Kutsher's Hotel

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Kutsher's Hotel and Country Club, in Monticello, New York, is the last of the Borscht Belt grand resorts (in the Catskill Mountains area of New York State). Max and Louis Kutsher started the Kutshers Brothers Farm House in 1907 and began expanding in the 20's and 30's. In the 1940's, at the request of his Aunt Rebecca, Milton Kutsher took over the hotel. He oversaw their expansion into the facility we know today - a "1,500-acre property that now includes the 400-room resort, condos, two bungalow colonies, the sports camp, golf course and lakefront." ^[1], ^[2] Milton Kutsher and his wife Helen ran the hotel until his death in 1998. His son Mark currently runs the hotel along with Helen.

Milton Kutsher was very active in sports circles, "making the hotel the Catskills home of legendary Celtics coach Red Auerbach and Hall of Famer Wilt Chamberlain, who once served as a bellhop there. There was the Maurice Stokes Benefit, a charity basketball game that once attracted the top pro players. Muhammad Ali even trained at Kutsher’s, as did another world heavyweight champion, Leon Spinks." He saw sports as a way to bring young people to the resort. ^[2] The Maurice Stokes Game - initially raised funds for the injured professional basketball player Maurice Stokes and now "raises funds for needy former players from the game's earlier days" ^[3] has been sponsored, either totally or in part, by Kutsher's and played at either the hotel or the Kutsher's Sports Academy.^[4] It started out as a basketball exhibition but now is the Maurice Stokes/Wilt Chamberlain Celebrity Pro-Am Golf Tournament. ^[5][6], ^[7]

Part of the hotel's empire included the Kutsher's Camp Anawana and until recently, Kutsher's Sports Academy. ^[8]

The hotel offers an all inclusive vacation: all meals are included (they are kosher) as is entertainment and activities (some activities include an extra charge however, such as golf). Activities available at the hotel include golf, tennis, indoor ice skating, indoor and outdoor pools, a health club, and various kids and teen programs. There are also winter sports such as snow tubing and downhill skiing. It is said that the hotel served as the inspiration for the movie Dirty Dancing. ^[9]

For many years, there had been negotiations with the St. Regis Mohawks and Park Place Entertainment/Caesars Entertainment to develop an on site casino but that appears to have been broken off late in 2005. Currently, there are reports that the hotel is up for sale but at least as of December 13, 2005, there was some discrepancy as to what was included in the sale; according to the PGA.com website "The $50 million asking price for the 1,400-acre resort includes a 400-room hotel, an 18-hole golf course, two sleep away camps, indoor ice skating, sports fields and two lakes, according to the listing on Upstate Commercial Group's Web site. Despite the language of the listing, Kutsher told The New York Times in Tuesday's editions that he intended to retain the hotel and to sell about 1,000 acres of land.” ^[10][11]

[edit] External links

• Jack Landman Remembers Milton Kutsher
• Maurice Stokes Biography
• The hotel that reinvents itself MONTICELLO: What follows is the story of a Catskill hotel that's survived – and thrived.

[edit] References