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.

 

The purchasing group is to be incorporated temporarily under the name Edgartown Hotel Corporation. This title will be changed to Harbor View Hotel Corporation as soon as the present company, Harbor View Hotel Inc., is dissolved, which is to be prior to Dec. 31, 1949.

 

Cornelius S. Lee, one of the senior summer residents of the Vineyard, is to be president of the new company, and Mr. Hall will serve as the vice-president and managing director. Roger S. Robinson will be treasurer, and Reuben Hall of Boston, who has acted as attorney for the purchasers, will serve as clerk.

 

 

The directors are to be Frank J. Connors, John W. Garrett 2nd, Alfred Hall, Cornelius S. Lee and Roger S. Robinson. Mr. Connors, like Mr. Hall, has been in business in Edgartown for many years, and the others are prominent in the summer colony. Mr. Robinson, in fact, is to be a year round resident.

 

Among the stockholders are Russell D’Oench, Marshall R. Kernochan, Frank N. Farrar Jr., E. L. Reed, Oscar M. Burke, I. R. Edmands, Theron E. Catlin, Daniel Simonds, and Mrs. Price Post who, as Emily Post, will associate her name with the project.

 

Mr. and Mrs. Charles H. Center will continue in the management of the hotel. Mr. Center was named manager two years ago, and Mrs. Center has been responsible for some departments.

 

In addition to the project for renovation, which will include complete repainting, plans provide for the building of small cabanas, containing three or four rooms and a pantry, on the shore frontage, with eventual development of a beach club. The land across North Water street from the hotel, extending from the Lovell to the Wallin properties and to the shore, has never been utilized. Another detail will be the construction of a pier for boats.

 

Mr. Hall said that the ownership of the new company will be entirely on the Island or among summer residents. There will, he said, be no mainland interest involved.

 

 

Formal Transfer of Title