Kutsher's Hotel and Country Club in

Thompson Thompson may refer to: People * Thompson (surname) * Thompson M. Scoon (1888–1953), New York politician Places Australia *Thompson Beach, South Australia, a locality Bulgaria * Thompson, Bulgaria, a village in Sofia Province Canada * ...

, Sullivan County, near Monticello,

New York New York most commonly refers to: * New York City, the most populous city in the United States, located in the state of New York * New York (state), a state in the northeastern United States New York may also refer to: Film and television * '' ...

, was the longest running of the Borscht Belt grand resorts in the

Catskill Mountains The Catskill Mountains, also known as the Catskills, are a physiographic province of the larger Appalachian Mountains, located in southeastern New York. As a cultural and geographic region, the Catskills are generally defined as those areas c ...

region of New York State. While the region was open to any and all visitors, the Borscht Belt was so named due to the largely Jewish-American clientele that made the Catskills the primary vacation destination for Jews in the northeastern United States. Over the decades, performers such as David Brenner,

Jerry Seinfeld Jerome Allen Seinfeld ( ; born April 29, 1954) is an American stand-up comedian, actor, writer, and producer. He is best known for playing a Jerry Seinfeld (character), semi-fictionalized version of himself in the sitcom ''Seinfeld'', which he ...

Louis Armstrong Louis Daniel Armstrong (August 4, 1901 – July 6, 1971), nicknamed "Satchmo", "Satch", and "Pops", was an American trumpeter and vocalist. He was among the most influential figures in jazz. His career spanned five decades and several era ...

Duke Ellington Edward Kennedy "Duke" Ellington (April 29, 1899 – May 24, 1974) was an American jazz pianist, composer, and leader of his eponymous jazz orchestra from 1923 through the rest of his life. Born and raised in Washington, D.C., Ellington was based ...

, Woody Allen and Joan Rivers appeared here. Rapper Ditch played here in 2012 as the final headlining set of the NY Harvest Festival, which had over 4,000 people watching. In 2013, a woman fell to her death from the hotel rooftop of the hotel preparing for the 2013 NY Harvest Festival, which halted it and anything going forward at the hotel again. The hotel closed in 2013, and some of the buildings were demolished in 2014; only three remained as of early 2020. The site was sold, and a wellness resort was built there, opening in June 2018.

Establishment

Max and Louis Kutsher started the Kutsher's Brothers Farm House in 1907 and began expanding in the 1920s and 1930s. In the 1940s, at the request of his aunt Rebecca, Milton Kutsher took over the hotel. He oversaw the hotel's significant expansion from the 1950s to the 1980s, which created a premiere Catskills vacation destination: a " property that included a 400-room resort, condos, two bungalow colonies, two summer camps, an 18-hole golf course and lakefront."From Borscht To Blackjack
, '' The Jewish Week'', August 1, 2003 Milton Kutsher and his wife Helen (née Wasser) operated the hotels, with Helen serving as the head of reservations and doyenne of the resort. The two ran the hotel until Milton's death in 1998, at which point his son Mark took over management of the hotel.

Sports

Milton Kutsher was active in sports circles, making the hotel the Catskills home of legendary

Celtics The Boston Celtics ( ) are an American professional basketball team based in Boston. The Celtics compete in the National Basketball Association (NBA) as a member of the league's Eastern Conference Atlantic Division. Founded in 1946 as one of t ...

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Red Auerbach and Hall of Famer Wilt Chamberlain, who worked as a bellhop there. There was the Maurice Stokes Benefit All-Star Game, a charity basketball game that once attracted the top pro players.

Muhammad Ali Muhammad Ali (; born Cassius Marcellus Clay Jr.; January 17, 1942 – June 3, 2016) was an American professional boxer and activist. Nicknamed "The Greatest", he is regarded as one of the most significant sports figures of the 20th century, a ...

trained at Kutsher's, as did other world boxing champions, such as Floyd Patterson and Leon Spinks. Kutsher was an avid sports fan, and also saw sports as a way to bring young people to the resort. The Maurice Stokes Game, which raised funds for the injured professional basketball player Maurice Stokes and raised funds for needy former players from the game's earlier days, was sponsored in part, by Kutsher's and played at either the hotel or the

Kutsher's Sports Academy Kutsher's Sports Academy (KSA) is a summer sleepaway camp in Monterey, Massachusetts, for children ages 7–17. It was originally "conceived and developed by Milton and Joseph Kutsher and legendary basketball coach Clair F. Bee in 1968." The land ...

. The game is said to have "rivaled the NBA All-Star game in talent." In the 1990s, the basketball exhibition spawned the Maurice Stokes/Wilt Chamberlain Celebrity Pro-Am Golf Tournament. Part of the hotel's empire included the

Kutsher's Camp Anawana Camp Anawana, later known as Kutsher's Camp Anawana, was a summer sleepaway camp overlooking Anawana Lake in Monticello, New York. History Camp Anawana was originally owned by Mrs. Anna Kahn. The camp's main building was destroyed by a fire on ...

and

. In the 1950s, other hotels were focused on building indoor pools for their guests. Milton Kutsher insisted on building a golf course on the property instead of being part of a group planning on building a course in Loch Sheldrake together. He persevered and the “resort’s 6,843-yard greens became one of the top courses on the East Coast and a major draw for the hotel.”

Accommodations and entertainment

In its heyday, the Borscht Belt resorts were home to premiere entertainment. Performers such as David Brenner,

Dean Martin Dean Martin (born Dino Paul Crocetti; June 7, 1917 – December 25, 1995) was an American singer, actor and comedian. One of the most popular and enduring American entertainers of the mid-20th century, Martin was nicknamed "The King of Cool". M ...

, Woody Allen, and

all spent their early career at Kutsher's. The hotel offered an all-inclusive vacation: meals (all

kosher (also or , ) is a set of dietary laws dealing with the foods that Jewish people are permitted to eat and how those foods must be prepared according to Jewish law. Food that may be consumed is deemed kosher ( in English, yi, כּשר), fro ...

) were included, as well as entertainment and activities. Activities available at the hotel included golf, tennis, indoor ice skating, indoor and outdoor pools, a health club, and various kids and teen programs. There were also winter sports such as snow tubing and downhill skiing.Borscht Belt's Last Hurrah

Decline

For many years there had been negotiations, which broke off in 2005, with the St. Regis Mohawks and Park Place Entertainment to develop an on-site casino. Kutsher's sent a letter to its long-time guests in November 2007 informing them there would be no availability for the coming summer, and Kutsher's would be closed for renovations. In late winter, early spring 2008, the Kutsher family entered into an option agreement with Louis Cappelli of Westchester County, New York to bring management changes and ownership of the hotel. The sale was not finalized, but renovations were carried out, and the establishment was re-opened as 'The New Kutsher's Resort & Spa' . Kutsher's hosted the 2008, 2009 and 2010 U.S. edition of the All Tomorrow's Parties festival. It also served as the location for the annual district convention for New York's Kiwanis International and associated organizations. Helen Kutsher died in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania on March 19, 2013. Kutsher's closed in 2013. The property was sold to Veria Lifestyle, a company owned by Indian billionaire Subhash Chandra, for $8.8million. The new owners demolished the hotel and constructed a health and wellness destination based on the Indian discipline of yoga. The resort was to include 131 rooms. In June 2018, the YO1 Luxury Nature Cure, a six-story wellness resort, opened on the site.

Legacy

A documentary about Kutsher's Country Club involving three generations of the Kutsher family titled ''Welcome to Kutsher's: The Last Catskills Resort'' was released in 2012.

In popular culture

2020_photo_of_a_billboard_for_Kutsher%27s_Hotel,_Thompson,_New_York,_USA

Kutsher's served as an inspiration for the 1987 movie '' Dirty Dancing''.Music and Movies in the Catskill Mountains
/ref> In the film '' Wet Hot American Summer'', the M.C. of the talent show worked at Kutsher's. Kutsher's also appeared in the second season of '' The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel''.

References

External links

Kutsher's remnants auctioned
(archived)
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