Your presence is requested Saturday, May 19 from 3 to 6 p.m. at the Open House at our new home (778 Cemetery Rd., Margaretville). We’ll have food and door prizes, a wonderful raffle for an original painting by Michael Fauerbach, and an exhibit, “The Great Outdoors,” a tribute to the Catskill Mountain Chapter of the Izaak Walton League which built the hall in 1938.

Historic and contemporary photographs and some fascinating artifacts highlight the many recreational activities that have long been pursued in this area blessed by mountain, stream and the Catskill Forest Preserve: fishing, hunting, camping, skiing and hiking of course, but also swimming, boating, biking, skating, snowshoeing, tennis and team sports.

Guests at the many hotels and boarding houses in the area enjoyed lawn games and walks in the country, and even willingly participated in farm chores. Artists, including those at the Pakatakan Artists Colony in Arkville, have always been inspired to sketch and paint in the open air. Parks, playgrounds and ballfields have been the centers of their communities.

“The Great Outdoors” features an amazing pair of 7-foot-long wooden skis from the 1920s, a rope tow gripper and other memorabilia from the family-run Highmount Ski Center which closed in 1992. See antique fly rods and reels, and displays on baseball, Lake Switzerland and the Fleischmanns Tennis Tournament.

. . . make light work, and indeed it was true April 28 when several HSM board members and supporters showed up at our new hall to help reorganize and spruce the place up in preparation for our Open House May 19.

Earlier, Nick Verni had supplied the equipment, and his considerable know-how as a career painter, to coordinate the painting of the interior. Tom Rapin and Geoff Samuels volunteered to help, and in two days the hall was bright and new looking. George Hendricks came early on Saturday to turn on the water and heat.

Turning out for clean-up day to scour the kitchen, empty the garage, wash windows and do assorted other tasks were HSM Board members Diane Galusha, Lucci Kelly and Carolyn Konheim, along with Steve Miller, Brian Ketcham, Alix Travis, and Tina Greene and her daughters Anna and Mary. Jenny Liddle stopped by the discuss exhibit options. (Wait till you see the ingenious exhibition station Steve has devised!) The place is looking great, and we’re excited to show it off. Be there on May 19, 3 to 6!

Bowls Hotel, c. 1920s-30s, Postcard courtesy Roger Davis

Michael Engle, who maintains a site about classic diners at www.nydiners.com, wrote to ask if we knew of any photos of a diner that was incorporated into Bowl’s (Kelly’s) Hotel on Main Street in Margaretville. A bit of searching in the Catskill Mountain News and a phone call to long time resident Alton Weiss turned up an interesting bit of village business history (but so far no photos of the diner — have you seen one?).

Charles Bowl, who was born in England in 1874, came to American at the turn of the century and settled in Walton, where he married another Brit, Louise Fox. They came to Margaretville in the ‘teens and “purchased a lunch wagon” on Main Street. Business was good, so they “enlarged and enlarged it until it became necessary to purchase the adjoining Lockwood property and expand it all into a hotel.”

Charles “was the jolliest of hosts,” and, with Louise’s excellent cooking, the hotel became “one of the most popular places in the county.” 

Claude Kelly takes a drink from unidentified bartender in what may have been Kelly’s Hotel. Can you identify anyone else in this undated photo (courtesy Rudd Hubbell)?