By the 1880s, summer residents and tourists to Boothbay had been steadily increasing for more than a decade. Waterfront property had doubled in value, and many residents were selling to land developers. Investors formed the Boothbay Land Company in 1888 and purchased about 1,500 acres in Boothbay, Southport, and South Bristol. By June 1889, the company had a grand hotel under construction on the east side of the harbor where Griffin's Law Offices now stands. The 60-room Menawarmet Hotel was named for a 1600s Native American chief of the Sheepscot area. The hotel was destroyed by fire in 1913, and holiday-makers disembarked at its pier from the frequent steamers that traveled Maine's coastal water routes.