History
The Mount Washington Hotel was constructed between 1900 and 1902 at a cost of $1.7 million (approximately $62 million today) by Joseph Stickney, a native of Concord, New Hampshire who had made a fortune before the age of 30 as a coal broker in Pennsylvania. In 1881 Stickney and his partner, John N. Conyngham, had purchased the nearby Mount Pleasant Hotel (a large early hotel demolished in 1939) from lumberman John T.G. Leavitt. [4] Subsequently, Stickney began work on his Mount Washington Hotel. He had envisioned the hotel to be a luxurious getaway for urban dwellers looking to escape the city.
Stickney brought in 250 Italian artisans to build it, particularly the granite and stucco masonry. Construction started in 1900 on the Y-shaped hotel, which opened on July 28, 1902. At its completion, the hotel boasted over 2,000 doors, 12,000 windows, and over eleven miles of plumbing. [5]
At the opening ceremony, Stickney told the audience, "Look at me, gentlemen ... for I am the poor fool who built all this!" Within a year he was dead at the age of 64 due to a heart attack. [6]
His wife, Carolyn Stickney, spent her summers at the hotel for the next decade, adding the Sun Dining Room with guest rooms above, the fourth floor between the towers, and the chapel honoring her late husband. Under its capable first manager, John Anderson, the hotel was a success. But the advent of income tax, Prohibition, and the Great Depression curtailed the hospitality business. In 1936, Mrs. Stickney's nephew, Foster Reynolds, inherited the hotel, but it closed in 1942 because of World War II. In 1944, a Boston syndicate bought the extensive property for about $450,000. The Bretton Woods monetary conference took place that year, establishing the World Bank and the International Monetary Fund. The owners were paid $300,000 for the loss of business and promised a daily room charge of $18 per person for the 19-day conference. [6] Subsequently, each bedroom carried a plaque outside its door identifying which country's representative at that conference had stayed in that room. [7]
The Mount Washington Hotel and Resort is one of the last surviving grand hotels in the White Mountains and includes an 18-hole Donald Ross-designed golf course, as well as the hotel's original 9-hole course designed by A.H. Findlay.
It was declared a National Historic Landmark in 1986. [2] [8]
In 1991, the hotel was sold to MWH Preservation Limited Partnership for $3.1 million. [9]
The hotel opened for its first winter season in 1999. Until then, the hotel was seasonal, and would close to guests late in the fall and open in the spring. The entire hotel was overhauled before the winter, with efficient windows installed in the entire hotel.
In June 2006, the Bretton Woods Mountain Resort, consisting of 991 acres, including the Mount Washington Hotel, the Bretton Arms Country Inn, The Lodge at Bretton Woods, and the Bretton Woods Ski Area, [9] was sold to the CNL Financial Group, of Orlando, Florida for $45 million. Soon after, they spent an additional $40 million on the adjacent golf course and development rights. [10]
In January 2009 the Mount Washington Resort completed a 50,000 square feet (4,600 m2) addition that includes a 25,000-square-foot (2,300 m2) spa and a 25,000-square-foot (2,300 m2) conference center. Omni Hotels & Resorts assumed management of both the Mount Washington Hotel and the Bretton Arms Inn in September of that year and the hotel became the Omni Mount Washington Resort. [11]
In November 2010, it was revealed that CNL had sought to trademark the Mount Washington name, which upset area business owners. CNL said they were just directing their efforts against other hotels in the area that have the mountain's name and not other businesses that also have it. [12] [13]
In December 2015, the Bretton Woods Mountain Resort, including both hotels, was purchased by Omni Hotels & Resorts. [11] from CNL,. [14]
