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been old, judging by their size. Wilfred Jr.'s memory also includes the facts that the restaurant had been opened before the hotel, and that it was furnished with brand new kitchen equipment. He can still picture stacks of new mattresses which our father had had made in New Orleans. They were stuffed with Spanish moss. One of my own vivid images is of the interior of the attic and the enormity of the cypress beams; this was probably the only time my father allowed me to climb the stairs to the attic, from which I remember the view high up above the grounds.
In those days, we spent our summers joyously in Clermont from the day school ended until the day before school began again. But on the particular weekend of June 2, opening day for the refurbished Clermont Harbor Hotel, we were still in New Orleans, because my brother Roland and I had just graduated from grammar school. We had a house guest for the night, a fellow graduate, who overheard my father's response to an early morning long distance call.
What we overheard was that the hotel was burning. Within hours, all that remained of the endeavors of many who loved the Clermont Harbor Hotel were its foundations, a spacious verandah, and four stark Roman columns, still reaching, monument-like, toward the sky.
SOURCES
Extracts of title #898m made for Wilfred L. Guerin by E.S. Drake, November 7, 1945 The New Orleans States The Sea Coast Echo
My First Eighty Years aboard Planet Earth, by Hugh Carr Along the Gulf, originally published by the L&N Railroad,
1895
Personal family papers, Wilfred L. and Carmela Cali Guerin "Hurricane" - a Familiarization Booklet - by U.S. Department of Commerce National Oceanic & Atmospheric Administration
There also appears a copy of an article from the Sea Coast Echo, dated June 7, 1946 as follows:
Clermont Harbor Hotel Burns - Clermont Harbor Inn was completely destroyed at an early hour Sunday. It was said that the building was almost completely burned before assistance reached the scene.
The building, a two-story frame structure, had 40 rooms and 20 baths, and had recently bbeen purchased by a New Orleans corporation from a local owner and had been renovated and opened for business two weeks before it burned. The estimated value of the property was said to be $40,000. and carried $121,00 insurance. It is not known whether it will be rebuilt.
At the time of the fire there was said to be 40 guests registered who lost the greater part of their personal effects and some of whom got out in their night clothes.