Earnest G. Friez Jr., manager, said that he thought that the Harbor View Hotel had weathered the Tuesday weather in comparatively good shape. “We were very fortunate,” he said, “compared to the trouble some were in.” One chimney fell on the ell of the main hotel, over employees’ quarters, and smashed through the roof into a room on the third floor. Other than that the damage was confined to a few chairs, windows and shutters and shingles.
Only the quick action of Capt. Samuel B. Norton, the skill and equipment of the Edgartown Fire Department, the aid of the sprinkler system just installed and not ready to function automatically, and one or two elements of chance such as a lack of wind and the time at which smoke and flames appeared over and through the building, prevented the destruction of the Harbor View Hotel in what was so nearly a disastrous conflagration late Wednesday afternoon.
Dr. T. J. Walker, the owner of the Harbor view premises, in addition to extensive improvements going on all along the line, is having telephones installed in every lodging room in the hotel and cottages. Men from the Telephone Co. are doing the work, which we are told will occupy some weeks to complete.
From the outside the Harbor View Hotel looked pretty much the way it always does. The lawns were freshly mowed, the stems and blossoms in the neat flower borders waved gaily in a stiff September breeze, and the sun was strong on the blues of the water around Starbuck’s Neck, on one of those recent, ideal days of early fall. However, something was definitely missing, one noticed almost Immediately. It was the porch sitters. They were all gone, and the porch furniture was pulled in. The Harbor View had closed for the winter.
Dr. T. J. Walker, who lately bought the Katama hotel building, has contracted with George S. Norton to move intact the south end of the structure to the Doctor’s Harbor View premises at Starbuck’s Neck.
Regarding the contest we wish to state that the right of voting is free to all persons, and one person can send in any number of votes - no limit. It is only a question of getting the coupons, and you are entitled to as many votes as you can produce coupons.
For the first time in more than fifty years, the Harbor View Hotel in Edgartown has changed hands. The Walker family has been in control of the property since 1898, seven years after its original opening. In that year, F. A. Douglass, the first owner of the Harbor View, sold two thirds of the interest in the hotel to Dr. T. G. Walker and L. T. Townsend, Dr. Walker later acquiring the entire property, which has been owned recently by his children, Mrs. Luther M. Sibley and Raymond Walker.
A formal agreement for the purchase of the Harbor View hotel at Edgartown has been signed, and the purchasing group for which Alfred Hall has been acting since the first agreement was executed a few weeks ago, will take title to the property in December. But work toward the renovation and rehabilitation of the hotel will begin at any time, Mr. Hall told the Gazette this week, with an expenditure of at least $50,000.
Come again, and Edgartown with enhanced charms will give you cordial welcome.
The tax bills for 1899 are now out, and everyone is correspondingly happy.
Hotel Harbor View is reported as having had the best year in the history of the house. Landlord and Mrs. Douglas are to be congratulated on modelly managing a model house.
At 6 pm. Wednesday evening, 11th inst., the polls were closed in the great voting contest for the naming of Edgartown’s new Summer hotel. Since Dec. 18th the votes had been coming in, the standing of the vote being announced in subsequent issues of the Gazette. From almost the start the favorites seemed to be Hotel Edgartown and Harbor View, although Hotel Martha and others developed considerable strength.
