Beaverkill Valley Inn
Encyclopedia
The Beaverkill Valley Inn, formerly known as The Bonnie View, is located off Beaverkill Road (Ulster County
Route 54) north of Lew Beach
, New York, United States. It is a large wooden hotel built near the end of the 19th century.
It was built as a lodge for anglers
coming to fly fish
for trout
in the nearby Beaver Kill. It is one of the few fishing lodges remaining from that era of resort development remaining in the Catskills
, and the only one along the upper Beaver Kill. In 1985 it was listed on the National Register of Historic Places
, the westernmost property in the county with that distinction.
line, at an elevation of 1680 feet (512.1 m) above sea level. There are several other outbuildings and recreational resources on the property besides the inn. All are of recent construction or have been extensively altered from their original appearance; only the inn and the property's section of the river are considered contributing resources
.
The main building is a two-story L-shaped frame
structure with gable
d roof shingled in asphalt and pierced by large gabled dormers with two windows each. It is topped with a cupola
with flared hipped roof
and louver
ed arched vents. Siding is clapboard
giving way to wood shingles in the gable fields.
A shed-roofed veranda, rounded at the northeast corner, supported by square pillars with simple capitals
runs the length of the north, south and east elevations. It is broken by stairways at the center of the six-bay
east (front) facade
, the eastern end of the south, and a porte-cochère
on the north. A railing of square-sawn members also runs the length of the porch; spheres on newel posts are the only decoration
. All windows are flanked with louvered shutters
Three single-story wings have been added to the building. The south one takes in an enclosed portion of the veranda and serves as the manager's apartment. The north one houses the kitchen, with a former porch now enclosed to create more space. A west wing with shed dormers on the roof and a deck at the end provides lounge space for guests.
Inside, a central hall is flanked by sitting rooms on the front and the dining room, reception area on the rear with the stairs. The sitting rooms have their original oak trim and brick-and-stone fireplaces. The dining room has the original trim as well, with a new bay window
added to let more natural light in. The original turned oak spindle
work and balustrade remain on the stairs.
Upstairs, the rooms on the second floor have been enlarged to allow the installation of private bathrooms. The rooms on the third floor are their original size; the shared bathrooms have been enlarged. The original window trim remains on both. The basement has been finished for use as a laundry and game room
.
Near the house are two attached frame barns dating to the property's original construction but enlarged today for use as conference rooms and support facilities for an added swimming pool. A wooded area up the hill screens the inn's tennis court
s. A new springhouse up Barnhart Road replaced a dilapidated original. Hiking trails and footpaths have been built around the property to connect all these facilities and offer their own recreational possibilities.
who headed up it primarily as food rather than recreation. Their abundance had been written about by Washington Irving
as early as 1819, when angling
was just beginning to take hold as a recreational activity in the United States. In 1838 The American Turf Register and Sporting Magazine wrote that the Beaver Kill along with Callicoon and Willowemoc
creeks were "the three finest trout streams in this country; they are comparatively unknown to city anglers and less fished than any others of like pretension within our knowledge."
The Erie Railroad, and later the Ontario and Western
, finally made that region of the Catskills more accessible to city anglers in the later half of the century; they began coming in great numbers. With the decline of the tanning industry and the creation of the state Forest Preserve
in the 1880s, tourism, in the form of visiting fishermen, became the main industry in the southwestern Catskills. Those fishermen in turn developed the uniquely American technique of dry-fly trout fishing, epitomized in the writings of area resident Theodore Gordon
, known in later years as the father of American dry-fly fishing.
In the 1895–1915 period, Gordon and other pioneers developed the art of fly tying
. Early rod builders
perfected the split bamboo fly rod
. A community of anglers developed around the Beaverkill and other Catskill rivers, in and out of the private clubs they established to preserve exclusive rights to river frontage. Their lore named pools and bends. They stocked
and protected and preserved them. In later years they helped prevent the damming of the Beaverkill and Willowemoc for New York City reservoirs.
Hotels and other accommodations were built to cater to sport fishermen during those years, regarded as a golden age of Catskill fly fishing. Three remain today — Antrim Lodge and the Central House in Roscoe
, the center of recreational fishing in the Catskills, and the Beaverkill Valley Inn, founded in 1895 as the Bonnie View by a local married couple. Its architecture is typical of the late Victorian
architectural style
s of its time, with comforts such as its veranda and fireplaces that an affluent male urban guest would have appreciated, built specifically as a fisherman's hotel.
In the early 1980s, new owners renovated the outbuildings, added other recreational facilities and renamed it the Beaverkill Valley Inn. Of the 18 hotels, farmhouses or rooming houses that had fishermen as guests along the upper Beaverkill (above Roscoe), it is the only one intact and in continuous operation today.
Ulster County, New York
Ulster County is a county located in the state of New York, USA. It sits in the state's Mid-Hudson Region of the Hudson Valley. As of the 2010 census, the population was 182,493. Recent population estimates completed by the United States Census Bureau for the 12-month period ending July 1 are at...
Route 54) north of Lew Beach
Lew Beach, New York
Lew Beach is a hamlet in the Town of Rockland, New York, United States. It is at the northernmost corner of the town and thus also of Sullivan County, near the tripoint with Delaware and Ulster counties, within the Catskill Park...
, New York, United States. It is a large wooden hotel built near the end of the 19th century.
It was built as a lodge for anglers
Angling
Angling is a method of fishing by means of an "angle" . The hook is usually attached to a fishing line and the line is often attached to a fishing rod. Fishing rods are usually fitted with a fishing reel that functions as a mechanism for storing, retrieving and paying out the line. The hook itself...
coming to fly fish
Fly fishing
Fly fishing is an angling method in which an artificial 'fly' is used to catch fish. The fly is cast using a fly rod, reel, and specialized weighted line. Casting a nearly weightless fly or 'lure' requires casting techniques significantly different from other forms of casting...
for trout
Trout
Trout is the name for a number of species of freshwater and saltwater fish belonging to the Salmoninae subfamily of the family Salmonidae. Salmon belong to the same family as trout. Most salmon species spend almost all their lives in salt water...
in the nearby Beaver Kill. It is one of the few fishing lodges remaining from that era of resort development remaining in the Catskills
Catskill Mountains
The Catskill Mountains, an area in New York State northwest of New York City and southwest of Albany, are a mature dissected plateau, an uplifted region that was subsequently eroded into sharp relief. They are an eastward continuation, and the highest representation, of the Allegheny Plateau...
, and the only one along the upper Beaver Kill. In 1985 it was listed on the National Register of Historic Places
National Register of Historic Places
The National Register of Historic Places is the United States government's official list of districts, sites, buildings, structures, and objects deemed worthy of preservation...
, the westernmost property in the county with that distinction.
Property
The inn property is a mostly rectangular 60.7 acres (24.6 ha) parcel along Barnhart Road bordered by the Beaver Kill on the south and west, along the stream's flood plain at the foot of a wooded hillside near the Delaware CountyDelaware County, New York
Delaware County is a county located in the U.S. state of New York. As of 2010 the population was 47,980. The county seat is Delhi. It is named after the Delaware River, which was named in honor of Thomas West, 3rd Baron De La Warr, appointed governor of Virginia in 1609.-History:When counties...
line, at an elevation of 1680 feet (512.1 m) above sea level. There are several other outbuildings and recreational resources on the property besides the inn. All are of recent construction or have been extensively altered from their original appearance; only the inn and the property's section of the river are considered contributing resources
Contributing property
In the law regulating historic districts in the United States, a contributing resource or contributing property is any building, structure, or object which adds to the historical integrity or architectural qualities that make the historic district, listed locally or federally, significant...
.
The main building is a two-story L-shaped frame
Framing (construction)
Framing, in construction known as light-frame construction, is a building technique based around structural members, usually called studs, which provide a stable frame to which interior and exterior wall coverings are attached, and covered by a roof comprising horizontal ceiling joists and sloping...
structure with gable
Gable
A gable is the generally triangular portion of a wall between the edges of a sloping roof. The shape of the gable and how it is detailed depends on the structural system being used and aesthetic concerns. Thus the type of roof enclosing the volume dictates the shape of the gable...
d roof shingled in asphalt and pierced by large gabled dormers with two windows each. It is topped with a cupola
Cupola
In architecture, a cupola is a small, most-often dome-like, structure on top of a building. Often used to provide a lookout or to admit light and air, it usually crowns a larger roof or dome....
with flared hipped roof
Hip roof
A hip roof, or hipped roof, is a type of roof where all sides slope downwards to the walls, usually with a fairly gentle slope. Thus it is a house with no gables or other vertical sides to the roof. A square hip roof is shaped like a pyramid. Hip roofs on the houses could have two triangular side...
and louver
Louver
A louver or louvre , from the French l'ouvert; "the open one") is a window, blind or shutter with horizontal slats that are angled to admit light and air, but to keep out rain, direct sunshine, and noise...
ed arched vents. Siding is clapboard
Clapboard (architecture)
Clapboard, also known as bevel siding or lap siding or weather-board , is a board used typically for exterior horizontal siding that has one edge thicker than the other and where the board above laps over the one below...
giving way to wood shingles in the gable fields.
A shed-roofed veranda, rounded at the northeast corner, supported by square pillars with simple capitals
Capital (architecture)
In architecture the capital forms the topmost member of a column . It mediates between the column and the load thrusting down upon it, broadening the area of the column's supporting surface...
runs the length of the north, south and east elevations. It is broken by stairways at the center of the six-bay
Bay (architecture)
A bay is a unit of form in architecture. This unit is defined as the zone between the outer edges of an engaged column, pilaster, or post; or within a window frame, doorframe, or vertical 'bas relief' wall form.-Defining elements:...
east (front) facade
Facade
A facade or façade is generally one exterior side of a building, usually, but not always, the front. The word comes from the French language, literally meaning "frontage" or "face"....
, the eastern end of the south, and a porte-cochère
Porte-cochere
A porte-cochère is the architectural term for a porch- or portico-like structure at a main or secondary entrance to a building through which a horse and carriage can pass in order for the occupants to alight under cover, protected from the weather.The porte-cochère was a feature of many late 18th...
on the north. A railing of square-sawn members also runs the length of the porch; spheres on newel posts are the only decoration
Ornament (architecture)
In architecture and decorative art, ornament is a decoration used to embellish parts of a building or object. Large figurative elements such as monumental sculpture and their equivalents in decorative art are excluded from the term; most ornament does not include human figures, and if present they...
. All windows are flanked with louvered shutters
Window shutter
A window shutter is a solid and stable window covering usually consisting of a frame of vertical stiles and horizontal rails...
Three single-story wings have been added to the building. The south one takes in an enclosed portion of the veranda and serves as the manager's apartment. The north one houses the kitchen, with a former porch now enclosed to create more space. A west wing with shed dormers on the roof and a deck at the end provides lounge space for guests.
Inside, a central hall is flanked by sitting rooms on the front and the dining room, reception area on the rear with the stairs. The sitting rooms have their original oak trim and brick-and-stone fireplaces. The dining room has the original trim as well, with a new bay window
Bay window
A bay window is a window space projecting outward from the main walls of a building and forming a bay in a room, either square or polygonal in plan. The angles most commonly used on the inside corners of the bay are 90, 135 and 150 degrees. Bay windows are often associated with Victorian architecture...
added to let more natural light in. The original turned oak spindle
Spindle (furniture)
A Spindle, in furniture, is an cylindrically symmetric shaft, usually made of wood. A spindle is usually made of a single piece of wood and typically has decoration fashioned by hand or with a lathe...
work and balustrade remain on the stairs.
Upstairs, the rooms on the second floor have been enlarged to allow the installation of private bathrooms. The rooms on the third floor are their original size; the shared bathrooms have been enlarged. The original window trim remains on both. The basement has been finished for use as a laundry and game room
Game Room
Game Room is a gaming service for the Xbox 360 video game system, Microsoft Windows PCs, and Windows Phone 7. Launched on March 24, 2010, Game Room lets players download classic video games and compete against each other for high scores...
.
Near the house are two attached frame barns dating to the property's original construction but enlarged today for use as conference rooms and support facilities for an added swimming pool. A wooded area up the hill screens the inn's tennis court
Tennis court
A tennis court is where the game of tennis is played. It is a firm rectangular surface with a low net stretched across the center. The same surface can be used to play both doubles and singles.-Dimensions:...
s. A new springhouse up Barnhart Road replaced a dilapidated original. Hiking trails and footpaths have been built around the property to connect all these facilities and offer their own recreational possibilities.
History
The combination of minimal arable land, remoteness and continuing land disputes over the Hardenburgh Patent kept the upper Beaverkill Valley from being settled for the first half of the 19th century. The trout in its streams were taken by the few loggers, trappers and (later) tannersTanning
Tanning is the making of leather from the skins of animals which does not easily decompose. Traditionally, tanning used tannin, an acidic chemical compound from which the tanning process draws its name . Coloring may occur during tanning...
who headed up it primarily as food rather than recreation. Their abundance had been written about by Washington Irving
Washington Irving
Washington Irving was an American author, essayist, biographer and historian of the early 19th century. He was best known for his short stories "The Legend of Sleepy Hollow" and "Rip Van Winkle", both of which appear in his book The Sketch Book of Geoffrey Crayon, Gent. His historical works...
as early as 1819, when angling
Angling
Angling is a method of fishing by means of an "angle" . The hook is usually attached to a fishing line and the line is often attached to a fishing rod. Fishing rods are usually fitted with a fishing reel that functions as a mechanism for storing, retrieving and paying out the line. The hook itself...
was just beginning to take hold as a recreational activity in the United States. In 1838 The American Turf Register and Sporting Magazine wrote that the Beaver Kill along with Callicoon and Willowemoc
Willowemoc Creek
Willowemoc Creek is a tributary of Beaver Kill that is a popular trout fishing stream near the Catskill Park in Sullivan County, New York.- Course:...
creeks were "the three finest trout streams in this country; they are comparatively unknown to city anglers and less fished than any others of like pretension within our knowledge."
The Erie Railroad, and later the Ontario and Western
New York, Ontario and Western Railway
The New York, Ontario and Western Railway, more commonly known as the O&W or NYO&W, was a regional railroad with origins in 1868, lasting until March 29, 1957 when it was ordered liquidated by a US bankruptcy judge. The O&W holds the distinction of being the first major U.S...
, finally made that region of the Catskills more accessible to city anglers in the later half of the century; they began coming in great numbers. With the decline of the tanning industry and the creation of the state Forest Preserve
Forest Preserve (New York)
New York's Forest Preserve is all the land owned by the state within the Adirondack and Catskill parks, managed by its Department of Environmental Conservation. These properties are required to be kept "forever wild" by Article 14 of the state constitution, and thus enjoy the highest degree of...
in the 1880s, tourism, in the form of visiting fishermen, became the main industry in the southwestern Catskills. Those fishermen in turn developed the uniquely American technique of dry-fly trout fishing, epitomized in the writings of area resident Theodore Gordon
Theodore Gordon
Theodore Gordon, a consumptive hermit, was a writer who fished the Catskill region of New York State in the late 19th century through the early 20th century. He wrote articles for the Fishing Gazette from 1890 on and published works in Forest and Stream from 1903, sometimes under the pseudonym...
, known in later years as the father of American dry-fly fishing.
In the 1895–1915 period, Gordon and other pioneers developed the art of fly tying
Fly tying
Fly tying is the process of producing an artificial fly to be used by anglers to catch fish via means of fly fishing. Probably the most concise description of fly tying is the one by Helen Shaw, a preeminent American professional fly tyer in Fly-Tying....
. Early rod builders
Fly rod building
Fly rod building is the art of constructing a fly fishing rod to match the performance desires of the individual angler.-Rod blank:Construction of a fly rod starts with the rod blank. The blank is a pole, typically graphite, that forms the core of the rod. Rod blanks are purchased from any one of...
perfected the split bamboo fly rod
Bamboo fly rod
A bamboo fly rod or a split cane rod is a fly fishing rod that is made from bamboo, also referred to as cane. With more than 1,000 different bamboo species and nearly a hundred different kinds, Tonkin Cane is most often used for fishing rods; Calcutta cane has also been used extensively.This...
. A community of anglers developed around the Beaverkill and other Catskill rivers, in and out of the private clubs they established to preserve exclusive rights to river frontage. Their lore named pools and bends. They stocked
Fish stocking
Fish stocking is the practice of raising fish in a hatchery and releasing them into a river, lake, or the ocean to supplement existing populations, or to create a population where none exists...
and protected and preserved them. In later years they helped prevent the damming of the Beaverkill and Willowemoc for New York City reservoirs.
Hotels and other accommodations were built to cater to sport fishermen during those years, regarded as a golden age of Catskill fly fishing. Three remain today — Antrim Lodge and the Central House in Roscoe
Roscoe, New York
Roscoe is a hamlet in Sullivan County, New York, United States. The population was 597 at the 2000 census.Roscoe is in the southwest part of the Town of Rockland, adjacent to New York State Route 17....
, the center of recreational fishing in the Catskills, and the Beaverkill Valley Inn, founded in 1895 as the Bonnie View by a local married couple. Its architecture is typical of the late Victorian
Victorian architecture
The term Victorian architecture refers collectively to several architectural styles employed predominantly during the middle and late 19th century. The period that it indicates may slightly overlap the actual reign, 20 June 1837 – 22 January 1901, of Queen Victoria. This represents the British and...
architectural style
Architectural style
Architectural styles classify architecture in terms of the use of form, techniques, materials, time period, region and other stylistic influences. It overlaps with, and emerges from the study of the evolution and history of architecture...
s of its time, with comforts such as its veranda and fireplaces that an affluent male urban guest would have appreciated, built specifically as a fisherman's hotel.
In the early 1980s, new owners renovated the outbuildings, added other recreational facilities and renamed it the Beaverkill Valley Inn. Of the 18 hotels, farmhouses or rooming houses that had fishermen as guests along the upper Beaverkill (above Roscoe), it is the only one intact and in continuous operation today.