Annon Adams
Friday, January 28th, 2011
The first name for what became the Grand Hotel was the Summit Mountain House. I don’t think the name referred to the name of a mountain, but instead to the fact that the proposed hotel would be at the summit of the difficult to engineer and build horse shoe curve in the Ulster and Delaware railroad just west of Pine Hill. I believe that Monka is the correct name.
In regard to your bluestone mantle, I have seen only one interior photograph of a fireplace at the Grand. The fireplace was in the main lobby and was of fieldstone with what looks like a stone mantle. There is a postcard of this fireplace as well as a photograph at the Delaware County Historical Assn. in Delhi. The Historical Assn. has about 50 photos of the Grand taken in 1947 by Robert Wyer, a Delhi photographer.
Bluestone was used extensively at the Grand Hotel for the fountain and walks, so maybe your mantle was fashioned from bluestone used for something other than a fireplace when it was part of the Grand.
I believe that the Grand Hotel was dismantled in 1964. On October 15, 1964 there is an advertisement in the Catkill Mountain News saying the Grand Hotel Sale had been extended for 3 more days – Friday, Saturday and Sunday, October 16, 17 & 18. The listing for the sale was “Furniture, lumber, siding, windows, doors, bathroom fixtures, fine bar, back bar and bar stools, chestnut paneling, safe, fire ladders, flooring and many other items.” The owner of the Owl’s Nest attended my talk in July in Fleishmanns and at that time said that his establishment is built on the foundation of the center portion of the original Grand Hotel. Searching the Catskill Mountain News for 1965 and 1966 may provide additional information. (ED: The CMN can be examined at Fairview Public Library, Margaretville.)
