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Once the most famed resort destination of the world, the Catskills, New York's bygone Borscht Belt district, helped shape American culture and history. Through 363 images, take a trip back in time to relive the stories behind the theaters and nightclubs, the lavish lobbies where bellhops welcomed celebrities, and the vacuous dining rooms that served thousands of rich kosher meals each day.
The Catskills (“Cat Creek” in Dutch), America’s original frontier, northwest of New York City, with its seven hundred thousand acres of forest land preserve and its five counties—Delaware, Greene, Sullivan, Ulster, Schoharie; America’s first great vacationland; the subject of the nineteenth-century Hudson River School paintings that captured the almost godlike majesty of the mountains and landscapes, the skies, waterfalls, pastures, cliffs . . . refuge and home to poets and gangsters, tycoons and politicians, preachers and outlaws, musicians and spiritualists, outcasts and rebels . . . Stephen Silverman and Raphael Silver tell of the turning points that made the Catskills so vital to the development of America: Henry Hudson’s first spotting the distant blue mountains in 1609; the New York State constitutional convention, resulting in New York’s own Declaration of Independence from Great Britain and its own constitution, causing the ire of the invading British army . . . the Catskills as a popular attraction in the 1800s, with the construction of the Catskill Mountain House and its rugged imitators that offered WASP guests “one-hundred percent restricted” accommodations (“Hebrews will knock vainly for admission”), a policy that remained until the Catskills became the curative for tubercular patients, sending real-estate prices plummeting and the WASP enclave on to richer pastures . . . Here are the gangsters (Jack “Legs” Diamond and Dutch Schultz, among them) who sought refuge in the Catskill Mountains, and the resorts that after World War II catered to upwardly mobile Jewish families, giving rise to hundreds of hotels inspired by Grossinger’s, the original “Disneyland with knishes”—the Concord, Brown’s Hotel, Kutsher’s Hotel, and others—in what became known as the Borscht Belt and Sour Cream Alps, with their headliners from movies and radio (Phil Silvers, Eddie Cantor, Milton Berle, et al.), and others who learned their trade there, among them Moss Hart (who got his start organizing summer theatricals), Sid Caesar, Lenny Bruce, Mel Brooks, Woody Allen, and Joan Rivers. Here is a nineteenth-century America turning away from England for its literary and artistic inspiration, finding it instead in Washington Irving’s “Rip Van Winkle” and his childhood recollections (set in the Catskills) . . . in James Fenimore Cooper’s adventure-romances, which provided a pastoral history, describing the shift from a colonial to a nationalist mentality . . . and in the canvases of Thomas Cole, Asher B. Durand, Frederick Church, and others that caught the grandeur of the wilderness and that gave texture, color, and form to Irving’s and Cooper’s imaginings. Here are the entrepreneurs and financiers who saw the Catskills as a way to strike it rich, plundering the resources that had been likened to “creation,” the Catskills’ tanneries that supplied the boots and saddles for Union troops in the Civil War . . . and the bluestone quarries whose excavated rock became the curbs and streets of the fast-growing Eastern Seaboard. Here are the Catskills brought fully to life in all of their intensity, beauty, vastness, and lunacy.
At one time, according to the Catskill Institute, there were more than a thousand hotels spread across the mountains of Greene, Ulster, Delaware, and Sullivan Counties. The Catskills were an exciting world full of pleasures to be enjoyed, with summer and winter activities characterized by entertainment, food, sports, card playing, and food again. Catskill Hotels, with a collection of some two hundred images, tells the story of this world, which began with America's first resort hotel, the Catskill Mountain House, continued with places such as the world-famous Grossinger's, and can still be found today at Kutsher's Country Club, the Mountain House at Lake Mohonk, and a few other hardy resorts.
Starting in 1894, the Passenger Department of the Ulster & Delaware Railroad Company started a publication of "descriptive matter pertaining to the Catskill Mountains; their structure, history, and development as a Summer Resort; the sanitary advantages of summer life in the dry air of high mountain regions; the absolute need of rest and vacation for the busy workers in the city and town; the scenic beauties and wildwood charms so lavishly spread for the delectation of every visitor. It also contains much general information regarding the leading points of interest throughout the range; what and where they are, how to reach them and what to look for. In fact, it is an accurate guide book to the regions reached by this mountain railway system." This issue of the guide was published for the summer season of 1907, at the height of resorts in the Catskill Mountains. The book starts with a description of the benefits of summering in the Catskills, including the beauty, temperate climate, and sanitary advantages of the region. It then goes on to describe the Ulster and Delaware system in that year.The major portion of the book is a travelogue of the resorts and spas along the Ulster and Delaware route, from Kingston to Big Indian, north to Grand Gorge and then west to Oneonta. It also has coverage of the branch lines serving the Greene County area, and offers two pages devoted to the environment and accommodations at each stop along the line. At the end of the volume, the railroad presents a large photo gallery of the major inns, resorts, and hotels and a complete list of Catskill Mountain resorts that are served by the railroad.
Starting in 1894, the Passenger Department of the Ulster & Delaware Railroad Company started a publication of "descriptive matter pertaining to the Catskill Mountains; their structure, history, and development as a Summer Resort; the sanitary advantages of summer life in the dry air of high mountain regions; the absolute need of rest and vacation for the busy workers in the city and town; the scenic beauties and wildwood charms so lavishly spread for the delectation of every visitor. It also contains much general information regarding the leading points of interest throughout the range; what and where they are, how to reach them and what to look for. In fact, it is an accurate guide book to the regions reached by this mountain railway system." This issue of the guide was published for the summer season of 1907, at the height of resorts in the Catskill Mountains. The book starts with a description of the benefits of summering in the Catskills, including the beauty, temperate climate, and sanitary advantages of the region. It then goes on to describe the Ulster and Delaware system in that year.The major portion of the book is a travelogue of the resorts and spas along the Ulster and Delaware route, from Kingston to Big Indian, north to Grand Gorge and then west to Oneonta. It also has coverage of the branch lines serving the Greene County area, and offers two pages devoted to the environment and accommodations at each stop along the line. At the end of the volume, the railroad presents a large photo gallery of the major inns, resorts, and hotels, and a complete list of Catskill Mountain resorts that are served by the railroad. Stonecrest Industries is pleased to republish this book in its entirety as a testament to our local history.