Resort/Hotel with a nice pool

joshua_segal

Looks like the Nevele needs a little TLC, maybe a good follow up project for Mike @ Tenney?
Probably going the same way as Grossingers. The customers for the Jewish Alps are mostly dead or living in warmer climates.
Most of those places in the Catskills, including but not limited to, Grossinger's, the Nevele, Kutcher's, the Concord, etc. were hotel/resorts for which the skiing was a secondary amenity. The last few remnants of that culture are in places like the Woodstock Inn (Suicide Six) and Purity Resort (King Pine).

The "Jewish Alps scene" passed into history (as did their ski areas and golf courses) because of changes in American culture. PBS did a documentary on it that is well beyond the scope of a skiing history thread!
And demographic changes. Big decline in the Jewish population in NYC between 1950 and 2002. From 2,000,000 to 972,000 according to Wikipedia. The modern Jewish travel habit changed as you mentioned above. Why spend a lot of money vacationing in the Catskills, when for the same amount of money, the world is at you're feet.

This is a skiing website, so we probably should avoid sociology but you said, "the modern Jewish travel habit changed ..."

I think you can drop the word "Jewish" from your sentence. Modernity has changed what constitutes a vacation across all social, ethnic and religious communities.

sugarloaf

Looks like the Nevele needs a little TLC, maybe a good follow up project for Mike @ Tenney?
Probably going the same way as Grossingers. The customers for the Jewish Alps are mostly dead or living in warmer climates.
Most of those places in the Catskills, including but not limited to, Grossinger's, the Nevele, Kutcher's, the Concord, etc. were hotel/resorts for which the skiing was a secondary amenity. The last few remnants of that culture are in places like the Woodstock Inn (Suicide Six) and Purity Resort (King Pine).

The "Jewish Alps scene" passed into history (as did their ski areas and golf courses) because of changes in American culture. PBS did a documentary on it that is well beyond the scope of a skiing history thread!
And demographic changes. Big decline in the Jewish population in NYC between 1950 and 2002. From 2,000,000 to 972,000 according to Wikipedia. The modern Jewish travel habit changed as you mentioned above. Why spend a lot of money vacationing in the Catskills, when for the same amount of money, the world is at you're feet.
This is a skiing website, so we probably should avoid sociology but you said, "the modern Jewish travel habit changed ..."

I think you can drop the word "Jewish" from your sentence. Modernity has changed what constitutes a vacation across all social, ethnic and religious communities.

No disrespect intended. Just my experience in my neighborhood. Lots of neighbors and friends visited these places, but there children weren't interested.

I'm done posting on this subject.

rickbolger

Modernity has changed what constitutes a vacation across all social, ethnic and religious communities.

This got me thinking. (sorry) One of the culprits usually mentioned in the "death of the Catskills" articles is air travel, and I agree 100%.

Take a family from Boston to California today, it's $440 per person (average). Try that in 1940 and in today's dollars it would be like spending $4000. per person. Plus it would take 15 hours each way. Balsams, Catskills, Poconos were a no-brainer for a family vacation, well into the 1970s. Pricing remained out-of-reach for most family vacations until the 1980s after airlines were deregulated (1979).

Modernity!

« Previous Page