History
Eddie and Etta Sweeting lost their grocery store in the 1935 hurricane. They
built the Over-Seas Inn on the previous site with assistance from the Federal
Emergency Relief Administration and Red Cross. The Sweetings wanted a wooden
building and the officials wanted concrete. As a compromise, Eddie and Etta were
provided the materials and did the labor themselves.
After a quick completion, the downstairs portion was leased for the Matecumbe
School until the concrete school, now the library, could be completed in 1938.
Eddie and Etta lived upstairs and rented cottages behind and south of the Inn
where Manny and Isa's Restaurant is now. The Over-Seas Inn was used for the
Columbia Title Co. and presently is a multi-business building.
Recently, the motel units were converted to workforce housing.