Harbor View: The Hotel that Saved a Town

The Harbor View -- the largest hotel in the largest town on Martha's Vineyard -- is a vital resource on this Island, seven miles off the coast of Massachusetts. It is a popular resort for summer visitors and a part of the year round Vineyard, sponsoring and hosting dozens of community events.But in 1891, the year it was built, it was considered so important that its construction was heralded as civic enterprise. It was bankrolled by sixteen Edgartown residents worried their town was deteriorating so badly that one prominent writer had already called it "far advanced in decay." It was into this hopeless scene that investors collected $5,000 (equivalent today to $128,000) and financed the construction of a hotel they hoped would bring them enough seasonal visitors to help bring Edgartown back to life.