{"id":22,"featured":0,"modified":"2023-03-06 02:46:08","latitude":42.19522097682560257680961512960493564605712890625,"longitude":-74.034683552666962214061641134321689605712890625,"title":"Catskill Mountain House","address":"","thumbnail":"https:\/\/discover.latinocatskills.com\/files\/square_thumbnails\/3bf6f49ea7cd6486d598d60b26d44a7c.jpg","creator":["Cristina P\u00e9rez Jim\u00e9nez"],"description":"

The first of the grand resorts in the Catskills region, the Catskill Mountain House opened to the public in 1824 and quickly rose to become one of the most famous hotels in nineteenth-century America. Built on an impressive mountaintop ledge, known as Pine Orchard, in the hamlet of Haines Falls, the hotel\u2019s spectacular vistas were immortalized by the American Romantic movement. In the bestselling 1823 novel The Pioneers<\/em>, James Fenimore Cooper describes the awe-inspiring view at Pine Orchard as revealing \u201cCreation\u201d; it was a place to witness \u201call that God had done or man could do, far as eye could reach.\u201d The Catskill Mountain House and its sublime views inspired the Hudson River School artists, many of whom stayed there, including Thomas Cole and Frederic Edwin Church. In operation until 1941, the hotel attracted numerous other notable guests, including Spanish, Latin American, and Latino diplomats, politicians, writers, and wealthy businessmen.<\/p>\n

The Cuban national hero and poet Jos\u00e9 Mart\u00ed (1853\u20131895) visited the Catskill Mountain House, or, as he refered to it, \"la Casa del Monte,\" during a summer weekend in 1888. Mart\u00ed vividly describes its stunning signature views in a newspaper article: \u201cdesde donde, como del tope de enorme anfiteatro, se divisa la maravilla del valle del Hudson, con su r\u00edo como el mar, lleno de los vapores blancos veraniegos, y sus retazos de selva, y sus trigales ya cobrizos.\u201d In August 1891, Mart\u00ed\u2019s personal secretary and close friend, who would later become a government minister in the Republic of Cuba, Gonzalo de Quesada Ar\u00f3stegui <\/span>(1868<\/span>\u2013<\/span>1915)<\/span>, stayed there.<\/span> A Cuban raised in New York City, <\/span>Quesada Ar\u00f3stegui authored numerous works of non-fiction, including Our War with Spain and the Conquest of the Philippines<\/em>, America's Battle for Cuba's Freedom<\/em>, Free Cuba<\/em> and Arbitration in Latin America<\/em>. He also published essays, reviews, and cr\u00f3nicas, and served on the editorial board of Patria<\/em>, the official newspaper of the Cuban Revolutionary Party. In 1910, Tom\u00e1s Andr\u00e9s Estrada Palma, the son of Cuba\u2019s first president, honeymooned with his Mexican-born bride, Helen Douglas Browne, at the Catskill Mountain House. Estrada carved his name with the date 1910 in a scenic rock outcropping on the hotel grounds. It is still visible today among the property\u2019s ruins.<\/p>\n

Given its longevity and popularity with well-heeled visitors, the Catskill Mountain House underwent several expansions during its more than a century of operation. It was initially built in a restrained Federal style with a modest number of accommodations. In 1845, it was remodeled, acquiring a more fashionable neoclassical fa\u00e7ade framed by large columns and an expansive veranda facing the overlook. At its peak, the Catskill Mountain House had some 300 rooms that could accommodate more than 500 guests. Besides the stunning views, which were especially striking at sunrise, the hotel offered access to placid lakes, trails, overlooks, and brooks. Guests enjoyed its many luxurious amenities, which included \u201ca beauty parlor, an in-house physician, a book and stationery shop, a bakery, a bowling alley, a billiard room, a resident orchestra, a solarium, a casino, and a full post office.\u201d The restaurant and grand gilded ballroom were also major attractions.<\/p>\n

Comparable only to a few other establishments in size and grandeur, the Catskill Mountain House was nevertheless much more isolated than its rivals. Whereas most large hotels in the region were built close to rail stations or roads, the Mountains House, perched on an escarpment 1,630 feet above the valley, was accessible only by a daylong stage ride, until 1892, when a cable funicular railroad was connected to the site, facilitating access and greatly reducing travel time.<\/p>\n

In June 1849, an anonymous Spanish-American writer shared his impressions of the imposing Catskill Mountain House in a serialized travel account published in the New York Hispanic periodical La Cr\u00f3nica<\/em>. He wrote, \u201cDesde una distancia considerable atrae las miradas del viajero, en la orilla Oeste del Hudson, la monta\u00f1a llamada Catskill, rodeada de una neblina no tan opaca que no permita descubrir un hotel blanco y espacioso, situado en el mismo v\u00e9rtice, al cual se ha dado el nombre de Mountain House, o Casa de la Monta\u00f1a.\u201d The writer emphasized the popularity of the Catskill Mountain House during the summer season and encouraged his Spanish-speaking readership to visit, noting that there were many affordable conveyances transporting travelers to the property. Those who made the uphill trek were rewarded upon arrival: \u201cDesde la Casa de la Monta\u00f1a puede recorrer la vista una distancia de m\u00e1s de 60 millas, y gozar de una de las perspectivas m\u00e1s pintorescas.\u201d This view, which memorably inspired some of the earliest, distinctively \u201cAmerican\u201d literary and artistic movements, also roused the spirits and imaginations of the Spanish, Latin American, and Latino guests\u2014including politicians, independence leaders, and writers\u2014who stayed there. <\/span><\/p>","sponsor":"","subtitle":"or La Casa del Monte","accessinfo":"Demolished. Its ruins are accessible via a short hike from the North-South Lake State Campground.","lede":"Among its many thousands of guests, the famous Catskill Mountain House served a well-heeled Spanish, Latin American, and Latino client\u00e8le","website":"https:\/\/www.greatnortherncatskills.com\/attractions\/catskill-mountain-house-site<\/a>","related_resources":["Cooper, James Fenimore. The Pioneers<\/em>. New York, Charles Wiley, 1823.","Forsell, Mary. \u201cHaute Hotels.\u201d Hudson Valley Magazine<\/em>, 8 Feb 2010, https:\/\/hvmag.com\/life-style\/history\/haute-hotels\/.","Mart\u00ed, Jos\u00e9. \u201cEn Los Estados Unidos.\u201d Obras Completas<\/em>, vol. 12, Centro de Estudios Martianos, 2011, pp. 49\u201357, http:\/\/biblioteca.clacso.edu.ar\/Cuba\/cem-cu\/20150114045358\/Vol12.pdf. Originally published in La Naci\u00f3n<\/em> [Buenos Aires, Argentina], 2 Nov 1888.","\u201cMiss Helen Browne A Bride: Wedded to Thomas Estrada Palma, Son of Late President.\u201d New York Times<\/em>, 7 Aug 1910, p. 9.","\u201cPaso de un convaleciente: De Nueva York A Niagara.\u201d La Cr\u00f3nica<\/em> [New York, NY], 4 July 1849, p. 576."],"factoids":[],"files":{"https:\/\/discover.latinocatskills.com\/files\/fullsize\/3bf6f49ea7cd6486d598d60b26d44a7c.jpg":{"id":10,"mime-type":"image\/jpeg","title":"Catskill Mountain House","thumbnail":"https:\/\/discover.latinocatskills.com\/files\/square_thumbnails\/3bf6f49ea7cd6486d598d60b26d44a7c.jpg","description":"Black & white photograph of the Catskill Mountain House in 1892, with a party of guests in the foreground. | A. Loeffler"},"https:\/\/discover.latinocatskills.com\/files\/fullsize\/2c6d7fe2fdd077869259e66c2d2e270d.jpg":{"id":15,"mime-type":"image\/jpeg","title":"Graffito","thumbnail":"https:\/\/discover.latinocatskills.com\/files\/square_thumbnails\/2c6d7fe2fdd077869259e66c2d2e270d.jpg","description":"The carving of "T. Estrada Palma" with the date August 1910 in a scenic rocky outcropping on the grounds of the Catskill Mountain House. Tom\u00e1s Andr\u00e9s Estrada Palma, the son of Cuba\u2019s first president, was then honeymooning at the hotel with his Mexican-born wife, Helen Douglas Browne. | smugmug.com<\/a> | Michael Clifford"}}}