Historic inn near Rehoboth under renovation
A two-story inn just outside Rehoboth Beach that’s been a place for people to rest their heads for nearly 80 years is in the process of being renovated.
For weeks now, a fence has been around the perimeter and dumpsters in the parking lot of what was once The Shore Inn. On the outside of the fence, in two locations, are banners announcing The Waypoint is coming in the spring of 2025.
According to Sussex County property records, the commercially zoned property, 37239 Rehoboth Ave. Ext., was sold to Shore Thing LLC for $1.4 million in 2022. The LLC has an address in Aldie, Va., but no additional contact information is available. A building permit issued to the LLC calls for a $1.9 million interior and exterior renovation of the building.
African American couple Bob and Mary Malloy owned and operated a business there for a little more than four decades. The couple opened Malloy’s Modern Cabins in 1946. Two decades later, in 1968, the original cabins were encapsulated, a second story was added and it was renamed Malloy’s Motel. In 1982, four more rooms were added.
Malloy’s Motel was in the Green Book, the book that for nearly 30 years in the mid-1900s provided African Americans a list of places where they could safely eat and sleep while traveling.
In 1989, the property was sold to longtime local business owners Jay and Dian Stein, who turned the motel into the Kingston Inn. In 1995, the Steins sold the property to Ben Killebrew and Michael Roussell, who converted it into the Shore Inn. It remained that name under a few different ownerships before it closed a few years ago.
