Prospect House (Hamilton County, New York) facts for kids
Prospect House was a 300-room luxury resort hotel at Blue Mountain Lake in New York state in the United States that opened in 1882. It was patronized by wealthy Americans and others from around the world. It was the largest hotel in the Adirondacks at the end of the nineteenth century. The hotel was considered luxurious, particularly by having the world's first installed incandescent electric lighting in all their guests' bedrooms. Thomas Edison oversaw the electrical engineering on all the electrical items for the hotel during its construction, including the installation of two dynamo electric generators at the premises. Due to a short operating season and high overhead costs it went out of business by 1903.
Background
Prospect House was a hotel construction project where the guest lodging of the prospector James Ordway and his wife Mary once stood. Ordways' guest house was built in 1877 on a peninsula point protruding out into Blue Mountain Lake called Prospect Point. It was a two and a half story wood frame structure and was west of the village of Indian Lake. The lodging could accommodate thirty guests. The structure received a new name of American House in 1879 and was sold to Frederick C. Durant, associated with a sugar-refining business in New York City. Durant's uncle was railroad financier Thomas C. Durant who had an interest in Adirondack developments. The younger Durant thought that concept was interesting, so planned a 300-room luxury hotel on the tract of land he purchased from the Ordways.
Foundation construction began for the new hotel in the autumn of 1880. In the spring of 1881 Durant set up a sawmill at the construction site for the boards needed for the new hotel. The new hotel was designed as a T-shaped building, with the top part 255 feet (78 m) long and facing the lake. The leg of the "T" was 158 feet (48 m) long and connected at the rear to Ordway's original guest house. A veranda porch 20 feet (6.1 m) wide and 370 feet (110 m) long ran along the front and sides of the building. The general architecture resembled the Grand Union Hotel at Saratoga Springs, New York.
The six story Queen Anne style hotel opened in the summer of 1882. The largest suites of the new hotel were on the main floor. The hotel had a restaurant, bowling alley, billiard room, shooting gallery, golf, and lawn tennis for guest amusements. For convenience the hotel facilities included a barber shop, a mail room, a telegraph office, and a library. The hotel had a physician's office and a pharmacy. There was an orchestra that performed daily to all the guests at the hotel.
The hotel was the largest in the Adirondacks at the time. It was built 30 miles (48 km) from the nearest railroad, which was how the guests first traveled there. They then transferred to a stagecoach that took them to the lake where they took a boat to Prospect Point where the hotel was located. The three hundred rooms had running water and steam heat. There were no radiators or valves involved with the steam heat. It came from steam pipes that ran through the guest room. The pipe was encased in a wooden box with hinged covers. A guest could open the box cover when the room was cold and close it when the room got warm. The hotel also came with a steam elevator, a bowling-alley, a shooting gallery, a billiard room, a telegraph office, a deer corral, a windmill, a water tower, and a boathouse.
Thomas Edison oversaw the electrical system design put in the hotel. G. W. Waters became the electrical engineer. Edison and Waters designed the electrical system for every room to have incandescent electric light from when the hotel opened in 1882. It was the first hotel anywhere to be equipped with electric lighting in the all the guests' bedrooms. The electricity came from two Edison dynamo electrical generators at the premises. The dynamos were given the name of the 'long-waisted Mary Ann' because of its construction appearance of two long poles which stood upright that were about 5 feet (1.5 m) high.
Guests
The guest register shows that some of the world's wealthiest stayed at the Prospect House year after year. Most guests were Americans that came from the Mid-Atlantic states, however on occasion visitors came from London, St. Petersburg, Tokyo, and mainland Europe. In 1893 Cristobal Colón y de La Cerda, 14th Duke of Veragua of Spain, a descendant of Christopher Columbus, was a guest while visiting America to commemorate Columbus' 1492 encounter.
Demise
The demise of the Adirondack resort was from several causes. One was from high overhead costs of running a luxurious hotel for a short season in the summer months. Another cause was from the lack of easy access to the hotel, as the Delaware and Hudson Railway withdrew its sleeper service from New York City to North Creek, New York, which had saved several hours of travel time. Competition of additional hotels in the Adirondacks took away many guests, as they went to newer hotels that were easier to get to. There were several cases of typhoid fever in the area that stopped many guests from coming. Another factor was the recession of 1893, when Durant borrowed two large sums from his brother Howard to stay in business. Ultimately his brother took over the management of the hotel in 1897 to cover the mortgages he furnished. Howard renamed it Hotel Utowana. Due to the overhead costs, lack of easy transportation, and poor management, the hotel lost increasing amounts of money and finally went out of business in 1903. The furnishings were sold off and it was torn down in 1915.
