Lot 1048: Hughson Hawley (American, 1850-1936) Historic Chamberlin Hotel in Fort Monroe, Virginia on the Chesapeake Bay, 1891 sight 10 1/2 x 24 1/2in

Historic Chamberlin Hotel in Fort Monroe, Virginia on the Chesapeake Bay, 1891
signed, titled and dated 'Hughson Hawley / Chesapeake Bay,Va / 3 Oct. 1891' (lower right) and signed and dated in pencil 'Sincerely yours / Hughson Hawley / 1893' (lower left)
watercolor on paper
sight 10 1/2 x 24 1/2in

PROVENANCE:
Private collection, California

The Chamberlin Hotel, as it was called, opened to the public on April 4, 1896. The hotel was 754 feet long and was said to be the first resort hotel entirely illuminated by electric lights. The structure cost an estimated $5 million and had six stories, 554 rooms and 1,000 beds. When the war came (WWI), the Chamberlin was taken over by the military for quarters for officers of the Army and the Navy. The Chamberlin had hardly been back in civilian hands when a devastating fire broke out on its third floor March 7, 1920. Within a few hours the beautiful hotel had burned to the ground. In 1926 the War Department gave permission to build a new hotel where the first Chamberlin had stood. It opened in 1928 as the Chamberlin-Vanderbilt.