Facilities at Hillside Beach include a general store and cafe, a gas station, a realty office and a utility rental shop.
[1] Development was initially slow, owing to the lack of railway services to Hillside Beach and the outbreak of World War I in 1914.
A number of lots were sold and cottages built in the early 1920s, which were located in the vicinity of Belfast Avenue, near the beach.
These early cottagers included Robert and Hattie Lyons, Mr. and Mrs. Williams, Mr. and Mrs. Cavanaugh, and Alice Wood.
[3] Cottage development would rapidly increase in the years following World War II, particularly as highway access to Hillside Beach improved in the 1950s and 1960s.