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11 Most Endangered
Wentworth-by-the-Sea Hotel
Year Listed: 1996
Location: Concord , New Hampshire
Current Status: Saved
Threat: Deterioration, Neglect
Significance
Built in 1874, by Boston-area distiller, Daniel Chase, as Wentworth Hall, the eighty-two room hotel was located just outside of Portsmouth near the Maine border at the mouth of the Piscataqua River. Five years later, Hotel Wentworth, as it was now called, was acquired by Frank Jones, who transformed it into a 300-room local, regional, and national resort destination. For more than a century the Wentworth-by-the-Sea Hotel hosted everyone from vacationing movie stars to middle-class families to writers to members of the British Royal Family. The resort exemplified the leisurely vacation of Victorian America -- during the day guests enjoyed boating, swimming, tennis, or golf. At night time patrons dined at the hotel's restaurant and danced in the ballroom. In 1905, Russian and Japanese diplomats, brought together by President Theodore Roosevelt, stayed at the hotel while negotiating the Treaty of Portsmouth that ended the Russo-Japanese War. In 1981 however, the hotel was purchased by a Swiss company and closed the following year.
Updates
After the hotel's doors were closed, it twice faced demolition. Citizen advocates formed the Friends of the Wentworth and saved the structure from the first round of demolition threats. When it came up for demolition again, the Friends worked to find a buyer interested in the hotel's historic value who could renovate and reopen the hotel. The Friends of the Wentworth succeeded in finding a preservation-minded developer to purchase the Victorian seaside hotel for renovation. The National Trust's Northeast Office helped the developer, Ocean Properties, secure key financial assistance from several state agencies. In June 2003, the Wentworth by the Sea -- restored to its glamorous Victorian style décor -- reopened. In 2006, the restoration efforts were recognized with a National Trust Preservation Honor Award. Today the Wentworth-by-the-Sea is a premier Marriott destination hotel and spa and a member of Historic Hotels of America.
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