Antique stereoview of The Sea View House, Oak Bluffs, Martha’s Vineyard, a large Victorian resort hotel which burned to the ground on September 24, 1892. Published by S.F. Adams, Photographer, 130 Circuit Avenue, Oak Bluffs. Circa 1880s. Very good condition, very small faint area of damping to margin of mount.

From the Martha’s Vineyard Times:

“The Sea View, situated at the head of the Oak Bluffs Land and Wharf Company steamship wharf, was built by Erastus P. Carpenter, a major stockholder in the enterprise. Carpenter, who hailed from Foxboro, built similar hotels on Nantucket and Shelter Island, New York, during this era.

The Sea View was built at a cost of $102,000 with a further cost of $30,000 in furnishings; five stories high on the waterside and four on the inland elevation, it measured 225 feet in length and 40 feet in depth. It contained 125 rooms, office, parlor, spacious dining salons and reception suites. Speaking tubes connected every room with the office; the whole hotel was lit by gas, and warmed by steam heat.”