St. Elmo Hotel Grounds, Summer Resort, 1960s — Archive & Atlas
AA-2026-303872
AA-2026-303872
On the image
The sign says St. Elmo, and by the 1960s a hotel that still bothered to spell out its own name in cursive on a lawn sign was already advertising its own old-fashionedness as an amenity. The pink mansard-roofed building behind it belongs to the great age of American summer resorts, when families took the whole month of August somewhere with a porch, and a bellhop in a white cap stood ready to carry luggage that guests were fully capable of carrying themselves.
A cluster of visitors ambles along the walk in the unhurried manner of people who have nowhere to be until the dinner bell, one in a red top, another in a sunhat, none of them walking faster than the shrubbery requires. This was the resort promise: manicured grounds, deep porches, and enough architectural fuss on the roofline to make guests feel their vacation had historical weight.
The green park bench sits empty on the near lawn, angled toward the hotel as if placed there specifically so someone could sit and admire the building without the inconvenience of walking its length. Nobody is using it. That, too, was part of the resort's quiet arithmetic — plenty of places to rest, and guests who preferred to keep strolling so as to be seen doing so.
Visually related — by likeness
St. Elmo Hotel Grounds, Summer Resort, 1960s. 1960–1969. Archive & Atlas, Historical Image Library, AA-2026-303872. https://thearchive.archiveandatlas.com/library/st-elmo-hotel-grounds-summer-resort-1960s.
@misc{aaAA2026303872,
title = {St. Elmo Hotel Grounds, Summer Resort, 1960s},
year = {1960–1969},
howpublished = {Archive \& Atlas, Historical Image Library},
note = {Accession AA-2026-303872},
url = {https://thearchive.archiveandatlas.com/library/st-elmo-hotel-grounds-summer-resort-1960s}
}TY - ART TI - St. Elmo Hotel Grounds, Summer Resort, 1960s PY - 1960–1969 PB - Archive & Atlas, Historical Image Library AN - AA-2026-303872 UR - https://thearchive.archiveandatlas.com/library/st-elmo-hotel-grounds-summer-resort-1960s ER -
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