In the early 1800s, the Hudson Valley became a popular vacation spot for rich New York City residents. Developers throughout upstate New York capitalized on this demand for a taste of country life by building large, easily accessible luxury hotels with expensive views, perfect for their rich constituents. The Catskill Mountain House was a popular example of a luxury estate built in the 1820s that catered to rich city folk. Built in 1824 on the side of a cliff, the hotel was surprisingly accessible and well equipped for travelers, making it a popular destination throughout the mid 1800s.
In an attempt to mimic the success of the Catskill Mountain house, the Overlook Mountain House was built a few miles from the town of Woodstock. Unlike the Catskill Mountain House, the Overlook endured the burden of slow train service to and from Woodstock, reports of rattlesnakes, and the occasional spooky rumor that deterred many guests. The hotel began in 1833 as a modest lodge and was unsuccessful in attracting enough business to remain open. By 1871, a new developer named Lewis Wagonen sought to draw more attention by adding more than 300 rooms, but again, the locational issues and negative reports caused the business to tank once again.
In 1875, as it was nearing bankruptcy, the Overlook Hotel mysteriously burned down. It stayed charred and untouched for just three years before a pair of brothers from Kingston bought and rebuilt it. In 1917, they sold the hotel to infamous hotelier Morris Newgold who also owned land in Devil’s Kitchen, widely known as the most haunted place in New York. Unsurprisingly, the Overlook Hotel burned down again under the supervision of Newgold in 1921. Despite Newgold’s efforts to rebuild and privatize the hotel, he couldn’t maintain enough financial stability to keep the land. It was sold to New York State in 1940 and partially torn down.
Pictured below are the skeletal remains of the haunted Overlook Mountain House. We hiked up Overlook Mountain for about 40 minutes before reaching the hotel. After walking around for a few minutes, we determined with certainty that not only was the hotel extremely creepy, but it definitely was and probably is haunted. We recommend that hikers and explorers visit during the day.
One of our biggest takeaways—other than the spookiness of this particular trip—was that preservation, abandonment, and development upstate versus in the city are very different for reasons that we hadn’t really considered before. The time and resources it would take to preserve a space and structure as large as the Overlook Hotel is immensely different from protecting the facade of a two-story Greenwich Village townhouse. Additionally, we’ve found that if the State is responsible for protecting and preserving land, it suffers to a larger degree than if it is privately owned. So, while New York will repossess land when property owners can no longer afford it, they will simultaneously leave the land to decay indefinitely. This ultimately told us that if historical preservation is not in the best financial interest of New York State, it will not happen.
