Borscht Belt Historical Marker Project

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Monticello

Marker Location: Ethelbert B. Crawford Library 479 Broadway, Monticello, NY

Marker Text

MONTICELLO, NY


During the heyday of the Borscht Belt, Monticello had about 65 hotels and 133 bungalow colonies. Kutsher’s Country Club was known for its sports and entertainment scene. It hosted Muhammad Ali, while additional boxers trained at other hotels. Wilt Chamberlain worked as a bellhop while playing on the hotel’s basketball team before rising to NBA fame. Kutsher's also presented famous entertainers on its stage such as Louis Armstrong, Duke Ellington, Jerry Seinfeld, Billy Crystal and Joan Rivers. Kutsher’s was the longest running resort in the Borscht Belt, closing in 2013. The Laurel’s Hotel and Country Club was for a time, the largest hotel in Sullivan County. It was a popular spot for singles and held the world’s record for the largest steel swimming pool. The hotel was operated by the Novack family who also built the Fontainebleau Hotel in Miami Beach. Other notable Monticello destinations were Esther Manor, Lewinters Bungalow Colony, Ideal Bungalow Colony, and the Delano Hotel. 

Dedication Speakers


  • Lynn Skolnick, Board President Emeritus, Ethelbert B. Crawford Public Library
  • Aileen Gunther, New York State Assemblywoman 
  • John Conway, Sullivan County Historian
  • Zack Kutsher, Kutsher's Family (grandson of Helen and Milton)
  • Marisa Scheinfeld, Marker Project 
  • Louis Inghilterra, Marker Project 

mOnticello Marker dedication CEREMONY


    LIVE STREAM OF DEDICATION CEREMONY

    May 25, 2023, Ethelbert B. Crawford Library, Monticello, NY

    Kutsher's Country Club


      Kutsher's Country Club

      Founded in 1907 as farm that took in summer boarders, Kutsher’s Country Club grew to become one of the pre-eminent resorts in the Borscht Belt. By the 1950s the hotel had significantly expanded - with the creation of more hotel rooms, a golf course, indoor and outdoor tennis courts, indoor and outdoor pools, an indoor ice skating, a health club, and various kids and teen programs. The hotel also offered winter sports such as snow tubing and skiing. Kutsher’s prided itself on setting itself apart from its competition via its emphasis on sports and entertainment. 

      During its heyday, Kutsher’s hosted a wide array of cultural icons, sport legends and famous performers such as Joan Rivers, Jerry Seinfeld and Billy Crystal. Musicians such as Louis Armstrong and Duke Ellington often played the hotel’s Stardust Room. The hotel hosted boxers such as Muhammad Ali and basketball players such as Wilt Chamberlain, who began his career in basketball while working as a bellhop and playing on the hotel’s basketball team. Other boxing champions, such as Floyd Patterson and Leon Spinks trained at the hotel. Even athletes such as Joe DiMaggio once trained at the sports academy.  

      Kutsher’s also hosted the 2008, 2009, and 2010 U.S. editions of the All Tomorrow’s Parties festival where contemporary acts such as The Flaming Lips, Iggy Pop and Mazzy Star performed.  

      Kutsher’s is arguably the longest running resort in the Borscht Belt, having closed its doors in 2013. A documentary about Kutsher's Country Club titled Welcome to Kutsher’s was released in 2012. (https://www.kutshersdoc.com/) 

      Directed and Produced by Caroline Laskow & Ian Rosenberg, the documentary provides a a close up look at Kutsher's rise and fall, from its 100th anniversary season through the next seven years until the hotel is sold and demolished in 2014. 

      Watch a segment from Barry Lewis' Classic Catskills about Kutshers here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3g5BMKrLO7c

      The Laurels Country Club

        Laurel's Country Club History

         RETROSPECT by John Conway, July 27, 2018  

        In late July of 1973, the Sullivan County resort scene, reeling from the closures of dozens of large and small hotels for about eight years, found itself without one of its largest and most prestigious destinations. The Laurels Country Club on Sackett Lake– long one of the most innovative of the region’s resorts– had been padlocked by the Sheriff’s Department at the height of the tourist season. 

        The Laurels, the brainchild of Hyman and Sadie Novick, had started out modestly enough, but by the early 1930s, when Grossinger’s was just beginning to eclipse the Flagler as the Catskills’ premier resort and the Concord was not yet a twinkle in Arthur Winarick’s eye, the hotel with the unrivaled location on one of the county’s most beautiful sheets of water had already begun booking conventions. Organizations as diverse as the New York State Credit Union League, the New York Public Welfare Association, the Retail Workers Union of America and the Young Republicans would regularly gather at the Sackett Lake venue over the next four decades. 

        By the mid-1930s, the Laurels remained open all year around. They had Olympic speed skating trials on Sackett Lake and engaged in a highly publicized legal battle with arch-rival Grossinger’s – which they lost– over the services of world renown speed skater Irving Jaffee, who eventually became the director of winter sports at "the G" and set a speed skating record on Grossinger Lake.  

        By 1940, the hotel was advertising itself as "the smartest all-year-round playground in the Catskills for young folks." The Novick family– which by that time included sons Joseph and Ben and daughter Lillian Brezner– purchased the nearby Drake estate and built a picturesque golf course and ski area. The Laurels was so busy that in 1943, when the Defense Department imposed travel restrictions because of the war and the hotel was forced to cancel five conventions in the month of June alone, it didn’t miss a beat. 

        In 1949, when the Laurels opened its new outdoor pool, it announced that the pool was so large it was required by law to have three lifeguards on duty at all times. Grossinger’s had opened its own "Olympic sized pool" that summer, but there were few other pools in the region of that magnitude. 

        In the 1950s, the hotel made headlines when it became the first of the famed "Borscht Belt" resorts to offer lobster on its menu. By that time, the family had changed its name to Novack and Ben had long since left the hotel, eventually ending up in Miami Beach where he first renovated the Sans Souci and then built the magnificent Fontainebleau Hotel. When Joseph died in September of 1956, the Laurels accommodated more than 1500 guests, more than any other Sullivan County resort.  

        Under the direction of young Charles Novack, who had taken over as general manager, the Laurels became the place to go for late, late night entertainment, and its stage was often still occupied– and its 1000 seat nightclub still crowded– when the sun came up. It became such a popular hotspot that famous performers like Billy Eckstine would often walk on stage unannounced and put on an impromptu show.  

        Singer Robert Kole, who performed on Broadway in many shows, including "West Side Story," recalled in the 1991 book, "It Happened in the Catskills," that the Laurels "was one of the great places in the mountains. (It) catered to a young, swinging crowd, and probably more liquor was consumed and more babies conceived in that hotel than anywhere else in the mountains. 

        "I still remember one of the late, late shows I did there," Kole said. "Alfred and Lenore opened. Then I sang my medley of show tunes, mostly from "West Side Story" and "My Fair Lady" which were very popular then. Norton and Patricia followed me as the third act, and then Dick Shawn went on and did not walk off that stage until 5:45 in the morning. And nobody left." 

        But Sullivan County’s Golden Age hotels, with their nightclubs and indoor swimming pools, soon became site independent, and before long the edge that the Laurels had always enjoyed because of its spectacular location on the lake, where speed boats and water skiers once spent warm summer days, meant less and less. A succession of unseasonably warm winters wreaked havoc with the hotel’s winter sports schedule, often forcing cancellation of events such as the innovative MG sports car races held on the ice of the lake. 

        By the 1970s, Sullivan County’s heyday had passed; many hotels– including some large resorts such as the Youngs Gap in Parksville– had closed, and most others were struggling to survive. The Laurels had just 125 guests registered on July 20, 1973, when the operation came to a screeching halt. A State Supreme Court judge vacated a month long stay of foreclosure, allowing the hotel to be turned over to a receiver, attorney Morton Baum of Monticello. 

        "The Laurels Hotel, once a leading Catskills resort here, was seized by the Sullivan County sheriff, Joseph Wasser, in a foreclosure action that forced dozens of angry guests to find other accommodations," the New York Times announced the next day in a story with a Sackett Lake dateline. "The foreclosure had been initiated by members of the Kagan family of Woodridge, who hold mortgages totaling about $450,000 on the sprawling hotel, worth an estimated several million dollars. 

        "Although the hotel, which has its own golf course, lake and nightclub, can accommodate about 1200 guests at a time, there were only about 125 registered on its final day of operation."  

        Even those who doubted that the county’s Golden Age had come to an end, were finding it increasingly difficult to ignore the evidence.  

        Much of the Laurels was destroyed in a July, 1980 fire. Today, just the swimming pools and some crumbling foundations remain. 

        John Conway is the Sullivan County Historian and co-signor of the Marker Project. E-mail him at jconway52@hotmail.com.  

        Esther Manor Hotel

          Esther Manor Hotel History

           Esther Manor was opened around 1905 and originally named the Albert House. Later opened by Irene Goldstein Asman and her sister Esther Goldstein Strassberg, Esther Goldstein Strassberg was the first Jewish employee of Sullivan County. 

          Esther Manor offered kosher accommodations and recreational activities such as panoramic views of the Catskills, a lake, billiards, boating, dancing, fishing, golf, softball, volleyball, pingpong, archery, badminton, and tennis. During the 1960s hotel underwent extensive renovations that included a new lobby, indoor swimming pool, a health club with steam rooms, a card and television room, cocktail lounge and nightclub, air conditioned dining room and fully air conditioned rooms with wall-to-wall carpeting, bedside telephones and showers adorned in colorful ceramic tile. In addition, the hotel operated a day camp, which also accommodated guests at night.  

          Esther Manor is where singer and pianist Neil Sedaka got his start, and also met his wife, who was the daughter of the resort’s owners. Neil Sedaka credits Sullivan County with starting him on the path to a six-decade career in show business.“

          Going to the mountains was a big thing,” he has said. “We stopped at the Red Apple Rest, of course, and I had my hot dog.” 

          Sedaka learned to ski at local skihill Holiday Mountain, went for Chinese food at Bernie’s in Rock Hill, and worked with Jackie Mason, who was then social director at Esther Manor. He distinctly remembers the “knockers” on the tables of the Concord that the guests used to show their appreciation for the music. 

          “If the audience didn’t like you, they’d walk out,” Sedaka explained. “But they’d eaten so much for dinner they couldn’t clap, so they’d use the knockers.” Sedaka went on to play the Nevele, Grossinger’s, the Pines, the Raleigh, the Concord. He later wrote his number hit "Laughter in the Rain" at his home in the Town of Forestburgh, just down the road from Esther Manor.  

          On March 23, 1970, Esther Manor was sold to Weight Watchers Resorts & Spas and then to the Maimonides Institute on May 22, 1974.  The Institute had been established to assist mentally handicapped children and young adults. The resort was then sold to Hadar Hatorah on November 30, 1979, when it became a rabbinical seminary and summer camp for Hasidic Jewish children. and then to the Wheatley Wood Development Corporation on November 16, 1984.

          Esther Manor later reopened as Camp David, another summer camp for Hasidic Jewish children. The camp temporarily reopened as Camp Shalva of Bobov before being abandoned circa 2012.


            Hotel & Bungalow Colonies of monticello

            Hotels & Resorts

            Bungalow Colonies

            Bungalow Colonies

            Anderson Hotel
            Arcade Hotel
            Blackman's Inn
            Block's
            Blossom View
            Broadway Mansion (aka Liebermann's)
            Capitol
            Carlton Hotel
            Chernick's Sunset Villa
            Clover Hill Hotel
            Colin's Maple Grove
            Colonial Park Hotel
            Cooper's Corners
            Delano Hotel (formerly Rose Glow)
            Donde House
            Esther Manor (formerly Beauty Maple House)
            Eusner's
            Forestburg Inn
            Frank Leslie Hotel
            Goldblatt's
            Goldenberg's Pleasant View House
            Grand View Mountain House
            Hamilton Farms
            Harmony Country Club (now Kutsher's Sports Academy)
            Hungarian House
            Imperial Hotel
            Joyland Hotel
            Kahaner's Inn
            Kotney Manor
            Kutsher's Country Club
            Lakeside Mountain House
            Lander's Brookside
            LaTourette Hotel
            Little Hungarian Hotel
            Locust Inn
            Maple Shade Hotel
            Maplewood Inn
            Melberg's
            Monticello Inn (once Mansion House)
            Monticello Overlook
            Norman House
            Palatine Hotel
            Park View Hotel
            Patterson Farm
            Pine Lodge Hotel
            Pine Tree Villa
            Riverdale
            Rockwell Hotel
            Rosery
            Royalton
            Saxon Hotel
            Schneider's Inn
            Skliar's Hotel
            Slatkin's
            Spring Lake Hotel
            Star Mountain Hotel
            Sunnyside
            The Swan
            Victoria Hotel (formerly Curley)
            Washington Farm
            Western View
            Willow Lane
            Wolf's Corner Hotel
            Yasgur's

            Courtesy of Phil Brown and the Catskills Institute 

            Bungalow Colonies

            Bungalow Colonies

            Bungalow Colonies

            Alpine (previously Appelbaum's)
            Altman's
            Anawana Beach Colony (later part of Kutsher's)
            April
            Babette's Country Club
            Bagishes
            Bard
            Bardow's Cottages
            Beverly Hills Country Club
            Berejanksy
            Bergman's Bungalows

            Breezy Corners
            Brookview Cottages
            Braslauskie's
            BunAlan (later part of Clearview)
            Camp Hollywood
            Candlewood Cottages (formerly Klein's)
            Capitol Inn
            Carol House
            Castle Hill Country Club
            Cedar Hill Bungalows
            Cedar Lane (later merged w/ Ideal)
            Chicko (later part of Kutsher's)
            Circle 10 (formerly Castle Hill)
            Clearview Mountain Country Club
            Cohen's Clover House
            Cooperman's
            Crescent Lake (formerly Gurney)
            Crown
            Diamond's
            Discount
            Doralee (formerly Stein's); Kreitzer's; and Starlite
            Dorkin's
            Empire
            Fairhilld
            Falsack Acres
            Far-Site
            Feit's (previously Pardes)
            Fenster's (formerly Lilac Farms, later LaSalla's)
            Fialkoff's
            Five Star Cottages
            Frank's
            Fritchies Bungalows
            Freed's
            Futterman's
            Geltman's
            Gerson's
            Gilman's
            Goldblatt's Bungalow Colony
            Grayer
            Hide A Way
            High View Gardens
            Hillside Mansion
            Himmel's
            Hirsch's (later Vance's)
            Heller's
            Hochmans
            Holiday Mountain (became part of Clearview Mountain Country Club in 1967)
            Hoffman
            Ideal
            Jeanette's
            Jerry & Elaine's Woodland Cottages
            Joy-Len
            Kantor's Kottages (later Miami Cottages)
            Karps Cottages
            Kaufman's Hillway View
            Kaufman's Manor
            Kazimow
            King David's
            Klein's Cottages
            Kreitzer's (later Kofsky's)
            Kudman's Bungalow Colony
            Lefkowitz
            Lewinter's
            Liberty Resort Bungalows
            Linksman's (later Utopia Villa)
            Lorber's
            M&S
            Maplewood Gardens
            Marigold Acres
            Mason's (now Sepharady's)
            Max Post
            Meisner's
            Monticello Country Club
            Morris Manor
            Morningside Acres
            Mountain View
            Norman House
            Overlook Cottages
            Pardess
            Park Manor
            Parmet Country Club
            Phil-Rose
            Pine Knoll
            Pine Tree
            Pincus
            Rainbow Bungalows
            Rhapsody
            Robin's Woods
            Rosebud Villa
            Rosewood
            Rothman's
            Royalton House
            Sadownick (previously Spring Lake House Hotel)
            Sam's Bungalow Colony
            Saters
            Schneider's (previously Strolowitz's)
            Schiffrin's
            Sefarady
            Shady Rest
            Shady Vista
            Siegel's Bungalows
            Silbert's
            Sims (now Liberty Road Cottages)
            Slatkins
            Smolensky's
            Starlite
            Stein's
            Stier's
            Sun Ranch
            Sun Valley
            Sunnyside
            Swan
            Tara Acres
            Ten Little Indians (formerly Sator's)
            Tent-A-reena
            Town and Country
            Turkin's Bungalow Colony
            Vant's Cottages
            Village View
            White Rock
            Winding Brook Farm
            Wolf's Corners
            Wolin's

            Courtesy of Phil Brown and the Catskills Institute 

            Video Links

            Welcome to Kutsher's Trailer

            Trailer for Caroline Laskow & Ian Rosenberg's 2012 Documentary Film: Welcome to Kutsher's: the Last Catskills Resort

            Classic Catskills: Kutsher's Country Club

            A last look at Kutsher's Country Club during its 100 anniversary in 2007.

            Maurice Stokes Benefit Game 1959

            Newsreel of Maurice Stokes Basketball Game at Kutsher's Country Club

            Oral History with Mark Kutsher

            Mark Kutsher discusses his family's hotel Kutsher's Country Club. Produced by the Ethelbert B. Crawford Library

            Classic Catskills: The Laurels

            Sullivan County Historian, John Conway and Journalist, Barry Lewis discuss the History and remains of the Laurels Country Club

            The Laurels Country Club in 1964

            8mm Film of the outdoor pool at the Laurels. 

            Copyright © 2025 Borscht Belt Historical Marker Project - All Rights Reserved.

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