I picked up this book (Catskill Hotels) in Phoenicia (NY) today for a last-minute Christmas present to give to my parents in Michigan. Spent some time surfing through it this evening. It contains some great photos and brief stories of some of the more famous hotels in the Catskill mountains, along with tidbits about the activities which went on during those hotels’ heydays… While digging up an image of the book cover at Amazon.com, I came across several other intersting books about the Catskills and the Borscht Belt days.
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 AmericaÃs first resort hotel, the Catskill Mountain House, continued with places such as the world-famous GrossingerÃs, and can still be found today at KutsherÃs Country Club, the Mountain House at Lake Mohonk, and a few other hardy resorts.
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