Home / Venues / Staten Island / The Historic Old Bermuda Inn
A restored Victorian with six rooms, taking anything from thirty guests to three hundred and twenty-five. That range is the whole story — and most of what we do here is not a wedding.
The Old Bermuda Inn began as the parsonage for St. Luke's Church and was restored into a Victorian inn and event house. That history is why it looks the way it does — and why it behaves nothing like a modern catering hall.
A purpose-built ballroom is one large volume with predictable acoustics. A restored house is connected rooms with wooden floors, hard plaster, corners, doorways and changing ceiling heights. Sound does not travel through it in a straight line; it moves room to room and reflects off surfaces nobody chose with a PA in mind.
That is a design question rather than a problem. One system aimed down the middle of a house does not work. We cover the space it is actually in.
The Inn runs six rooms — Castle Harbour, Harmony Hall and Grotto Bay, the Mansion and Trimingham Room, the Parakeet Room, Hamilton Square and the Swizzle Inn — from thirty guests to three hundred and twenty-five.
That is an enormous range, and it is why the honest answer to "what will you bring?" is: it depends entirely which room you have booked. A thirty-guest christening lunch needs a small, discreet setup and a light touch on the microphone. Three hundred across the larger rooms is a completely different specification.
Most of our work here sits at the smaller end — bridal showers, engagement parties, christenings and first birthdays, school events — alongside weddings. Those are the events where an oversized system does real damage: guests move away from the speakers, conversation stops, and a celebration that was meant to feel warm ends up feeling like a nightclub nobody asked for.
A lot of what happens here runs in daylight — showers, christenings, lunches, first birthdays in the gardens. Daytime events are quietly harder than evening ones.
There is no darkness to work with, so lighting does almost nothing and the room's mood has to come from sound and hosting alone. Guests are seated and talking rather than standing and drinking, so levels that would be normal at ten at night are intrusive at two in the afternoon. And a daytime crowd usually spans four generations, which narrows what actually works.
The answer is restraint and a lighter touch on the microphone — closer to hosting a lunch than working a party.
The Inn has its own chapel and gardens, so many events here run the whole day in one place, moving between spaces.
Each moment needs its own sound. An outdoor ceremony has nothing to reflect off: sound simply leaves, so vows and readings need a system placed for the open air rather than a speaker carried out from inside. Cocktails in the gardens need coverage that reaches without dominating conversation.
The practical work is the transitions — guests moving from chapel to garden to dining room without a gap where nothing is happening. That is planned on a walkthrough, in advance.
Mostly the smaller end - bridal showers, engagement parties, christenings and first birthdays, school events - alongside weddings. It's one of the Staten Island rooms we return to most.
No, and we'd tell you so. A thirty or fifty guest room needs a discreet setup and a lighter touch. We spec to your room rather than selling a ballroom rig.
Quite a lot. Lighting does very little in daylight, guests are seated and talking rather than standing, and levels that work at ten at night are intrusive at two in the afternoon.
Yes. The ceremony gets its own setup rather than a speaker carried over, and the transitions between chapel, gardens and dining room are planned in advance.
Not if it's set up correctly. In a connected house, control of low frequency matters more than volume - bass is what travels through the structure.
Also looking at other Staten Island rooms? We work most of them.
“He even played songs that brought us back.”
Nicholas & Kaitlyn TrottaSend your date and what you're planning — we'll confirm availability and what the room actually needs.
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