Shawanga Lodge
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Shawanga Lodge was a Catskills mountain hotel operated from 1923 to 1972, part of the Borscht Belt hotels located in Highview NY
Brief History
Shawanga Lodge was a Catskill hotel which opened in 1921 and closed in 1972. Abraham Dan (aka Danashevski), who previously owned the Morningside Hotel in Hurleyville NY [1], purchased the hotel from DG Carpenter in 1920. DG Carpenter excluded Jewish patrons as shown in his brochure [2] . In 1921 Abraham Dan and Barnet Coopersmith reopened the hotel as a Kosher style hotel .
In the winter of 1926 the main building burned to the ground. A spark from a chimney ignited the roof. The hotel operated for a few years with just the remaining external cottages and casino until a new building was constructed. The casino was used to serve meals and entertainment because the dining room was in the destroyed main building. The earliest known date of the hotel with the new main building was 1933.
Abraham Dan left the hotel to his three children, Julius, Sam and Mae Dan after he died. Mae Dan married Ed Atlass and the three bought out Mr. Coopersmith (year unknown). They operated the hotel with Julius Dan being a silent partner for over 35 years. In the 1950's, Julius' son, Abraham 'Abby' Dan and Ed Atlass' son Alvin became involved in the hotel business. Ed and Sam Dan had not not modernized the hotel and it had catered to a singles crowd. In the winter of 1957, the hotel was in need of modernization. The lobby was expanded and air conditioning added, a day camp was built, a new external building called Panorama was added, an amphitheater was built and the lake was expanded.
In the 1960's Julius, Ed and Sam died, Abby and Alvin took over operation of the hotel . Mae Dan remained working as the head cashier and bookkeeper until the hotel closed.
Post 1957, the hotel operated as a family resort. The main building needed a lot of work. The hotel could only operate during the summer. The cottages were built on cinder blocks above ground and had above ground piping and received chlorinated water from the lake. The main building still had most bathrooms on the floor, no heat but had well water. The 1957 renovation was needed but not enough[3]. The rooms in the cottages and newer Panorama and Holiday Inn[4] (not the chain motel) buildings had air cooling and heat but were not connected to the main building. The rooms in the main building were small and some had air conditioning and private bath. In 1972 Alvin Atlass decided to leave the hotel business. It was too much risk for Abby Dan to run the hotel alone and in Sept of 1972 the hotel went bankrupt. It was sold at auction Abby Dan tried to help the new owner open for the 1973 season[5]. The hotel did not open and in September of 1973 the hotel burned in a suspicious fire[6]. It was noted that the water tower which operated the sprinkler system was drained.
The original main building was heated by fireplace, the newer one had no heat. The cottages had no heat and had above ground pipe. Thus, the hotel was only open in the late spring to early fall.
The land remains empty today.
Hotel Construction
Construction of Catskill hotels in the days before sprinkler systems and modern heating systems consisted of may separate buildings build at a distance. Buildings often burned. In Shawanga's case, the main building burned due to a chimney fire around 1923-1926. Being many buildings, it was not a total loss.
Structures
- Main building
- Grotto - stone gazebo
- Wishing well
- Pool
- Guest cottages
- Family cottages - used by Dan & Atlass families
- Staff buildings (were formally guest buildings)
- Holiday Inn (built in 50's)
- Panorama
- Playhouse
- Outdoor Amphitheater
- Camp for younger and older kids
- Kids pool
- Nursery and kiddie pool
- Stone garage
- Water tower (for spinkler systems)
- Caretaker cottage under the water tower
- Skytop - pump house for chlorinated lake water for cottages
- Sleeping beauty - well water pump house for main building
- Ranch house, formerly Bachelors quarters
Main Building
The main building, built in 1926 and renovated in 1957 had approximately 123 rooms. Most rooms had a shared bathroom on the floor. The main building had well water and while some rooms had AC, none had heat. The main building the the following amenities:
- Lobby
- Lower lobby
- 'Canteen' - Ice cream, sodas and grill
- Play area, pinball, shuffleboard, ping pong
- Phone booths
- Jukebox
- Laundry room
- Boilers for hot water
- Maintenance etc
- area under kitchen that had old dirt floors which house storage, and maintenance dept
- Dining room
- Infant dining room
- Children's dining room
- Teen dining room
- Nurses room (not used in later years)
- Kitchen
- Front desk and office
- Bellhops desk
- Lobby bar
- Card room
- TV
The lobby after the renovation had air conditioning, but not enough capacity to run both the dinning room and lobby at the same time on hot days. Abby used to have to redirect the air from the lobby to the dining room at the right time, so that the dining room would be comfortable when the doors opened but not too soon that the lobby became uncomfortable.
Front Office
Some documents from the front office
- Rate schedule of Shawanga from 1969
- Rate schedule of Shawanga from late 1940's
- A hand written letter from Rodney Dangerfield saying he is available for work. Many years later, when Rodney Dangerfield was famous and had done many movies, Abby Dan met him on a cruise. He asked told Rodney Dangerfield about the letter and asked as a joke if he is still available.
- Dinner menu 1970
1957 Renovation
Construction began after the 1957 season and proceeded during the winter. Previously the hotel catered to singles, after the renovation, the hotel catered to families. Abby and his wife stayed at the hotel in their cottage to supervise the construction. The cottage had no running water (due to above ground pipes) insulation or heat, except for a plug in heater.
Renovation:
- Lobby extended and changed from a 1930's decor to a 60's
- Elevator added where the main staircase once stood
- Lobby bar
- Car ports gained a modern look
- Panorama Built
- Amphitheater built
- Playhouse expanded with melody bar
- Kids camp and nursery added
Description of construction pictures, in order
- Left - Start of construction on main building. In the picture is Abby's wife watching. Notice the Lobby beams braced while the foundation is expanded. The lower lobby built by digging out the previous crawl space.
- Right - Preparing to open the front of the building to expand the lobby. Notice the two man hand saws to cut down the trees.
- Left - The car port was modernized and expanded. The entrance porch was expanded and tile slabs installed. Abby's '57 Ford convertible in the background.
- Right - Foundation of new Panorama building. Panorama would have the nicest rooms in the hotel when completed. From left to right, Abby Dan, Sam Dan, Ed Atlass. Buildings in background: Left is the 'firehouse', which had hoses, etc. On right is the 'paint house', which had paint and painting equipment. The main building bottom floor, back left side shown, is where the maintenance dept was.
- Left - New modern expanded lobby nearing completion, notice the stone 'Grotto' in the background
- Right - New lobby nearing completion. Notice the hand pumped fire extinguisher in the center of the picture. Behind the wood plank wall in the new lobby bar and to the right is the dining room entrance. Notice the pipes running next to the columns. They were drain pipes for the expanded roof. They had trouble draining the water from the roof, Abby decided not to fight the water. Never leaked again.
Quantum Physics Convention
Physics convention held at Shawanga led to breakthroughs in the development of the LASER https://newyorkhistoryblog.org/2014/09/the-catskills-conference-that-changed-the-world/
[7] Beam: The Race to Make the Laser [8]
Some Staff 1972
- Abby Dan - Owner, Front office and Manager
- Alvin Atlass - Owner, Kitchen and Dining room manager
- Mae Atalss - Head bookkeeper, Cashier
- Kenny Lee - Chef
- Norman Elmont - Maitre D'
- G. Paradise - Head of Bar
- Jimmy Barton - Head of Belhops and bassist in band
- Allie Joltin - Activities Director
- Betty Jotin - Dance Instructor
- Bea Greenwald - Activities seniors
- Bob Engel - Day camp
- Tony Pernice - Maintenace
Day Camp
The camp was located about 3/4 of a mile away from the main building by the lake. There was a section for the older kids and younger. There was a nusery that was across from the main building. There was an old bus, called the 'Magic Bus'. It's name was more appropriate in the later years, because it was magic that it started. This bus took the kids to and from camp. At the camp were swings, sand boxes (made from the old wooden row boats) softball field, a pool and chicken coup in the woods.
Summers at Shawanga
There were many guests who spent their entire summer at the hotel, this was common at the Catskills up until the end of the 70's. Fathers would send their wives and kids and visit on the weekends. For the children of the Dan, Atlass, Shapiro and sometime Kanter families, they stayed at the hotel during the summer, while their fathers worked at the hotel. "We were very close with our cousins, since we spent so many summers together" [9] The daily routine began with going to the children's dining room for breakfast, missing the bus to camp on purpose, playing at camp, having lunch back at the children's dining room, back to camp. The end of the day bus took us back to our parent's around 4:30pm. After dinner, we would sometimes stop at the hotel bakery for a treat and then go to our grandmother for another treat.
Entrance
Entrance to hotel on Old Rt 17
On right is new entrance, background is a 1940 Buick coup. photographer is Seymore Zolotorofe, Ethyl Dan's brother
Stories
todo - guest car scratched
choice room
References
- ^ Morningside Hotel is now a park next to Morningside lake in Hurleyville NY
- ^ See 1920 DG Carpenter brochure, page 10
- ^ Abby Dan
- ^ Holiday Inn - built in the early 50's and not part of the motel chain
- ^ First source Abby Dan
- ^ Abby Dan, E Lachman, fire commissioner
- ^ https://newyorkhistoryblog.org/2014/09/the-catskills-conference-that-changed-the-world/
- ^ Beam: The Race to Make the Laser
- ^ G. Dan
External links
Interview of gentleman who worked at Shawanga Lodge
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