The 160-room Athenaeum Hotel is said to be the largest wooden building in the Eastern United States. It is also said to be among the first hotels to install electric lights. At one point, Chautauqua boasted more than 20 full service resort hotels, but all of them are now gone except for the Athenaeum. I photographed its exterior just after dawn, as the morning light illuminated its famous front veranda. I framed the scene through the vertical trees on either side, which echo the upward thrust of the hotel’s Victorian architecture.