Name/Title
Hotel Velvet, Old Orchard Beach, circa 1900Entry/Object ID
1998.9.3Description
Print photograph (from a glass plate negative) of the Hotel Velvet. The Peanutine wagon pulled by two donkeys can be seen in the foreground. The hotel was built by Herbert L. Hildreth in 1899. Hildreth was from Boston where he also ran a confectionary company. The Hotel Velvet was famous for selling Hildreth's Velvet Molasses Candy (also known as "Velvet Kisses"). Hildreth later invented the candy pulling machine and revolutionized the art of candy making around the world. Although the hotel looks drab and dark in this black and white photo, the exterior was actually painted in bright yellow and red colors just like Hildreth's candy boxes. The hotel was renamed The Emerson in 1907, the same year it was destroyed in the Great Fire of August 1907.