Robert J. Carroll, a prominent Edgartown businessman, has sold all of his interest in the Kelley House and the Harbor View Hotel to Robert Welch and Stephen C. Jones of Iyanough Manage­ment in Hyannis. Stephen C. Jones is an attorney and the son of former state Sen. Allan F. Jones of Hyannis, who is also a partner in the Kelley House and the Harbor View and owns Gull Airline and Will’s Air. Robert Welch is responsible for running seven hotels owned by Allan Jones.

 

The sale, which includes a provision for a lifetime lease for Mr. Carroll on the penthouse apartment in the Harbor View Hotel, is scheduled to close on April 1.

 

Purchase price has not been disclosed. “There will be no changes in the physical appearance or in the name of the hotels at all,” said Norman Vunk, the managing director of both hotels, who has worked with Mr. Carroll for 20 years. Mr. Vunk said: “We will continue upgrading the buildings. Zachariah’s [restaurant in the Kelley House] will remain Zachariah’s. Starbuck’s [restau­rant in the Harbor View] will remain Starbuck’s. Fred Hurley will continue as sales manager for the Kelley House. If anything our service will improve. We are also now tied in with seven other hotels so it will actually help with reservations, especially with the group reservations.”

 

Mr. Carroll, who is vacationing, was not available for comment.

 

But Mr. Vunk said yesterday that Mr. Carroll will retain his real estate business in Edgartown and also his restaurant, the Seafood Shanty on Dock street.

 

“Mr. Carroll is going to slow down a little bit, and I am really happy for him,” Mr. Vunk said. “I have worked with him for 20 years; I started at the Seafood Shanty. I think he has been a real asset to the town, and I think everything he has done has been an improvement to the town.”

 

Mr. Carroll and Mr. Jones purchased the Harbor View in 1965 from Alfred Hall. The hotel was then part of the Treadway Inn Chain.

 

In 1973 Mr. Carroll purchased the Kelley House from Richard Colter. The hotel was then called the Great Harbour Inn, but the new owners renamed it the Kelley House, which was its original name. In November 1973 the Vineyard Gazette reported: “The restored 13-room Kelley House and the 43-room Kelley House addition opened last weekend on the street of the same name and brought back many a memory to oldtime Edgartonians who recalled the days when Bill Kelley played gallant and agreeable host during the spring term of Superior Court to the lawyers, court officers and judges who came for that annual event. Mrs. Kelley’s ‘delectable cod streak fried in deep fat’ was remembered with particular affection by at least one of them.”