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Research dossier · Places & Architecture

Xanadu Beach Resort & Marina

resort and marina on the island of Grand Bahama in the Bahamas

Architectural plans, a scale model, maps and brass measuring instruments
Places and architectureInterpretive dossier study · Crown Archives visual atlas
Record originEnglish Wikipedia
Text licenseCC BY-SA 4.0
Source revisionJun 6, 2026
Entity authorityQ8042882 ↗
Source-derived summary

The Xanadu Beach Resort & Marina, also known as the Xanadu Princess Resort & Marina, was a resort and marina on the island of Grand Bahama in the Bahamas. Built in 1968, the resort was purchased by Howard Hughes in 1972 and was for several years the most celebrated resort in the Caribbean and served as a hideaway for the Hollywood jet set of the era. The resort comprises 20 acres (81,000 m2) of beachfront, 215 rooms, and an 80 slip marina on the southern coast of Grand Bahama.

Since its opening, the resort and the events that took place within its grounds have appeared on the front pages of tabloids with visits from The Rat Pack, including Frank Sinatra and Dean Martin, as well as other celebrities of the era such as Cary Grant and Lucille Ball.

Hughes moved into the penthouse floors of the resort on 20 December 1973, living there until 10 February 1976, two months before his death. After Hughes' death, the resort was sold by the Summa Corporation to Tulsa businessman Robert B. Sutton around 1980. Sutton sent his CFO, Lynn Stringer to Freeport to oversee management of the hotel, and the hotel re-opened until Stringer died in Villa #5 in 1984. However, the penthouse floor in which Hughes lived for the last four years of his life remained empty for over 10 years, until the resort was purchased by Italian-Bahamian businessman Mario Donato and renovated in 1987.

Editorial summary

“Xanadu Beach Resort & Marina” enters the record as resort and marina on the island of Grand Bahama in the Bahamas. Crown Archives preserves that source wording while asking what Xanadu, Beach and Resort can confirm, complicate or overturn.

Editorial reviewA strong orientation record where physical form, institutional use and historical geography need to be read together. The current lead gives the account dated anchors—1968, 1972, 1973, 1976—that can be checked directly. The selected authority fields contribute no independent date. Its strongest next move is a source search built around Xanadu, Beach and Resort.
Editorial analysis

Why this record matters

“Xanadu Beach Resort & Marina” is worth following because a concise public description often conceals a longer documentary argument. Here, Xanadu, Beach and Resort provides the most credible route into that argument.

Evidence profile

The strongest evidence will usually combine a dated visual record with documents produced by the authority responsible for the place. The source revision retrieved here is dated Jun 6, 2026. The linked authority identifier is Q8042882. None of the 0 selected statements returned an explicit reference. The first chronological checks are 1968, 1972, 1973 and 1976.

Critical limits

Modern boundaries and familiar names can conceal earlier jurisdictions or structures that do not align with the present site. The source lead contains qualifying language; that uncertainty should survive quotation, summary and reuse. Authority statements aid reconciliation but still require their own references, qualifiers and ranks to be checked.

How to read it

Treat names, boundaries and functions as historically changeable. Maps, plans, inventories and administrative records can clarify what the place meant at different dates.

Best used for
  • Historic place names
  • Jurisdictional context
  • Routes into maps and plans
Verify next

Contemporary maps, plans, listed-building records, estate papers and the responsible local or national archive.

Three-step research path

  1. Establish the record: confirm the title “Xanadu Beach Resort & Marina”, its source revision and the description used here.
  2. Expand the search: follow Xanadu Beach Resort & Marina primary sources, Xanadu Beach Resort & Marina archive and Xanadu research across catalogues and specialist indexes.
  3. Test the account: compare the strongest cited source with the responsible institution’s current record and note any disagreement.

Questions for further research

  1. Which source most directly establishes the central claim about “Xanadu Beach Resort & Marina”?
  2. What physical evidence or contemporary plan supports the description?
  3. Which earlier names or jurisdictions may reveal additional records?
Subject index

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Source & attribution

This entry incorporates text from “Xanadu Beach Resort & Marina” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.