From the 1970s to my [last] stay at Kutsher’s in 1997, I remember it as a heymish Shangri-La — starting with the check-in welcome by owner Helen Kutsher. A post-breakfast line-dance workout, then – trying to avoid the droppings of the resident Canadian geese on the lawn — a solo rowing session in a boat…
Kutsher’s, the fabled Catskills resort hotel, is set to be demolished later this month. The 1,300-acre property near Monticello, N.Y., was sold last year for $8.18 million to Veria Lifestyle Inc., which plans to turn it into a health and wellness resort. Pre-demolition work already has begun with the clearing of trees and brush, and…
Photographer Marisa Scheinfeld pointed to a pile of rubble at what’s left of the famous Catskills resort hotel the Concord — once a glamorous beast of luxury with 1,200 rooms, three golf courses and a 3,000-seat dining room. “Over here was the outdoor pool, which was a tremendous, Olympic-sized swimming pool that I worked at…
When I set out to write a story on the Catskills — its famed legacy, its tremendous decline and what the future holds — I knew I wanted to spend a couple of days upstate, talking with locals who witnessed the area in its heyday and seeing what’s left of it for myself. Photographer Marisa…
A pre-eminent contemporary multi-instrumentalist and composer rooted in jazz, Don Byron has engaged with a wild variety of musical styles — from rap to neo-classical, funk to heavy metal — and is currently touring with the New Gospel Quintet, exploring the heritage of African-American spirituals It was his encounter with klezmer, however, and his tribute…
Helen Kutsher, the face of her family-owned resort in the Catskill Mountains for decades, has died. Kutsher, who came to be known as the matriach of what was called the Borscht Belt, died Saturday in Philadelphia. She was 89 and spent much of her life in Monticello, N.Y., in a house on the grounds of…
When it comes to Catskills tourism, it seems that everything old is news again. The mountainous region of upstate New York is trying to unbuckle itself from its “borscht belt” pigeonhole as a destination for Jewish city families by girding itself with new amenities to attract a hip and with-it tourist of today. The story’s…
Old Borscht Belt hotels never die…they just get boarded up until a new buyer comes along to save them. At least that’s the story when it comes to the Nevele, which closed its doors in the Catskills back in 2009. The Nevele may indeed have a new lease on life if a sale to the…
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