Summer by the Seaside: The Architecture of New England Coastal Resort Hotels, 1820-1950

by Bryant F. Tolles Jr.

Overview

Summer by the Seaside is a lavishly illustrated work on the origins, evolution, and gradual decline of the resort hotel phenomenon and its architecture along the New England coastline and on its offshore islands. In this indispensable, breakthrough volume, Bryant F. Tolles, Jr., the recognized expert in this popular field, examines the landmark hotels, extant and not, in Connecticut, Rhode Island, Massachusetts, New Hampshire, and Maine. Together these hospitality enterprises helped define the upscale tourist industry and key aspects of New England social, cultural, economic, and architectural history between 1820 and 1950.

Exhaustively researched and beautifully assembled, this stunning and informative volume is the definitive work on the history of travel and tourism in coastal New England during this period.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781584655763
Publisher:	University Press of New England
Publication date:	06/30/2008
Pages:	601
Sales rank:	241,111
Product dimensions:	8.80(w) x 11.30(h) x 1.00(d)

About the Author

BRYANT F. TOLLES, JR., is Professor Emeritus of History and Art History at the University of Delaware, where he served as Director of the Museum Program from 1984 to 2006. He has written and edited many books, including Resort Hotels of the Adirondacks (UPNE, 2003), Summer Cottages in the White Mountains (UPNE, 2000) and The Grand Resort Hotels of the White Mountains (1998).

Table of Contents

List of Illustrations
Preface
Acknowledgments
Introduction: The American Resort Hotel and Its Expression on the New England Coast
Connecticut: The Long Island Sound Shoreline
Rhode Island: Narrangansett Bay, Watch Hill, and Block Island
Massachusetts: The South Shore, Cape Cod, and the Islands
Massachusetts: The North Shore
New Hampshire: The Beaches, New Castle, and the Isles of Shoals
Maine: From Kittery to Cape Elizabeth
Maine: From Casco Bay to New Brunswick
Notes
Bibliography
Index

Editorial Reviews

"The illustrations in Bryant F. Tolles Jr.'s Summer by the Seaside: The Architecture of New England Coastal Resort Hotels, 1820-1950 give a powerful sense of what has been lost. Vintage photographs, etchings, and architectural plans whisk readers along the New England coast, past one elegant structure after another, some of them veritable Versailles, only in Queen Anne or Second Empire style, with verandas, shingled towers, and rows of top-floor dormers. It's enough to make a preservationist weep, particularly one familiar with what's replaced them."
—Down East

"A profusely illustrated work, including floor plans and photographs from the glory years, Summer by the Seaside is replete with text that examines the origins, evolution, and gradual decline of the resort hotel phenomenon and its architecture on the New England coastline, along with its social, cultural, and economic history." —Antiques Journal

"The illustrations in Bryant F. Tolles Jr.'s Summer by the Seaside: The Architecture of New England Coastal Resort Hotels, 1820-1950 give a powerful sense of what has been lost. Vintage photographs, etchings, and architectural plans whisk readers along the New England coast, past one elegant structure after another, some of them veritable Versailles, only in Queen Anne or Second Empire style, with verandas, shingled towers, and rows of top-floor dormers. It's enough to make a preservationist weep, particularly one familiar with what's replaced them."—Down East

"I imagine most readers will buy the book on the basis of its very tangible beauty. It is a lovely picture book, but it is also a solid, readable and first-rate piece of scholarship that will be a standard reference for years . . . the book is big and beautiful, and well done on all levels." —Maine Sunday Telegram

From the Publisher