In the 1800's, Collins Beach was the site of the famous Hygenia House hotel, with a dance pavilion, restaurant, merry-go-round, bath house, and other amenities for its many visitors. An 1857 advertisement presented the Hygenia House in Delaware as especially suited to people in delicate health, families, and others seeking a beach trip, salt water bathing, dancing, bowling, sailing excursions, and attentive service at moderate charges. A stone sea wall protected the resort from many storms, but those storms ultimately led to its undoing by the early 1900's. During the great "tidal wave" of 1878, Collins Beach suffered the severest shock along the coast when a huge wave broke over the beach, burst open the hotel doors, carried them away, flooded the inland country for one or two miles, destroyed buildings and the new pier, and killed livestock, leaving the Hygenia House inaccessible for two days except by boat. Wood from the storm-damaged hotel was later used to rebuild the hotel at Woodland Beach. Today, only a few pier pilings remain in the Bay, and the resort site has been cut off from the mainland by water.