Sullivan County Historical Society & Museum

RETROSPECT by John Conway June 18, 2021 The Light Mr. Griffith Waited For ... A few people sitting on the front porch of a Barryville home on the Delaware River last weekend learned firsthand what moviemakers in the region discovered more than 100 years ago. There is a light that sweeps down the river valley shortly before dusk that is pure magic. G.W. Billy Bitzer, the master cameraman who accompanied legendary director D.W. Griffith to Cuddebackville in the early part of the last century, dubbed it magic hour, and the light Mr. Griffith waited for. It brought Griffith and his crew back to the area year after year before he discovered the advantages of filming in California and became known as the man who invented Hollywood. In June of 1909, Griffith was a rising young director at Biograph Studios in New York when he brought a film crew to Cuddebackville, just over the Orange County line, to escape the city’s oppressive heat. It is believed to be the first time in the fledgling industry’s history that such a large group would embark on such a long journey for such a long stay. Thereafter, such on-location film shoots would be commonplace. Griffith, Bitzer, and a group that included, among others, actress Mary Pickford and actor/director Mack Sennett, rode a ferry to Weehawken, New Jersey, took the O&W Railway to Summitville, and then the branch line that the O&W had constructed (when it assumed ownership of the Port Jervis & Monticello Railroad in 1903) through Port Jervis to Cuddebackville. It was a half a day’s journey. The filmmakers checked in at the Caudebec Innan aging three-story summer hotel that could accommodate 80 guestson the evening of June 26, and shortly after sunrise the next morning began exploring the nearby countryside for suitable locations. In his 1970 book, "D.W. Griffith: The Years at Biograph," Robert M. Henderson wrote: The physical and geographical nature of Cuddebackville to some extent dictated the kinds of stories Griffith could film there. There were several scenic features that would add unusual touches to the backgrounds: the old canal; the Neversink River passing through the hills; impressive rocky cliffs; river rapids; a large pond in a wide place beneath one of the canal dams called 'the Basin' and in the near vicinity there were several stone buildings dating back to colonial days, in reasonably good states of repair. On Tuesday, June 28, Griffith began work on the first of what would become known as his Cuddebackville films, one-reelers that would help establish the grammar of film, as well as the careers of several future Hollywood notables. That first movie was entitled The Mended Lute and it was filmed largely in Oakland Valley, in the town of Forestburgh, about four miles from the inn. In fact, although the Caudebec Inn would always serve as the group’s headquarters on their trips upstate, most of the filming was usually done in Sullivan County. Griffith found that the unspoiled wilderness was perfectly suited to the western and colonial themes of many of his films. According to Henderson, that first Cuddebackville movie was a stirring romance of the Dakotas shot on the banks of the Neversink River. A second Indian picture followed The Indian Runner’s Romancewhich was started on the second day and filmed alternately with The Mended Lute, and featured Mary Pickford as an Indian girl. Griffith and his crew would come back again and again that summer and throughout the next two. During the filming that took place in and around Sullivan County, Griffith experimented with many of the innovative techniques that would later become his trademark, including shooting a scene with three cameras. And, he discovered that magic light. A number of the frequent visitors to the area would eventually become household names in the movie industry. Bitzer, Mack Sennett, Florence Lawrence, Mabel Normand, and Donald Crisp, among them. And Mary Pickford, born in Canada as Gladys Smith, not only made the transition during the Cuddebackville years from frightened ingénue to leading lady, but also began to exhibit the business acumen and movie-making instincts that made her one of America’s richest women after she co-founded United Artists Studios. Griffith and his crew were not the only moviemakers to find Sullivan County a great place to film in 1909. Filmmakers Fred Balshofer and Arthur C. Miller were looking for a place to hide from Thomas Edison and his patent detectives, who were seeking royalties from anyone using Edison’s camera. They eventually ended up in the tiny hamlet of Neversink that summer, where they shot dozens of short westerns. John Conway is the Sullivan County Historian. Email him at [email protected]. PHOTO CAPTION: Director D.W. Griffith and cameraman Billy Bitzer on location in Cuddebackville where they discovered "the light."

RETROSPECT by John Conway June 11, 2021 The Upper Delaware’s First Suspension Bridge ... John A. Roebling was born in Prussia on June 12, 1806. Educated as an engineer, but finding the political unrest in his home country stifling, he emigrated to the U.S. in 1831 with a small group intent on establishing a community where technology could freely advance. They settled in western Pennsylvania, establishing the community of Saxonburg. According to David R. Steinman and Sara Ruth Watson in their 1941 book, Bridges and Their Builders, it was in 1840 that Roebling wrote to suspension bridge designer Charles Ellet, Jr., to offer his help with the design of a bridge near Philadelphia. The study of suspension bridges formed for the last few years of my residence in Europe my favorite occupation ... Roebling wrote. Let but a single bridge of the kind be put up in Philadelphia, exhibiting all the beautiful forms of the system to full advantage, and it needs no prophecy to foretell the effect which the novel and useful features will produce upon the intelligent minds of the Americans. By 1844, Roebling was producing his own proprietary wire rope and building bridges himself. A few years later, he was awarded a contract to constrcut four suspension aqueducts for the D&H Canal, and was well on his way to becoming the most famous suspension bridge builder of his era. Coincidentally, it was the D&H Canal that effectively created the community of Barryville shortly after it began operation in 1828. At that time a ferry boat linked Barryville and Shohola, PA on the opposite side of the Delaware, and that means of conveyance proved adequate in getting goods and people across the river until the Erie Railroad arrived in Shohola in 1849. By that time, Barryville had grown into a bustling center of commerce with a population of about 300, and the need for a bridge spanning the Delaware had become obvious. In 1854, the Barryville and Shohola Bridge Company was formed, with Chauncey Thomas of Shohola as president, in order to construct a suspension bridge to connect the two communities. Mr. Thomas attempted to hire bridge expert John A. Roebling, `Frank T. Dale writes in his 2003 book, Bridges Over the Delaware River, but Roebling was busy on another span in Niagara, New York... and he could not take on the construction of the Shohola bridge. Roebling gave Thomas verbal instructions when he visited the Niagara work site, and followed this up with written instructions. Seven years after the successful opening of Roebling’s Delaware Aqueduct on the canal, Thomas’s span became the first suspension supported vehicular bridge over the river. The ten-foot-wide, single-lane, single-span bridge, 495 feet in length, cost about $9,000 to construct. Built by inexperienced workmen, and without a center support to add stability, it was not a sound structure, and on July 2, 1859, a windstorm completely destroyed it, leaving only the abutments remaining. The bridge was rebuilt, but continued to be problematic, requiring numerous repairs over the years. Finally, on January 1, 1865, a suspension cable snapped and the bridge collapsed, sending several mule-drawn wagons loaded with cargo into the icy waters of the Delaware. The wagon operators survived, but three mules perished and much of the freight was lost. This time, the Barryville and Shohola Bridge Company was unable to come up with the money to rebuild the bridge, and soon went out of business altogether. Chauncey Thomas, long since replaced as the company’s president, purchased the destroyed bridge at a Sheriff’s auction, and set about to reconstruct it. Thomas spent about $4,000 to build a new bridge, this time including a center pier, and that bridge served the two communities until it was replaced by a modern two-lane bridge just downriver in 1941, even surviving the Great Pumpkin Flood of October, 1903, and a subsequent major flood the following spring. The abutments for the old suspension bridge remain, one of which is on River Road in Barryville. And at 2 p.m. on Saturday, June 12John A. Roebling’s birthdaya new historic marker will be unveiled at the site of the abutment by town of Highland co-historian Debra Conwaywho, incidentally, shares the birthday with Roebling. The marker was procured by the non-profit history education group, The Delaware Company, of which Debra serves as Executive Director, with funding provided by The William G. Pomeroy Foundation, and installation by the town of Highland Highway Department. There will be a brief ceremony and remarks at the unveiling, which is open to the public. PHOTO CAPTION: A portion of the Barryville-Shohola Suspension Bridge with the Spring House boarding house to the left. John Conway is the Sullivan County Historian. Email him at [email protected].

RETROSPECT by John Conway May 21, 2021 The House by the Side of the Road ... It was May 21, 1964, and 500 prominent Liberty residents gathered in the new high school auditorium on Buckley Street in the village to celebrate the Golden Anniversary of one of the area’s most successful businesses. The occasion was the 50th anniversary of the founding of the Grossinger, started in 1914 in a small boarding house and now grown to a world-famous panoply of buildings and grounds, known everywhere for its warmth and hospitality, the Liberty Register announced in a front page above-the-fold story in the following day’s edition. The tribute was not so much one honoring the hotel and its world famous reputation, however, as it was recognizing the Grossinger family, who, as the Register noted have lived in a house by the side of the road and have been friends to man. Those words, taken from the 1897 poem, The House by the Side of the Road by Sam Walter Foss, were inscribed on a plaque presented to the family at the end of the 90-minute program. Jennie Grossinger, the matriarch of the famed hostelry, who had once sewed buttonholes in a New York City factory for $1.50 a week, was on hand to accept the plaque, flanked by her children Paul Grossinger and Elaine Grossinger Etess. One of the three children of the hotel’s founders, Jennie had been there from the beginning, and had presided over the exponential growth of the resort in the 1930s and ‘40s. Her father, Selig Grossinger had paid $450 for the run down Longbrook Farm in 1914, with no intention of running a boardinghouse, let alone a famous hotel. He had purchased a farm and had expected to make his living from the soil. This proved to be a difficult task, and the family discussed, but was divided over, the prospect of adding to their meager income by taking in boarders. It was Jennie’s husband, Harry Grossinger, who made the decision that the family should become hoteliers, and it was her mother, Malke, who had been born into a family of innkeepers in Eastern Europe, who made that decision a wise one. But it was Jennie who would ultimately make the hotel one of the most famous in the world, and she graciously accepted the bronze plaque that evening, expressing deep appreciation for the tribute paid the family. Liberty District Principal David E. Panebaker made the presentation, reading from the inscription penned by local newspaperman George A. Yeager. Let me live in a house by the side of the road and be a friend to man, the inscription began. 1914 1964. To the Grossinger family on the 50th anniversary of their renowned resorttheir enterprise has stimulated and enriched the economic life of the areatheir influence has reached into the state, the nation, and parts of the worldtheir kindness and good will has formed a bond of affection between them and the people of our communitythey live in a house by the side of the road and they are friends to man! From their neighbors in the village and town of Liberty. Speakers for the evening included Joseph Fersch, chairman of the group of citizens who organized the event, Mr. Panebaker, Liberty Supervisor William E. Pearson, Liberty mayor Robert Klugman, journalist and author Quentin Reynolds (whom the paper identified as collaborating on a biography of Jennie Grossinger), and Dr. Emanuel Singer, a life-long friend of the family and a representative of Wilberforce University, the oldest Negro university in the country, which has conferred a doctorate of humanities on Mrs. Grossinger, according to the Register account. Retired New York State Court of Appeals Judge Sydney F. Foster acted as Master of Ceremonies. Jennie Grossinger died in 1972. The hotel was sold in 1986, and after several failed attempts to resurrect the property, the buildings were demolished in 2018. John Conway is the Sullivan County Historian. Email him at [email protected]. Join him tomorrow (Saturday, May 22) at the Narrowsburg Union at 3 p.m. (or via ZOOM) for the presentation, "Doctors Say, 'Go to the Mountains!': How the Region's Reputation as a Healing Environment Helped Build the Sullivan County Resort Industry." It is free, but registration is required at www.narrowsburgunion.com/events. PHOTO CAPTION: The Longbrook, which still stands in Ferndale, was the farmhouse purchased by the Grossinger family when they came to Sullivan County in 1914.

Here is an updated list of upcoming programs by Sullivan County Historian John Conway: Thursday, May 20 (6 p.m.): "The Suffragists: The Fight for the Vote in Su...llivan County" at the Hurleyville Performing Arts Centre Cinema. In person and via ZOOM. Ticket required. Contact the HPAC (https://hurleyvilleartscentre.org/) Saturday, May 22 (3 p.m.) "Doctors Say: Go to the Mountains!: How Sullivan County's Reputation as a Healing Environment Helped Build Sullivan County's Resort Industry" at Narrowsburg Union and via ZOOM. Registration required. Go to: https://www.narrowsburgunion.com/events Sunday, May 23 (4 p.m.) "An Apple a Day: Apples and Apple Cider in Sullivan County History" at the Seminary Hill Orchard and Cidery in Callicoon. Live only (outdoors). Open to the public. Saturday, June 5 (9 a.m.) "The O&W Railway" brief remarks at the East Side Trail Head in Hurleyville to celebrate National Trails Day. Open to the public. Masks and social distance requirements will be enforced. Thursday, June 10 (6 p.m.) "Sullivan County's (Not So) Secret Civil War." While most of Sullivan County enthusiastically supported the Union cause during the Civil War, there was a very strong anti-Abraham Lincoln sentiment here, and a number of notable men were known to be Southern sympathizers, or copperheads, as they came to be called. County Historian John Conway discusses the manifestations of those sentiments, and how they sharply divided the village of Monticello." At Ethelbert B. Crawford Public Library in Monticello. Live Outdoors. Free. Call library for more information...845-794-4660.

Here's a look at the ongoing "Kate Project" and the woman who conceived it... CONWAY, KIPLING AND KATE by Johnston Smith BARRYVILLEGrowing up, Debra Conway nev...er cared much for history. What seemed like the endless memorization of dates and events held little interest for her, but writing did, and the intricate weaving together of words and ideas became her hobby of choice. Given her fascination with the written word, it is probably no surprise that she went, albeit with a few detours along the way, from starting an alternative high school newspaper to becoming the first woman editor of a local weekly and then to a regular column in a widely circulated regional daily. And along her circuitous career path she developed her stock in trade: telling stories. Telling them colorfully, and telling them well. Her marriage to history buff John Conway, who shortly thereafter became the official Sullivan County Historian, immersed her-- although not necessarily willingly at firstin the world of local history, a milieu to which she did not immediately respond. It was when she came upon a quote by the British writer Rudyard Kipling that her two worldsthe one of her choosing and the one that had been thrust upon hercame together: If history were taught in the form of stories, it would never be forgotten, Kipling famously wrote. Debra Conway was hooked. Never again would she think of historylocal or otherwiseas the memorization of dates and events. History would forever more be about stories. And no one was better at telling stories than Debra. When she and John purchased a Barryville home on a parcel of land sandwiched between the Delaware River and the remains of the D&H Canal, the spectre of the coal boats being towed through the little town every daybeing towed past her backdoor everydaycaptured Debra’s imagination. It wasn’t what her husband calls the immeasurable economic impact the canal had on the community that she found fascinating, but the stories of the many everyday people who were part of the operation over the years: the widow who made a living baking and selling pies to the crews of the boats lining up to go through one of the locksit became known as the pie lockor the German immigrant who became a world famous engineer by pioneering the use of wire rope in suspension bridges after successfully using that technology for aqueducts on the canal, or the children who were pressed into service taking care of and guiding the horses and mules that towed the canal boats from Honesdale to Kingston and back again. The hoggees. Arguably, the hoggees, who worked on all of New York State’s canals, had the most difficult job on the waterway, Debra says, her vibrant green eyes taking on an additional sparkle as she tells their story. They were boys or girls, who could be as young as ten years old, often runaways or orphans taken out of the foundling homes specifically for the purpose, and they were often treated harshly by the canal boat captains. They were paid less than anyone else on the canal, when they were paid at all, and they worked longer hours than anyone else. Although there is not universal agreement as to the etymology of the name hoggeewas it from the commands haw and gee used to get a horse or mule to turn left or right, or was it a bastardization of hogler, the old English term for a low-level laborer, or did it come from something else?--- it became popular with the advent of the Erie Canal, a forerunner of the D&H, and entered the popular lexicon through its usage in ditties of the day, supposedly sung by the boys and girls to help pass the time as they walked mile after mile hour after hour: Hoggee on the towpath/Don’t know what to say/Walk behind a mule’s behind/All the live-long day. Can you imagine being a ten-year old boy or girl, without any real family, and you have the responsibility of the care and feeding of a team of mulesoften your boss’s most valuable possession as well as guiding them everyday by walking along with them while the coal boat captains and sometimes their families, rode on the boats you were towing? Debra asks. It’s a rhetorical question. But it was the desire to tell the hoggees’ story that prompted her, in her five-year old role as the Executive Director of the non-profit history education group, the Delaware Company, to launch what has become known as the Kate Project. It’s amazing, she recalls. Once I became determined to tell the story, things just began coming together. Two of those things included becoming aware of the bronze sculpture of a hoggee and mule at the Erie Canal Museum in Syracuse, and discovering the E.L. Henry painting On the Towpath, which features a little girl guiding a mule along the D&H Canal a print of which currently hangs in Debra’s home. She decided those two pieces of art could be sort of melded together to form another sculpture, featuring a girl hoggee and a mule that could be Sullivan County’s own. Soon, the Kate Project was taking shape in her mind. The project has morphed into one in which an existing section of D&H towpath downriver from John A. Roebling’s restored wire rope suspension aqueduct across the Delaware River will be extended by about mile to connect to a parking area and eagle observation blind. Along that new section of trail a succession of seating areas will be createdDebra calls them contemplative areaswhere visitors can sit and view the River in front of them. There will also be interpretive signs telling the stories of the canal, including most prominently, that of the hoggees. And somewhere in the middle of all of that, there will be the bronze sculpture. Kate. With a mule. The name, the Kate Project, came about after Debra explained the at-that-point unnamed project to a neighbor, and talked about a community that raised money for a mural by giving donors the opportunity to have their likenesses painted into the mural. How much would it cost for my daughter to be the model for the little girl? the neighbor asked, not altogether seriously. Her daughter, of course, was named Kate. And the nameappropriate because many of the little girls on the canal were Irish immigrants-- stuck. The Kate Project is a daunting undertaking, but not far removed from her successful planning and execution of the Minisink Project, in which she designed, fundraised for, and supervised construction of a monument dedicated to the fallen militia men at the Battle of Minisink, Debra is confident it can be completed by the end of the summer this year. Well, not the sculpture. The sculpture is a major expense, Debra admits. But I think once we complete the other phases of the project, and people experience it, learning the stories, it will be a realistic expense. She has already had conversations with the artist who did the hoggee statue at the Erie Canal Museum, Tom Tischler, who seemed to like the idea of doing a similar statue for the project. The Delaware Company has already completed phase one of the project, which was clearing a viewshed so the Delaware River can be easily seen, and is part way to its goal for phase two, the path, benches, interpretive signs, and a D&H Canal snubbing post. The sculpture of the little girl and the mule will be phase three, which Debra estimates could be two to three years away. She thinks it would appropriate to unveil the statue in 2025, the bicentennial year of the groundbreaking for the canal. That’s the story of the Kate Project, the story of the children of the D&H Canal. Anyone who would like to become part of the project can send a tax-deductible contribution to The Delaware Company at P.O Box 88 in Barryville, NY 12719.

This week's Retrospect...

RETROSPECT by John Conway February 5, 2021 A Civil Warrior ... When the American Civil War broke out in 1861, the population of Sullivan County was more than 32,000, but there were just a handful of African Americans here. Despite their scarcity, they were well represented in the war. Although African Americans from Sullivan County fought with a number of units, including the 20th U.S. Colored Troops, the 26th U.S.C.T. and the 37th U.S.C.T., the largest number were with the 26th. The town of Mamakating had more African Americans fight in the Civil War than any of the 14 towns that made up Sullivan County at the time. Wurtsboro brothers Henry Clay Jackson and Daniel Stanton Jackson enlisted in the 26th. (Another brother, Eli Bennett Jackson, fought with the 20th U.S.C.T.) Mamakating residents John Low and Charles Jarvis were also members of the 26th, as were James Garnett, Judson Sharpe and William Neal of Cochecton, and Theodore Cotton of Barryville. Relatively little is known about these men, although research into their livesin an out of the serviceis continuing. While the accomplishments of individual soldiers has proven difficult to track down, the 26th U.S.C.T has become more well-known than almost any other African American regiment. Some of that is because of the 2016 award-winning film, Civil Warriors. The film focuses on the experiences of two black families from Tompkins County, New York, who have fathers and sons enlisted in the 26th, and according to the movie’s website, their compelling true story unfolds through a unique interweaving of historical images with the rhythm and energy of spoken word performance. Contemporary narration guides us and provides historical context as the story unfolds. The men in ‘Civil Warriors’ stood up to fight for freedoms they barely had, publicity for the film notes. They stood up to be counted as men in a country that called them ‘boy.’ They fought and died, but their stories go largely untold. The film is not only about individual men, but also about all of the soldiers who fought in the USCT; it is a history of black people as active agents in their own struggle -- as subjects, not objects of the Civil War. Their stories need to be told, not only in order to reclaim their rightful place in the shared history of our nation, but also to remind us that we need to participate and remain vigilant in the ongoing struggle for racial justice in our society. Although not specifically a subject of the film, Sullivan County soldier Theodore Cotton’s history with the 26th reads like a movie script. In the summer of 1864, the regiment stormed the Confederate position at John’s Island in South Carolina. According to Fred Fries of the Sullivan County Historical Society, who has researched Cotton’s military record, the 26th broke through the works, scattering its defenders. [Its] push was stalled, however, when fresh Southern reinforcements passed through the retreating Confederates, driving the Union regiment back over the recently captured works and inflicting heavy casualties. The final report submitted by Union officers outlining the battle of John’s Island and the resulting casualties, listed Theodore Cotton, who did not return from the 26th’s advance and retreat, among those who were killed in action. His personal effects were then sent to the Adjutant General’s Office to be sent home. But Theodore Cotton had survived. He had wounds inflicted on his right leg during the heavy fighting, Fries writes. Unable to retreat with his regiment after being overwhelmed by the Rebel counterattack, he was taken prisoner. He was a prisoner of war throughout the remainder of the conflict. Cotton was part of a prisoner exchange with the Confederates on March 4, 1865. His leg wound remained serious, however, and his right leg was eventually amputated, Fries says, adding that Cotton was discharged because of the surgery. Theodore Cotton returned to the five-acre residence on Mail Road in Barryville he had purchased during the spring of 1862, reuniting with his wife, Eliza, and their six children. The Federal census for 1880 lists Theodore, along with his son Phineas, as stone masons. Theodore Cotton died in 1885. The Mail Road property remained in the family until 1935, when his last surviving daughter sold it. John Conway is the Sullivan County Historian. Email him at [email protected]. PHOTO CAPTION: The award-winning 2016 film, "Civil Warriors" is about the 26th U.S.C.T, in which a number of Sullivan County soldiers enlisted.

RETROSPECT By John Conway January 29, 2021 The Hillside Inn ... These days, when one thinks of the most innovative of the old Sullivan County hotels, lots of places are likely to come to mind, including some of the most renowned names in our resort historyGrossinger’s, the Concord, the Flagler and the Youngs Gap, for example. On the other hand, the Hillside Inn, located for many years on Route 97 in Narrowsburg, would probably not make many lists, but it should. Tiny by Sullivan County hotel standards, the Hillside Inn would never be mistaken for the Concord or Grossinger’s, or even Gibber’s or the Hotel Furst, other county hotels open during the winter months, but for more than twenty years it featured a robust winter sports schedule that included a ski area with a snow making operation. For years, the Hillside Inn was popular with bow and rifle hunters, who kept the place busy after most other Narrowsburg area resortsplaces like Dellwood Acres, the Homestead, and the Silver Lake Farm Househad closed for the season. The Hillside also became known among sportsmen from the metropolitan New York area as the place to come for the very best ice fishing in the mountains. As one New York City paper noted, whenever things got a little too dull, Hillside Inn proprietor Nat Feagles would organize another ice fishing tournament. By the mid-1950s, the winter sports activities at the hotel had expanded considerably beyond hunting and fishing. This year, February finds the Sullivan County resort hotels preparing special programs and rate packages for the two long week-end holidays, Lincoln's birthday, February 11 to 14, and Washington's birthday, February 18 through the 22, the Liberty Register newspaper reported in a front page story in its January 27, 1955 edition. The article then mentions the Avon Lodge, Hotel Furst, the Concord, Grossinger’s, Youngs Gap, the Laurels and the Pines as the big resort hotels which will be offering all winter sports topped off by evenings of big name Broadway and Hollywood entertainment. The Register further noted that along the Delaware Valley region of Sullivan County, the Hillside Inn is preparing special activities for many New Yorkers who prefer the country inn atmosphere. There, ice skating, skiing. and tobogganing will prevail and for the sportsman ice fishing parties are the special attraction. During the evenings, special horse-drawn sleigh parties will be organized and there will be square and round dancing in the warm fireside atmosphere of the Hillside Inn’s lounge. The Hillside Inn featured four slopes with rope tows. It was one of eight Sullivan County hotels with ski areas listed in the Times Herald-Record in a September 5, 1970 article previewing winter sports in the area. A number of fine skiing areas, all but one of which has equipment for making snow, makes Sullivan County the ideal winter play spot for those who enjoy zipping down snowy slopes, the Record noted. Local ski areas have gone through many stages, now reaching the point where they are popular with the vacationing skier because they offer a combination of sport and accommodations. It was in Sullivan County that man-made snow was shown to be practical and the resultant publicity gave the process of its manufacture its greatest impetus. The Concord Hotel manufactured snow in color and a descriptive article and color photos in the now defunct Colliers Magazine publicized the fact throughout the nation. The article highlighted nine Sullivan County slopes, including Holiday Mountain Ski Area in Bridgeville, the only one owned and operated solely as a recreational facility. Others listed were Big Vanilla, the Concord, Grossinger’s, the Homowack, Kutsher’s, the Laurels, the Pines, and Hillside Inn. Tusten Town Historian Art Hawker says that in addition to skiing, the Hillside Inn featured a wooden toboggan run across the lake. It ran down the hill from just below the shoulder of State Route 97 to the lake. Hawker says the hotel’s snow making operation used water from Feagles' Lake, which has since been re-named Lake William. He also remembers that one of the primary issues with the ski slopes was that they were facing South and therefore got a lot of sun, which worked to the detriment of the operation. Nat Feagles sold the Hillside Inn in 1969. He died in 1974, and the hotel suffered a devastating fire in 1976, with the ski hill closing shortly thereafter. John Conway is the Sullivan County Historian. Email him at [email protected]. PHOTO CAPTION: An aerial view of the Hillside Inn in Narrowsburg circa 1950.

Still some "seats" left for the Thursday night (January 28) program on The Borscht Belt in Winter" via ZOOM for Ethelbert B. Crawford Public Library in Monticel...lo. Program runs from 6 to 7 p.m., and joining me on the panel will be Marvin Rappaport, whose family owned the Delano Hotel in Monticello and Steve White, who grew up at the Concord Hotel. It promises to be a show you won't want to miss, and I will be discussing it in some detail on WJFF radio tomorrow (Tuesday) night at 6:30 p.m. Here's the link to sign up for the library program...https://ebcpl.libcal.com/event/7330141

RETROSPECT by John Conway January 15, 2021 The Hotel Lenape ... Many of the largest and most successful summer hotels during Sullivan County’s Silver Agethat period of time between approximately 1890 and 1915were located in and around the village of Liberty. The Hotel Wawonda, with its 300 rooms, eight public fireplaces, golf course and mile-long bicycle track, was the grandest of these, setting the standard by which all other local hotels of the era were judged, and numerous hotels such as the Swannanoa, and Ye Lancashire Inn, for example, were only a bit less so. Sadly, none of these hotels made the transition to the county’s Golden Age, as the Swannanoa burned in 1912, the Wawonda in 1914, and Ye Lancashire Inn in 1920. One of Liberty’s prominent Silver Age resorts, however, was not only reborn in time for the Golden Age, but became one of the most well-known hotels in the area. It was the Hall House, later known as the Hotel Lenape. The Hall House, named for owner and operator J.C. Hall, opened in 1890, and as a true Silver Age resort advertised that it was situated on an eminence in the village, in the midst of well-shaded and well-drained grounds. By 1899, the Hall House had been enlarged to 50 fine, airy, pleasant rooms, and was lighted with electricity and is modern in structure and conveniences. The piazza is broad and extensive and the balcony affords a fine view of the village, and an excellent panorama of the surrounding country. But the croquet grounds and amusement room with piano the Hall House depended upon for the amusement of its guests were not sufficient to entertain the more sophisticated tourists of the 20th century, and like most Silver Age resorts, the hotel began to struggle. Unlike many of the other hotels of the era, however, new ownership was able to successfully reinvent the Hall House, not as a resort, but as a modern city hostelry renamed the Hotel Lenape. While plans for the newly configured hotel were announced with great fanfare in the July, 14, 1927 edition of the Liberty Register newspaper, no new name had yet been chosen. That was leaked to the public in the January 23, 1930 edition of the Register, just two weeks before the new hotel officially opened for business. It is unofficially reported that the directors of the Hall House Corporation, owners of the Hall House, Liberty hotel, have been contemplating changing the name of this hotel to the Hotel Lenape. In fact, it is said that the change has practically been decided on, the Register reported in that January 23 paper, adding that with the possession of a new brick building, the hotel directors would get away from the old fashioned connotation of ‘House’ in the name. On Monday, February 10, 1930, the new red tapestry brick, modified Georgian style structure with the stone trim, white frames and cornice, and iron balcony railings designed by Pember and Demers Architects of Albany, opened its doors to more than 280 guests at the 25th annual Lincoln Dinner Republican get-together. The Hotel Lenape, completed except for a soon-to-be finished coffee shop, was hailed as the most modern structure of its kind outside the major cities of the state, with a spacious, two-story high lobby, 50 guest roomseach one with a private bath-- and a dining room that could accommodate 300. From that point on, the Hotel Lenape became a fixture in the village, hosting political dinners, weddings, dances, fundraisers, and many other community functions until it closed its doors on January 24, 1970. By October of that year, the old hotel had been repurposed as apartments for senior citizens with limited income and assets. By that time, the Hall House had long-since been forgotten by all but the most avid history buffs, completely overshadowed by its more well-known reincarnation. John Conway is the Sullivan County Historian. His Retrospect column appears every Friday in the Sullivan County Democrat newspaper. Email him at [email protected]. PHOTO CAPTION: An architect's rendering of the proposed addition to the Hall House as it appeared in the Liberty Register newspaper on July 14, 1927.