WENTWORTH BY THE SEA
The Life and Times of a Grand Hotel
When the Wentworth-by-the-Sea Hotel was built in 1873, it joined dozens of other resorts dotting the northern New England landscape. Now 130 years later it remains the one of the few grand hotels in this region. In between 1873 and 2003, the hotel has undergone early success, bankruptcy, resurgence under the guidance of a gilded age tycoon, one month as the social center of a major international peace conference, decades as a prominent family resort and convention center, then near total demolition, and, finally, resurrection as major upscale hotel and spa.
The dominant architectural feature in seacoast New Hampshire, the Wentworth was and is more than a building. Author J. Dennis Robinson tells the stories of its of-times flamboyant owners, its loyal employees, and the thousands of guests all of whom have made the Wentworth a New England institution.
In this heavily illustrated volume we learn of the Campbell family who built the hotel, of Frank Jones, the Portsmouth multi-millionaire who expanded the facility into the major resort, and of James and Margaret Smith who held the aging building together during parts of five decades while hosting governors, presidents, industrialists and dozens of conventions ranging from visiting firemen to librarians.
Then for two decades, until the turn of the twentieth century, the hotel was closed and nearly demolished, until nearly at the last minute, it was saved due to public outcry and renovated as the Marriott Wentworth by the Sea Hotel and Spa.
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HISTORY /TOURISM / ARCHITECTURE
256 pages, 120 black and white illustrations
Peter E. Randall, Publishers
The dominant architectural feature in seacoast New Hampshire, the Wentworth was and is more than a building. Author J. Dennis Robinson tells the stories of its of-times flamboyant owners, its loyal employees, and the thousands of guests all of whom have made the Wentworth a New England institution.
In this heavily illustrated volume we learn of the Campbell family who built the hotel, of Frank Jones, the Portsmouth multi-millionaire who expanded the facility into the major resort, and of James and Margaret Smith who held the aging building together during parts of five decades while hosting governors, presidents, industrialists and dozens of conventions ranging from visiting firemen to librarians.
Then for two decades, until the turn of the twentieth century, the hotel was closed and nearly demolished, until nearly at the last minute, it was saved due to public outcry and renovated as the Marriott Wentworth by the Sea Hotel and Spa.
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HISTORY /TOURISM / ARCHITECTURE
256 pages, 120 black and white illustrations
Peter E. Randall, Publishers
AUTHOR NOTES:
My first big solo hardcover project was an eye opener. The nonprofit Friends of the Wentworth had long campaigned for the decaying hotel to be restored as a hotel. When Ocean Properties stepped up, the Friends hired me to write the book with the agreement that the new owners would pay for the first printing. Having had my own creative services company in the past, I ended up getting very involved in the design of the book as well and located all the photos and wrote all the captions, With Grace Peirce, working with Peter Randall Publishing, we ended up creating a formula that has been been applied to two more recent books. The Wentworth book was not quite finished when the hotel opened in 2003 and has, to my best guess, gone through at least five more editions. I continue to lecture about the history of the hotel sometimes in the old ballroom, one of the surviving elements of the original 1874 structure. I'm now working on a similar-sized book on the history of New Castle island due in 2022.
Back to MY BOOKS
My first big solo hardcover project was an eye opener. The nonprofit Friends of the Wentworth had long campaigned for the decaying hotel to be restored as a hotel. When Ocean Properties stepped up, the Friends hired me to write the book with the agreement that the new owners would pay for the first printing. Having had my own creative services company in the past, I ended up getting very involved in the design of the book as well and located all the photos and wrote all the captions, With Grace Peirce, working with Peter Randall Publishing, we ended up creating a formula that has been been applied to two more recent books. The Wentworth book was not quite finished when the hotel opened in 2003 and has, to my best guess, gone through at least five more editions. I continue to lecture about the history of the hotel sometimes in the old ballroom, one of the surviving elements of the original 1874 structure. I'm now working on a similar-sized book on the history of New Castle island due in 2022.
Back to MY BOOKS
