“Live Free or Die!” is written on the “Welcome to New Hampshire” road sign that we passed upon entering the state.
Freedom was the overwhelming sensation as our road trip culminated onto the long driveway of the Omni Mount Washington Resort as its white façade and gleaming red-roof came into full view backdropped by New England’s largest mountain. Though we had seen pictures on the website, they simply can’t capture the scale and grandness of being here.
Set in a forested green valley with the Ammonoosuc River streaming through, the vastness of the hotel’s grounds blends into the endless landscape of the White Mountain National Forest and Mount Washington State Park. It reminded me of the setting of a fantasy movie where an impenetrable castle sits surrounded by a ruggedly beautiful landscape.
And while it wasn’t a monarch that built this dreamy castle—its founders were very much like royalty from the Industrial age.
The Grandest of Grand Hotels
With the completion of railroad networks into northern New England in the late 1800s, it became fashionable for the gentry to escape the heat of New York and Boston to the cooler temperatures and fresh mountain air of New Hampshire. As demand grew, dozens of daily trains carried travelers to a new crop of increasingly luxurious hotels.Joseph Stickney, an ambitious tycoon who made his vast fortune before the age of thirty in the rail and coal industries, set out to not merely outdo his hotelier peers, but create one of the world’s most ambitious hotel projects.
He spared no expense, bringing in 250 Italian stone masons, a steel superstructure, Tiffany glass windows, and a dedicated powerplant, and outfitted every guest room with its own hot and cold running water. It was a marvel of its time in every respect. At the opening ceremony in 1902, Thomas Edison personally turned on the lights.
The hotel was an immediate success, and the rich and famous came by the trainload to play golf, tennis, ride horses, paint watercolors, and enjoy the sumptuous fine dining and stiff cocktails. Celebrity sightings were a normal occurrence, and the hotel’s success was also a boon to the local economy.
Stickney joked at the opening ceremony that the labor of opening the hotel would “be the death of him” and ironically, he did pass away within a year.
Young, rich, and beautiful, Stickney’s widow Carolyn assumed ownership. Despite remarrying a European prince and living in France throughout the year, she returned to New Hampshire to oversee the hotel in the summer season in which it operated. She was the face and personality of the resort. The staff and guests were endeared to her eccentricity, and the hotel continued to flourish through the Roaring ‘20s. However, the economic headwinds of prohibition, the Great Depression, and finally World War II could not be endured, and the hotel shut down in 1942 a few years after Carolyn’s death.
Serendipity would come, as the hotel was selected to host the United Nations Monetary and Financial Conference, more generally known as the Bretton Woods Conference of 1944, after the conclusion of the war. No less than 730 international delegates from 44 allied nations gathered in the secure, remote, and mild summer temperatures, which was viewed as a desirable alternative to the humidity of Washington, D.C. The conference achieved its goals with the final documents establishing the World Bank, International Monetary Fund, and selecting the American dollar as the standard were signed on Carolyn Stickney’s personal dining room table.
With the cash infused from hosting the conference, the hotel was able to re-open. It would change ownership several times over the next decades, eventually becoming a year-round resort and expanding to include New Hampshire’s largest alpine ski area.
Relaxing and Indulging
While we didn’t encounter Carolyn or any other ghosts, we were charmed by the hotel’s character and spirit as we walked around the grand lobby with our mouth’s agape in wonder at the opulence and surreal views of the mountains.
We settled into one of the many white wicker and red cushioned couches on the open-aired and shaded veranda which looks directly at the 6,705-foot Mount Washington. The covered veranda shielded us from the intermittent rain, which produced plumes of misty clouds. We ate a leisurely lunch of salads, sandwiches, and chowder, and then lazily lingered over coffee and tea not wanting to give up the view nor the comfort of the couch.
Getting Outside
After a refreshing sleep in our room in the Presidential Wing, we were excited to try our hand at the resort’s many outdoor activities. My wife strapped on her sneakers and went for a long walk around the grounds.
My son and I went to the golf course, where we were fitted with rental clubs and a cart, to play some of the 27 holes. The course was originally designed by Scottish-born legend Donald Ross in 1915, and was restored by Brian Silva in 2007. It’s often referred to as New Hampshire’s best course as its views and fairways are unmatched. Despite its reputation, we found the clubhouse and course starter to be welcoming and unpretentious. We giggled and took selfies trying to capture the magic of the course with the hotel and the sweeping mountain views into the frame.
Meanwhile, my tween daughter was happy to have time to herself curled up with a book and her phone, and relaxing on a chaise lounge under an umbrella by the pool.
Later, my wife and son would take advantage of the opportunity to play on the red clay tennis courts like those at the French Open’s Roland-Garros.
Mountain Tops
After looking up at the peaks for two days, we had the desire to go to the top. Across the street from the hotel is the Bretton Woods Ski area, which is operated by Omni.
We parked our car, checked in to get lift tickets, and boarded the gondola. In 12 minutes, we were whisked quickly up to the top in a floor-to-ceiling, see-through glass-enclosed cable car.
At the top was the mountain modern-styled Rosebrook Lodge. I imagined the bustle of the building on a winter powder day, or the buzz of an elegant bridal party enjoying a destination wedding.
The Mount Washington Cog Railway
On another afternoon, we wanted to go all the way to the top of Mt. Washington. But rather than planning an all-day strenuous hike or driving our car to the top, we rode The Mount Washington Cog Railway, which is only a 10-minute drive from the hotel.In 1857, retired businessman Sylvester Marsh nearly lost his life hiking Mt. Washington when afternoon storms rolled in catching him unprepared. Taking shelter in a stone building at the summit for the night, he had the crazy idea to build a train to the top so that the masses could enjoy this beautiful view without being subjected to the risk. He was nearly laughed out of the State Legislature as “Crazy Marsh,” but was granted his permit to build the railway, and he was told to keep going and build the “railway to the moon.”
There’s nothing like haters to motivate a determined entrepreneur to achieve what hadn’t been done before. Temporarily distracted by a lawsuit against him that was successfully defended by his Chicago attorney, Abraham Lincoln, in his last public court appearance in 1860, Marsh was now ready to focus all of his attention on his train project.
It was an engineering challenge for the ages. The steep and rocky grade of New England’s tallest mountain reached 38 percent in some areas, and traditional rail technology couldn’t be relied on to safely transport passengers. Marsh constructed an elevated platform trestle for the rails to sit on and applied an existing cog and gear rack technology that performed very much like the gear and chain of a bicycle, but the “chain” was in essence laid on the platform in between the rails and the “gear” was affixed to the bottom of the car.
To great fanfare, Marsh’s crazy idea was a triumph. President Grant was among the first passengers to ride within a few weeks after its opening, earning the railway great notoriety. Even to this day, it remains the second steepest rack railway in the world.
The trip on the train is comfortable as the “Brake Person” entertains on a microphone offering stats, insights, and anecdotes. At the mountain summit, it was 25 degrees colder with heavy winds. We mixed in with the hikers and “auto road” drivers that came from the Eastern side of the mountain and took turns taking photos and enjoying the views and shelter in the Mt. Washington Observatory building.
When we finally returned back to our hotel room, we felt a sense of accomplishment and were ready to settle in for some dinner and quality family time as dusk settled in the white mountains.
As we checked out, I imagined the excitement of arriving on a train after the resort opened in 1902. Guests were awed by both Mt. Washington and its namesake resort. Joseph and Carolyn Stickney incorporated all of the latest technologies, luxuries, and comforts to entice city folk to have an experience in the wonders of this rugged setting.
Over 120 years later, that tradition lives on. Carolyn’s original bed, her dining room table, and potentially her spirit still enchant those that make the trek up to this majestic valley in northern New Hampshire.
