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When the Catskill Mountain House was built in 1832 on the rocky escarpment high on the mountain back of Catskill on the Hudson, 65 per cent of the population of the U.S. was concentrated on the Atlantic slope between the Alleghenies and the ocean. This distribution of population gave the Catskills an unparalleled geographic importance and made them the focus of the summer entertainment industry in the eastern part of the country.
The Mountain House was enlarged through the years until it became a structure 300 feet in width and nearly 200 feet deep with accommodations for over 500 guests. A piazza 140 feet long graced the front portico with its 13 Corinthian columns. The hotel owed about 3,000 acres of forest land including two lakes. Miles of trails led to scenic vantage points. For many years the Catskill Mountain House was the cultural, intellectual and political summer capital of the eastern United States. To it repaired the political greets, the artists, the writers, the philosophers and arbiters of fashion. It was the birthplace and headquarters of the Hudson River School of painters, James Fenimore Cooper, Washington Irving, William Cullen Bryant and other authors patronized it and extolled its virtues.
Until 1870 the only access to the Mountain House was a steep, tortuous road traversed by stage coaches from Catskill. Then the railroads came and the picture changed. Construction on the Ulster & Delaware was started at Kingston in 1868 and by 1870 the road had reached Phoenicia whence a spur was pushed up Stony Clove to Hunter, deep in the mountains. In 1883 this was extended to South Lake, on the very back doorstep of the Mountain House. During this period the Hotel Kaaterskill, the Grand Hotel at Pine Hill and other large hostelries were opened.
In 1892 the Otis Elevated Railroad, the first of its kind in America, was built from the base of the mountain up the steep incline to the Mountain House. This was in operation until 1917. In 1962 the state of New York acquired the Catskill Mountain House property. The hotel had been partially demolished during the 1950s for the salvage value of its materials and during the winter of 1963 what remained was deliberately burned." From: Oneonta Star, "Story of a Resort" by Ed. Moore, August 29, 1967.
Exhibition History"William H. Bartlett and His Imitators," Arnot Art Gallery, Elmira, NY, October 23 - December 4, 1966.
Artist
James Burt
Two Lakes & Mountain House In the Catskills
Date1839
MediumOil on canvas
DimensionsSight: 24 × 36 1/4 in. (61 × 92.1 cm)
Object numberN0396.1961
Credit LineCollection of the Fenimore Art Museum. Gift of Stephen C. Clark
Photograph by Richard Walker
Label TextWhen the famous hostelry closed its doors in 1942 after 120 years of continuous operation an era ended for the Catskill Mountains.There are still many summer resorts in Greene, Ulster, Delaware and Sullivan counties and thousands of people spend the hot months there, but these locations are mostly in the valleys and on the lower mountain slopes. The huge and palatial hotels which once occupied the high plateaus are long gone and their extensive grounds have reverted to the wilderness out of which they were cleared.When the Catskill Mountain House was built in 1832 on the rocky escarpment high on the mountain back of Catskill on the Hudson, 65 per cent of the population of the U.S. was concentrated on the Atlantic slope between the Alleghenies and the ocean. This distribution of population gave the Catskills an unparalleled geographic importance and made them the focus of the summer entertainment industry in the eastern part of the country.
The Mountain House was enlarged through the years until it became a structure 300 feet in width and nearly 200 feet deep with accommodations for over 500 guests. A piazza 140 feet long graced the front portico with its 13 Corinthian columns. The hotel owed about 3,000 acres of forest land including two lakes. Miles of trails led to scenic vantage points. For many years the Catskill Mountain House was the cultural, intellectual and political summer capital of the eastern United States. To it repaired the political greets, the artists, the writers, the philosophers and arbiters of fashion. It was the birthplace and headquarters of the Hudson River School of painters, James Fenimore Cooper, Washington Irving, William Cullen Bryant and other authors patronized it and extolled its virtues.
Until 1870 the only access to the Mountain House was a steep, tortuous road traversed by stage coaches from Catskill. Then the railroads came and the picture changed. Construction on the Ulster & Delaware was started at Kingston in 1868 and by 1870 the road had reached Phoenicia whence a spur was pushed up Stony Clove to Hunter, deep in the mountains. In 1883 this was extended to South Lake, on the very back doorstep of the Mountain House. During this period the Hotel Kaaterskill, the Grand Hotel at Pine Hill and other large hostelries were opened.
In 1892 the Otis Elevated Railroad, the first of its kind in America, was built from the base of the mountain up the steep incline to the Mountain House. This was in operation until 1917. In 1962 the state of New York acquired the Catskill Mountain House property. The hotel had been partially demolished during the 1950s for the salvage value of its materials and during the winter of 1963 what remained was deliberately burned." From: Oneonta Star, "Story of a Resort" by Ed. Moore, August 29, 1967.
Exhibition History"William H. Bartlett and His Imitators," Arnot Art Gallery, Elmira, NY, October 23 - December 4, 1966.
On View
On view
