Mamakating Park Historic District
Encyclopedia
The Mamakating Park Historic District is located on the ridge north of Masten Lake on the highest ground in the Town of Mamakating
, New York, United States. It is a Catskill
vacation community, originally intended to be the much larger Sullivan County Club, built in the 1890s.
It includes several dozen Late Victorian
cottages, most of which are as they were originally built, arranged around the site of a former hotel building, and some other buildings from the mid-20th century. These few elements show the essential ideas of the much larger original resort plan. In 1998 it was recognized as a historic district
and listed on the National Register of Historic Places
.
s, the only open space. A small rise near the south end of the horseshoe is, at 1648 feet (502.3 m) above sea level, the highest point in the Town of Mamakating.
It includes 48 buildings, all but three of which date to the time of the community's original construction and are thus considered contributing properties
to its historic character. The site of the former hotel, and some of its dependencies such as a chapel
and casino
, are also contributing. Some of the original landscaping is still in place as well.
Most of the houses are frame
, built in styles
typical of their fin-de-siécle era, such as the Shingle style, after the main hotel. They are characterized by Late Victorian
touches such as large verandas, cross-gabling
and eclectic use of decorative
elements.
. Its scale may have been inspired by Tuxedo Park
, America's first gated community
, in neighboring Orange County
. It had some curving streets and rustic, forest-inspired names like Fox Trail and Maplewood Lane (never built), but mostly follows a grid layout more typical of wilderness religious camp meeting
s of the era, which tend to cluster groups of cottages around structures of communal function and importance, rather than curving and winding as streets in Tuxedo Park and similar communities do.
Like other mountain resort communities, the homes in the original plan were sited to take advantage of their natural location. The grid extended north and south along the ridge, with many houses to have been built close to the street where the land dropped off sharply. That would have allowed them to take in the view to the Shawangunks over Wurtsboro in that direction, or the Catskills to the north and west.
Club, a group of New York City
businessmen who planned a Catskill vacation community similar in design to Elka Park
and Onteora Park
in Greene County
, but much larger in scale. For much of the 19th century, Masten Lake to the south had been owned by the Delaware and Hudson Canal Company
and reserved for use as a fedder reservoir, but with traffic on the canal declining to a miniumum as railroads displaced it, it had started to become a summer resort destination for city residents looking for fresh air.
In 1893, the club bought 4600 acres (1,861.6 ha), including the lake and the ridge north of it, from a Yonkers
family with the intent of developing
it into a summer cottage community surrounding a large hotel., taking advantage of the views of the Shawangunk Ridge
to the southeast. Recent extensions of the Orange & Western Railroad into Sullivan County made the area accessible within a day's travel to city residents, and after the subdivision of the land, 2,000 half-acre (2,000 m²) lots
were put on sale the next year at an initial price of $100 ($ in 2009 dollars) each. Demand was such that the club members were soon able to increase their asking price to $125 ($).
With 359 lots sold by 1894, the club contracted the New York firm of Delhi & Lawrence to design the main hotel and considered building a cable railroad
to improve access to the club from the nearby village of Wurtsboro
. But in 1897, delayed economic fallout from the Panic of 1893
finally led to the original plans being shelved after the hotel and 20 lots near it had been developed.
In 1902, after the Sullivan County Club was foreclosed
on, a new group of investors calling itself the Mamakating Park Company bought the hotel and the remaining undeveloped lots. They promoted the resort aggressively in New York newspapers, with the added bonus of many of the cottage owners renting them out for periods of time, and slowly added amenities such as a multicar garage that reflected the rise of automobile travel. In 1913 they were successful enough to run ads noting that "temperance priniciples will be adhered to" and that tuberculosis
patients were restricted.
Another economic downturn, the Great Depression
of the 1930s, led the Mamakating Park Company to fold, and the hotel and its properties were leased to different operators. Late in the decade, newly affluent Jews began moving in (leading some other residents to move out). They effected the construction of the casino, barber shop and some other buildings in the hotel complex, and organized as the Mamakating Park Property Owners Civic Association after World War II
and bought a section of lakefront property for members to use.
After the hotel finally shut down in the 1950s, a summer camp
bought the property and used the buildings. The hotel itself was destroyed in a 1970s fire. During the 1980s, a few new houses were built on the remaining vacant lots. In the late 1990s, the camp began restoring
some of the other buildings.
Mamakating, New York
Mamakating is a town in Sullivan County, New York, United States. The population was 11,002 at the 2000 census.The Town of Mamakating is in the southeast part of the county.- History :...
, New York, United States. It is a Catskill
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...
vacation community, originally intended to be the much larger Sullivan County Club, built in the 1890s.
It includes several dozen 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...
cottages, most of which are as they were originally built, arranged around the site of a former hotel building, and some other buildings from the mid-20th century. These few elements show the essential ideas of the much larger original resort plan. In 1998 it was recognized as a historic district
Historic district (United States)
In the United States, a historic district is a group of buildings, properties, or sites that have been designated by one of several entities on different levels as historically or architecturally significant. Buildings, structures, objects and sites within a historic district are normally divided...
and 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...
.
Geography and properties
The district is a 40 acres (16.2 ha) area around the horseshoe-shaped junctions of Columbian Road, Mamakating Avenue and Park Road, extending to the north from its northeast corner to include the houses along Park there. It is mostly wooded, with the middle of the horseshoe, where the former hotel was located along with its still-extant tennis courtTennis 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, the only open space. A small rise near the south end of the horseshoe is, at 1648 feet (502.3 m) above sea level, the highest point in the Town of Mamakating.
It includes 48 buildings, all but three of which date to the time of the community's original construction and are thus considered contributing properties
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...
to its historic character. The site of the former hotel, and some of its dependencies such as a chapel
Chapel
A chapel is a building used by Christians as a place of fellowship and worship. It may be part of a larger structure or complex, such as a church, college, hospital, palace, prison or funeral home, located on board a military or commercial ship, or it may be an entirely free-standing building,...
and casino
Casino
In modern English, a casino is a facility which houses and accommodates certain types of gambling activities. Casinos are most commonly built near or combined with hotels, restaurants, retail shopping, cruise ships or other tourist attractions...
, are also contributing. Some of the original landscaping is still in place as well.
Most of the houses are 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...
, built in styles
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...
typical of their fin-de-siécle era, such as the Shingle style, after the main hotel. They are characterized by 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...
touches such as large verandas, cross-gabling
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...
and eclectic use of decorative
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...
elements.
Aesthetics
The plan for what became Mamakating Park was laid out by William Henry Baldwin, an engineer from YonkersYonkers, New York
Yonkers is the fourth most populous city in the state of New York , and the most populous city in Westchester County, with a population of 195,976...
. Its scale may have been inspired by Tuxedo Park
Tuxedo Park, New York
Tuxedo Park is a village in Orange County, New York, United States. The population was 731 at the 2000 census. It is part of the Poughkeepsie–Newburgh–Middletown, NY Metropolitan Statistical Area as well as the larger New York–Newark–Bridgeport, NY-NJ-CT-PA Combined...
, America's first gated community
Gated community
In its modern form, a gated community is a form of residential community or housing estate containing strictly-controlled entrances for pedestrians, bicycles, and automobiles, and often characterized by a closed perimeter of walls and fences. Gated communities usually consist of small residential...
, in neighboring Orange County
Orange County, New York
Orange County is a county located in the U.S. state of New York. It is part of the Poughkeepsie–Newburgh–Middletown, NY Metropolitan Statistical Area and is located at the northern reaches of the New York metropolitan area. The county sits in the state's scenic Mid-Hudson Region of the Hudson Valley...
. It had some curving streets and rustic, forest-inspired names like Fox Trail and Maplewood Lane (never built), but mostly follows a grid layout more typical of wilderness religious camp meeting
Camp meeting
The camp meeting is a form of Protestant Christian religious service originating in Britain and once common in some parts of the United States, wherein people would travel from a large area to a particular site to camp out, listen to itinerant preachers, and pray...
s of the era, which tend to cluster groups of cottages around structures of communal function and importance, rather than curving and winding as streets in Tuxedo Park and similar communities do.
Like other mountain resort communities, the homes in the original plan were sited to take advantage of their natural location. The grid extended north and south along the ridge, with many houses to have been built close to the street where the land dropped off sharply. That would have allowed them to take in the view to the Shawangunks over Wurtsboro in that direction, or the Catskills to the north and west.
History
Mamakating Park began as the Sullivan CountySullivan County, New York
Sullivan County is a county located in the U.S. state of New York. As of the 2010 census, the population was 77,547. The county seat is Monticello. The name is in honor of Major General John Sullivan, who was a hero in the American Revolutionary War...
Club, a group of New York City
New York City
New York is the most populous city in the United States and the center of the New York Metropolitan Area, one of the most populous metropolitan areas in the world. New York exerts a significant impact upon global commerce, finance, media, art, fashion, research, technology, education, and...
businessmen who planned a Catskill vacation community similar in design to Elka Park
Elka Park Historic District
Elka Park Historic District is a national historic district located at Hunter in Greene County, New York. The district contains 31 contributing buildings, one contributing site, and one contributing structure. It is composed of a planned community of 20 seasonal houses founded and developed as...
and Onteora Park
Onteora Park Historic District
Onteora Park Historic District is a national historic district located at Hunter in Greene County, New York. The district contains 94 contributing buildings and seven contributing structures. It is composed of a golf course and extensive hiking trails planned during the late 19th century. The...
in Greene County
Greene County, New York
Greene County is a county located in the U.S. state of New York. Its name is in honor of the American Revolutionary War general Nathanael Greene. Its county seat is Catskill...
, but much larger in scale. For much of the 19th century, Masten Lake to the south had been owned by the Delaware and Hudson Canal Company
Delaware and Hudson Canal
The Delaware and Hudson Canal was the first venture of the Delaware and Hudson Canal Company, which later developed the Delaware and Hudson Railway...
and reserved for use as a fedder reservoir, but with traffic on the canal declining to a miniumum as railroads displaced it, it had started to become a summer resort destination for city residents looking for fresh air.
In 1893, the club bought 4600 acres (1,861.6 ha), including the lake and the ridge north of it, from a Yonkers
Yonkers, New York
Yonkers is the fourth most populous city in the state of New York , and the most populous city in Westchester County, with a population of 195,976...
family with the intent of developing
Land development
Land development refers to altering the landscape in any number of ways such as:* changing landforms from a natural or semi-natural state for a purpose such as agriculture or housing...
it into a summer cottage community surrounding a large hotel., taking advantage of the views of the Shawangunk Ridge
Shawangunk Ridge
The Shawangunk Ridge , also known as the Shawangunk Mountains or The Gunks, is a ridge of bedrock in Ulster County, Sullivan County and Orange County in the state of New York, extending from the northernmost point of New Jersey to the Catskill Mountains.The ridgetop, which widens considerably at...
to the southeast. Recent extensions of the Orange & Western Railroad into Sullivan County made the area accessible within a day's travel to city residents, and after the subdivision of the land, 2,000 half-acre (2,000 m²) lots
Lot (real estate)
In real estate, a lot or plot is a tract or parcel of land owned or meant to be owned by some owner. A lot is essentially considered a parcel of real property in some countries or immovable property in other countries...
were put on sale the next year at an initial price of $100 ($ in 2009 dollars) each. Demand was such that the club members were soon able to increase their asking price to $125 ($).
With 359 lots sold by 1894, the club contracted the New York firm of Delhi & Lawrence to design the main hotel and considered building a cable railroad
Cable railway
A cable railway is a steeply graded railway that uses a cable or rope to haul trains.-Introduction:...
to improve access to the club from the nearby village of Wurtsboro
Wurtsboro, New York
Wurtsboro is a village located on U.S. Route 209 in the town of Mamakating in Sullivan County, New York, United States, near its junction with New York State Route 17...
. But in 1897, delayed economic fallout from the Panic of 1893
Panic of 1893
The Panic of 1893 was a serious economic depression in the United States that began in 1893. Similar to the Panic of 1873, this panic was marked by the collapse of railroad overbuilding and shaky railroad financing which set off a series of bank failures...
finally led to the original plans being shelved after the hotel and 20 lots near it had been developed.
In 1902, after the Sullivan County Club was foreclosed
Foreclosure
Foreclosure is the legal process by which a mortgage lender , or other lien holder, obtains a termination of a mortgage borrower 's equitable right of redemption, either by court order or by operation of law...
on, a new group of investors calling itself the Mamakating Park Company bought the hotel and the remaining undeveloped lots. They promoted the resort aggressively in New York newspapers, with the added bonus of many of the cottage owners renting them out for periods of time, and slowly added amenities such as a multicar garage that reflected the rise of automobile travel. In 1913 they were successful enough to run ads noting that "temperance priniciples will be adhered to" and that tuberculosis
Tuberculosis
Tuberculosis, MTB, or TB is a common, and in many cases lethal, infectious disease caused by various strains of mycobacteria, usually Mycobacterium tuberculosis. Tuberculosis usually attacks the lungs but can also affect other parts of the body...
patients were restricted.
Another economic downturn, the Great Depression
Great Depression
The Great Depression was a severe worldwide economic depression in the decade preceding World War II. The timing of the Great Depression varied across nations, but in most countries it started in about 1929 and lasted until the late 1930s or early 1940s...
of the 1930s, led the Mamakating Park Company to fold, and the hotel and its properties were leased to different operators. Late in the decade, newly affluent Jews began moving in (leading some other residents to move out). They effected the construction of the casino, barber shop and some other buildings in the hotel complex, and organized as the Mamakating Park Property Owners Civic Association after World War II
World War II
World War II, or the Second World War , was a global conflict lasting from 1939 to 1945, involving most of the world's nations—including all of the great powers—eventually forming two opposing military alliances: the Allies and the Axis...
and bought a section of lakefront property for members to use.
After the hotel finally shut down in the 1950s, a summer camp
Summer camp
Summer camp is a supervised program for children or teenagers conducted during the summer months in some countries. Children and adolescents who attend summer camp are known as campers....
bought the property and used the buildings. The hotel itself was destroyed in a 1970s fire. During the 1980s, a few new houses were built on the remaining vacant lots. In the late 1990s, the camp began restoring
Building restoration
Building restoration describes a particular treatment approach and philosophy within the field of architectural conservation. According the U.S...
some of the other buildings.