meyer) The Potlatch’s dramatic (and excellent ) Fig Tree restaurant is accented by huge hanging lamps created by weavers in a Morocco shelter for abused women. (Photo by Norma Meyer) Historic Governor’s Harbour is the capital of Eleuthera and the island’s biggest town. (Photo by Norma Meyer) Show Caption1 of 6A renovated 1923 clubhouse serves as the main lobby for the Potlatch Club hotel on the island of Eleuthera. (Photo by Norma Meyer) ExpandSoon after Febles and Loshusan broke ground in 2016, Driggs’ late son Tony shared the piecemeal heyday history and some visitor names with the new owners who had no clue. Among the VIPs: Prince Charles, Lord Mountbatten, Broadway legend Mary Martin, actor Raymond Burr, actress and Post Cereals heiress Dina Merrill. Even, he said, Ringo.
The Potlatch cottage where Paul McCartney and wife Linda honeymooned in 1969 has gotten a whole new chic look. (Photo by Norma Meyer)“There’s not a lot of photographs or paperwork on who stayed because they wanted privacy,” said Febles, who lives on-site. “I did find a bill for Walter Cronkite and Merv Griffin.”
With draining funds, the socialites sold the furnished Potlatch Club in 1978 to a Canadian investor who never opened it as a hotel. Sometime in the ‘80s, the Potlatch plummeted into foreclosure and decades of ruin.
Before the Potlatch was reborn last year, equipment had to clear the overgrowth that covered the 1967-founded club. (Courtesy of the Potlatch Club)Then one day, Febles and Loshusan were driving with a real estate agent after viewing another possible hotel venue, when they glimpsed the barely visible clubhouse constructed in 1923 and part of the bygone Potlatch. The area was so overgrown, they had no idea the vast lot stretched to the beach. “There were trees coming up from what had been the pool,” Febles recalled. But in his mind, he foresaw his hotel goal: “Timeless elegance.”
“When it went bankrupt and was in probate for a couple years, locals used to go there and take whatever they wanted,” Febles said. Surprisingly, once the duo purchased the land, excited neighbors stopped by to give them Potlatch cups, napkins, brochures, and other items. “They felt like, finally, someone’s doing something here.”
The clubhouse lobby of the initial Potlatch Club contains antiques and the still-existent checkered floor. (Courtesy of the Potlatch Club)One man offered to return the heavy piano he somehow moved from the shuttered Potlatch. The damaged piano had long been neglected in his garage and although unusable, the baby grand mahogany Bosendorfer graces the new Potlatch’s library. Prior co-owner Elizabeth Fitzgerald had often played it for guests.
In a reception area, an original restored cabinet now houses tasseled key chains from the earlier Potlatch Club. (Photo by Norma Meyer)A dilapidated wood cabinet, rained on for decades, was discovered in the ramshackle premises. Now restored, it holds the original tasseled Potlatch room key chains, which Febles located in a stashed box with keys that had “Potlatch” misspelled. “I couldn’t try a key to see if it worked. There were no doors anywhere, everyone had taken them.”
The clubhouse still features its 1923 black-and-white checkered floor set in sand; a section had cratered into the ground but was repaired for Potlatch 2.0.
Dalton Henderson was the first general manager of the original Potlatch that opened in 1967. (Courtesy of the Potlatch Club)Eleuthera, with the rest of the Bahamas, remained a British colony until gaining independence in 1973. Which explains why the first Potlatch’s general manager wore dressy Scottish kilts (supposedly he was hired because of his finesse for playing backgammon and bridge). The current GM, Bhutan-born Kezang Dorji, is a gem who worked as a high-end butler for Keith Richards, Christie Brinkley, and Angelina Jolie and Brad Pitt, and exudes his homeland’s Gross National Happiness attitude. (Both Dorji and laid-back Febles are hands-on, even toting guests’ luggage to their quarters. In the mornings, you might spot shorts-clad Febles picking stray blades from the perfectly manicured green lawns. He’s often joined by two statuesque wild herons.)
Potlatch co-owner Hans Febles (right) and general manager Kezang Dorji sit near the original Potlatch’s motto: La Vita E Bella, which means “Life Is Beautiful” in Italian. (Photo by Norma Meyer)Of the Bahamas’ 700 islands, Eleuthera ranked as the “pineapple capital” in the mid-19th century, shipping tons of the tangy fruit to the United States and England. After exports bottomed out, so did pineapple cultivation — there’s only about 15 farmers now. At Eleuthera’s recent 36th annual Pineapple Festival, fans of the prickly crop munched pineapple tarts, perused pineapple-themed paintings, and danced to boisterous bands in a park.
Sugarloaf pineapples, a special sweet variety, are grown on the family-owned Eleuthera Pineapple Farm. (Photo by Norma Meyer)“This is where it all began, this is the place internationally where people bought pineapples from,” enthused Bekera Taylor, who owns a one-acre farm. Inside a festival booth, she sold Eleuthera’s special Sugarloaf variety (“they’re sugary sweet and shaped like a loaf of bread”), next to homemade pineapple ketchup, pineapple barbecue sauce, pineapple pepper jelly, and pineapple chips. She’s hoping to launch a pineapple winery.
Pineapple farmer Bekera Taylor sells her juicy harvest at the 36th annual Pineapple Festival in Gregory Town on the island of Eleuthera. (Photo by Norma Meyer)Thanks to a stormy shipwreck, Eleuthera is also “the birthplace of the Bahamas.” In 1648, a group of English Puritans set sail from Bermuda to avoid religious persecution only to smack into Devil’s Backbone reef. They managed to get ashore, name their refuge “Eleuthera” from the Greek word for “free,” and take shelter in Preacher’s Cave where they carved Pulpit Rock for sermons. I had the willies in the cave, but then it’s also an ancient burial ground for the extinct Lucayan people; archeologists dug up a shaman’s remains, a beheaded skeleton and a 1,000-year-old tooth.
The Glass Window Bridge splits the Blight of Eleuthera waters (right) from the opposite Atlantic Ocean. (Photo by Norma Meyer)Another must-see is the Glass Window Bridge, a 30-foot-wide natural rock formation (“the narrowest place on Earth”) topped by a manmade paved bridge (no glass). Visually striking, the calm, turquoise Bight of Eleuthera waters lie on one side; on the other the churning cobalt Atlantic.
Potlatch isn’t within walking distance of much, although the Leon Levy Native Plant Preserve beckoned a block away. I fixated on medicinal flora and learned home-brewed tea from horse bush relives chest congestion, a bound thatch palm can “pull de heat out a de head,” according to a sign, and snakeroot cures intestinal worms. Also, from Potlatch, a 10-minute stroll on powdery sands brought us to funky beach bar Tippy’s; the men’s restroom door is labeled “Bob” and covered by Marley’s likeness.
An Eleuthera hangout for 20 years,Tippy’s beach bar has an unusual men’s restroom door. (Photo by Norma Meyer)One balmy morning, about 45 miles from Potlatch, we hopped on a five-minute water taxi ride to tiny Harbour Island, known as the “Nantucket of the Bahamas” and luring privileged visitors and multi-million-dollar yachts. (Taylor Swift and Travis Kelce vacationed there.) The main mode of transportation — golf carts — puttered past brightly colored colonial-era homes erected by British Loyalists starting in the 1700s.
Adhering to a funereal tradition, mourners parade down a street on Harbour Island, across from Eleuthera. (Photo by Norma Meyer)On a side street, a lively brass band paraded with a coffin containing a departed gent, as we popped into Vic-Hum Club, a 70-year-old landmark bar totally plastered with memorabilia. Co-owner Jay-Jay Percentie — an exuberant local councilman, justice of the peace and self-anointed Prince of Dunmore (the only town on Harbour Island) — proudly took the “world’s largest coconut” off a shelf.
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