Town of Hunter Tidbits: A brief history of the Mountain Top Historical Society | Columnists
3 min read
Today’s Mountain Major Tidbit historical past is about the Lox-Hurst home that houses the Mountain Prime Historic Culture. It’s experienced a extensive, exciting historical past before it was procured when Justine Hommel was at the helm of the MTHS. No, this lodge was in that spot but went by a new name, The La Cascade, meaning “A Waterfall.” Its new house owners ended up Paul and Lucienne Dumas. They were being regarded for their distinctive cooking fashion and had beforehand operated a restaurant in Paris, France.
The heading fee then, like your meals, was about $60 for each particular person for each 7 days (about $590 nowadays). Their daughter, Fran Dumas Hoose, lives in Haines Falls, while her son, Randy, and daughter, Cindy, continue being in the space. (Its fun cellular phone selection, 456, was upgraded to 589-6430 in about 1963).
Very minimal Data seemed to be published when owned by the Dumas family members, even though they owned it for additional than 10 yrs. Various content were uncovered following the Jamet brothers bought it from the Dumas relatives. They went back into the early 1960s.
In 1966, a New York Times author, Craig Claiborne, wrote: “There is a twisting, turning, rock-rimmed road that leads to the La Cascade, a hotel and restaurant that has for a slogan, “A Touch of France in the Catskills.”
Claiborne reported the restaurant was truly worth a detour to the mountains. He said the kitchen produced its delicacies, served household-design. Claiborne explained it as hors d’oeuvre, hen crepes, or scorching quiche Lorraine, soup, salad, an beautiful meal, and ended with coffee and dessert. Stroll-ins paid the price of $4.50 for meal and an additional $4.50 for a fantastic bottle of wine. ($4.50 is equivalent today to $40.25).
Claiborne reported the interior was cordial. The primary place experienced an upright piano in the corner and a deer-skin rug on the wall. The bar walls had two mounted deer heads overhead.
The price was $10 to $16, relying on no matter whether you had a private tub and the dimension of the home accommodations. ($10 for place and board for a working day equals about $92 these days.)
An exciting ski contest was held in 1963, just three or 4 several years after Hunter Mt. Ski Bowl opened. The contest required a letter (of 50 words and phrases or considerably less) to be despatched to the Brooklyn Eagle newspaper, telling them why you want to study to ski. It gave five days of no cost space and board at the La Cascade, 5 times of free snowboarding, and two hours of ski lessons day by day: a after-in-a-life time family family vacation.
The La Cascade did perfectly for many years right up until Louis Jamet offered it someday in advance of 1978. (Thanks to MTHS board member, Debbie Fromer, for delivering the subsequent info). New homeowners operated it as a dude ranch until eventually it ws missing in foreclosures. Jamet at the time all over again owned it for a few a long time ahead of advertising it to a partnership. It ran productively as the Hunter Mountain Dude Ranch, managed for many years by the effectively-liked Anna and Purple Flechter.
It went from C. A. Martin’s Lox-Hurst, circa 1884, to the La Cascade, about 1945, and later the Hunter Mt. Dude Ranch. The property carries on its appealing background as the Mountain Best Historical Modern society
