This was the era of the "Grand Hotels"; immense wooden buildings that catered to the rich and famous. Very few of these remain standing. One of the last remaining hotels was the Hunter House, located on Main Street in Hunter, which in recent years had been operating as the "Heartbreak Hotel" until it burned to the ground in 1994. The largest of the hotels were the massive Hotel Kaaterskill (right), which was located in Haines Falls, and the famous Catskill Mountain House (below) that commanded a magnificent view of the Hudson Valley. Located on a rock ledge by North Lake overlooking Palenville with a view of five states (NY, MA, CT, NH, VT), the Catskill Mountain House was first opened in 1824. Through the last half of the 19th century, the Mountain House was the resort of Presidents and Prime Ministers, artists and writers, nature-worshippers, and families of the elite for summer-long holidays

The Legend of Rip Van Winkle
Since the late 19th century, the Mountaintop has gone through many changes. The area was originally settled by the Dutch in the early 1700's. But until the late 19th century, when the tourism trade began to boom, only the few local townspeople knew of the beauty and charm of the northern Catskills.
This was the era of the "Grand Hotels"; immense wooden buildings that catered to the rich and famous. Very few of these remain standing. One of the last remaining hotels was the Hunter House, located on Main Street in Hunter, which in recent years had been operating as the "Heartbreak Hotel" until it burned to the ground in 1994. The largest of the hotels were the massive Hotel Kaaterskill (right), which was located in Haines Falls, and the famous Catskill Mountain House (below) that commanded a magnificent view of the Hudson Valley. Located on a rock ledge by North Lake overlooking Palenville with a view of five states (NY, MA, CT, NH, VT), the Catskill Mountain House was first opened in 1824. Through the last half of the 19th century, the Mountain House was the resort of Presidents and Prime Ministers, artists and writers, nature-worshippers, and families of the elite for summer-long holidays

	Until 1881, the Mountaintop was only accessible by bumpy stage-coach ride. That year a railroad line was completed from Phoenicia to Hunter. Sections of this railway are still visible in the "notch", alongside Route 214. As the area's popularity grew, a railroad line was built from Catskill to Palenville, and an Otis Elevating Railway was constructed up the steep incline from Palenville to the Mountaintop in 1891. The clearing for this railway is still visible today. Steamboats ferried guests from New York City to Catskill, where they took the train and inclined railway to the Mountain House. There was also train service on the mountaintop, the Catskill & Tannersville, better known as the "Huckleberry Railroad". The main line ran from The Catskill Mountain House west, through Haines Falls, Tannersville and Hunter, and continued west through Stamford.

But the automobile brought the decline of the railroads, as transportation became easier and more affordable. By the 1920's, the Hotels began to fall into disrepair, as visitors streamed by in their cars, heading for places farther from home. The remains of the once-grand Catskill Mountain House was burned in 1963, when New York State acquired the land where it was located.