An illustrated lecture by Annon Adams.
Sunday, July 25, 2010, 2:00 p.m.
at the Skene Memorial Library,
Main St., Fleischmanns.
Greater Fleischmanns Museum of Memories (adjacent to library) open from 1 to 2 p.m. and following the program. Program admission free for HSM members, $2.00 non-members. Admission to Museum free, donations encouraged.
Click here for notes of the lecture:
GRAND HOTEL PHOTO GALLERY
Click for a larger view of each image…
grand-hotel-exterior-summer-wyer
Grand Hotel Exterior, Summer, Wyer
Grand-Hotel-audience
Grand Hotel audience
GrandHotel
The Grand Hotel
2 responses to “The Grand Hotel: An Architectural and Economic History”
John Spriggs
Tuesday, January 25th, 2011, 3:55
Interesting. I would like to know more. Is Summit Mt. actually what we call Monka? I supposedly have a bluestone mantle from one of the fireplaces and would love to get a photo of it at the Grand. Where is the best collection of postcards and photos? Was it taken apart then burned? What was the final demise. The article says 1964 demo started but I’ve also read it was completely destroyed until 1966. I’d like to know more. Thanks ,John Spriggs from The Eagle’s Nest on South Mountain.
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.)