Only the quick action of Capt. Samuel B. Norton, the skill and equipment of the Edgartown Fire Department, the aid of the sprinkler system just installed and not ready to function automatically, and one or two elements of chance such as a lack of wind and the time at which smoke and flames appeared over and through the building, prevented the destruction of the Harbor View Ho­tel in what was so nearly a disas­trous conflagration late Wednesday afternoon.

A formal agreement for the purchase of the Harbor View hotel at Edgartown has been signed, and the purchasing group for which Alfred Hall has been acting since the first agreement was executed a few weeks ago, will take title to the property in December. But work toward the renovation and rehabilitation of the hotel will begin at any time, Mr. Hall told the Gazette this week, with an expenditure of at least $50,000.

Dr. T. J. Walker, the owner of the Harbor view premises, in addition to extensive improvements going on all along the line, is having telephones installed in every lodging room in the hotel and cottages. Men from the Telephone Co. are doing the work, which we are told will occupy some weeks to complete.

Dr. T. J. Walker, who lately bought the Katama hotel building, has contracted with George S. Norton to move intact the south end of the structure to the Doctor’s Harbor View premises at Starbuck’s Neck.