Hudson Valley in New York

19 October 2022 | Author/Destination: | Rubric: General, New York City Reading Time:  12 minutes

Empire State Plaza in Albany © UpstateNYer/cc-by-sa-3.0

Empire State Plaza in Albany © UpstateNYer/cc-by-sa-3.0

The Hudson Valley comprises the valley of the Hudson River and its adjacent communities in the U.S. state of New York. The region stretches from the Capital District including Albany and Troy south to Yonkers in Westchester County, bordering New York City. In the early 19th century, popularized by the stories of Washington Irving, the Hudson Valley gained a reputation as a somewhat gothic region characterized by remnants of the early days of the Dutch colonization of New York (“The Legend of Sleepy Hollow“). The area is also associated with the Hudson River School, a group of American Romantic painters who worked from about 1830 to 1870. Following the building of the Erie Canal, the area became an important industrial center. The canal opened the Hudson Valley and New York City to commerce with the Midwest and Great Lakes regions. However, in the mid 20th century, many of the industrial towns went into decline.   read more…

Borscht Belt or Jewish Alps in Upstate New York

4 April 2022 | Author/Destination: | Rubric: General, Hotels Reading Time:  11 minutes

Brickman's pool area in 1977 © Library of Congress - John Margolie

Brickman’s pool area in 1977 © Library of Congress – John Margolie

Borscht Belt, or Jewish Alps, is a colloquial term for the mostly defunct summer resorts of the Catskill Mountains in parts of Sullivan, Orange and Ulster counties in Upstate New York, United States. A source interviewed by Time magazine stated that the visits to the area by Jewish families was already underway “as early as the 1890s … Tannersville … was ‘a great resort of our Israelite brethren’…from the 1920s on [there were] hundreds of hotels”. A 2019 review of the history is more specific: “in its heyday, as many as 500 resorts catered to guests of various incomes”. These resorts, but also the bungalow colonies, were a popular vacation spot for New York City Jews from the 1920s through the 1960s. By the late 1950s, many began closing, with most gone by the 1970s, but some major resorts continued to operate, a few into the 1990s. Grossinger’s Catskill Resort Hotel closed in 1986 and the Concord Resort Hotel struggled to stay open until 1998.   read more…

Mohonk Mountain House

10 November 2021 | Author/Destination: | Rubric: General, Hotels Reading Time:  6 minutes

© Fred Hsu/cc-by-sa-3.0

© Fred Hsu/cc-by-sa-3.0

The Mohonk Mountain House, also known as Lake Mohonk Mountain House, is an American resort hotel located on the Shawangunk Ridge in Ulster County, New York. Its location in the town of New Paltz, New York, is just beyond the southern border of the Catskill Mountains, west of the Hudson River. The National Historic Landmark Program’s “Statement of Significance”, as of the site’s historic landmark designation in 1986, stated:   read more…

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