Built in 1870, the Lakeview House was the first large resort hotel on the west side of Chautauqua Lake. First named the Cowing House, it was renamed the Lakeview House in 1874. The hotel had a 150 foot frontage along the lake and extended 120 feet from the lakeshore up to Terrace Avenue. Hotel business was so good in the 1880s that the structure was razed in 1889 and replaced by the larger Sterlingworth Hotel. Renowned for its castle-like architecture and many guest services, the Sterlingworth Hotel also extended uphill from a 120 foot lakefront to its colonnaded main entrance where Chautauqua Avenue meets Terrace Avenue. After a few prosperous years following its 1889 opening, several short summer seasons in the mid-1890s caused its financial failure. Renamed Waldemere, it became part of the neighboring Kent House and was used for guest overflow until fire destroyed it in 1903. In 1905, a group of summer residents built the Lakewood Country Club, the third large structure on the site. It remained a private club until the First World War, and after 1919 it was converted into Lakewood Inn, a leading lake hotel and popular dining spot during the 1920s. The village of Lakewood bought and demolished the aging clubhouse in 1929, and Lakewood Village Park, now Richard O. Hartley Park, opened in 1935.