Bird Watching at the MTHS Pond

Birdwatching at the MTHS pond for all experience levels. There will be 2 opportunities to join this event. The first group will meet at 8:30 AM and the second group will meet at 4:30 PM. Birds are active in both the early morning and the late afternoon. Come for one or for both sessions each day to see and hear different aspects of avian activity depending on the time of day. Binoculars, field guides, and a sketch pad are nice to have, but not required. Cell phones with bird ID apps can be fun to have, too. Park at the MTHS KRT parking lot. It’s just a short walk to the pond area. Join us for part or all of each session. Heavy rain cancels. No dogs please — they tend to scare the birds away.

The Group will be guided by Nancy Allen.

Registration is required. For more information or to register, please email mthsdirector@mths.org or call 518-589-6657

Hike Hotel Kaaterskill

The Historical Society has gathered a vast amount of material on the Hotel Kaaterskill in the past several years that really bring the Hotel to light. An 1883 survey of the of the building apparently created for insurance purposes allows us pinpoint everything from the elevator shafts to the location of the ice house, bowling alley, water tower barns, and more. Photos donated to the society by the great grandson of Hotel Kaaterskill owner George Harding (also named George) give images of the hotel not seen elsewhere. The photos of the grounds and hotel interior were taken in the 1920s when the Harding family was preparing to sell the building and are the most extensive interior shots that we have seen. They include the only known shot of the interior of the bridge between the main building and the annex and others of the courtyard.  We will take the carriage road used to take Hotel visitors from the railroad stop at South Lake to the Hotel Kaaterskill grounds. Elevation Gain approximately 500 ft. Distance 3 to 4 miles round trip (depending on optional excursions). The group will meet at 9:00 AM and return at approximately 3:00 PM. Meeting place will be established closer to the date of the hike. A per-car day use charge may be charged on entering the campground. A per-car day use charge may be charged on entering the campground.

  • Hike Leader: Bob Gildersleeve co-lead with George Hewitt
  • Difficulty: Moderate (some rock scrambles possible)

Limited to 20 participants. Registration is required. For more information or to register, please email mthsdirector@mths.org or call 518-589-6657.

Bird Watching at the MTHS Pond

Birdwatching at the MTHS pond for all experience levels. There will be 2 opportunities to join this event. The first group will meet at 7:30 AM and the second group will meet at 4:30 PM. Birds are active in both the early morning and the late afternoon. Come for one or for both sessions each day to see and hear different aspects of avian activity depending on the time of day. Binoculars, field guides, and a sketch pad are nice to have, but not required. Cell phones with bird ID apps can be fun to have, too. Park at the MTHS KRT parking lot. It’s just a short walk to the pond area. Join us for part or all of each session. Heavy rain cancels. No dogs please — they tend to scare the birds away.

The Group will be guided by Nancy Allen.

Registration is required. For more information or to register, please email mthsdirector@mths.org or call 518-589-6657.

Inside the Line: A live Podcast Recording

Inside the Line: The Catskill Mountains Podcast will feature MTHS Board Members Cyndi LaPierre, Dede Terns Thorpe (Emeritus), and Bob Gildersleeve (Chief Archivist), The Catskill Geologist Robert Titus, and Paul LaPierre from the Empire State Railway Museum will join podcast host Stash and co-host Tad to discuss the history of the railroad system of the Catskills, the restoration of the historic 1913 Ulster & Delaware Train Station, and the history of the Mountain Top Historical Society.

Space is limited and registration is required. To register please email mthsdirector@mths.org or call 518-589-6657.

Armenian History of the Mountain Top: Oral History Interview with Sonia Hairabedian


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On a sunny day last summer, board members Carli Gazoorian and Alexandra Prince sat down for a delightful Armenian lunch with longtime Mountain Top resident and Hunter-Tannersville school teacher Sonia “Siranoush” Hairabedian at her home (aka Fort Shish Kabob) overlooking Hunter Mountain. Below is a snippet of the conversation.

Sonia: I’ll tell you about one of the hotels over in Lexington that’s Armenian—O’Hara house. And my parents came there with my grandparents. …And they liked it up here very much. The mountains reminded them of parts of Armenia. Then after that, my father and my grandmother went looking for property, and they found the boarding house here [in Hunter] for $2,800.

Carli: And what year was that?

Sonia 1940.

Carli 1940. Okay. Yeah. Yeah.

Sonia …So I came up for one year. My grandfather had put heat in one of the single apartments that was still winterized …So, I said, I’ll come up for a year. Well, fifty years later, I’m still here.

Carli It’s hard to get out.

Sonia So after one year I came up with stockings on, high heels, and makeup, and false eyelashes. And I’m working in the ski shop. Irving Schwimmer— he sees me in town. “What are you doing up here?” [he asked.] I said, I’m going to stay here for the year. “Oh, come and work for me.” I said nah, I had enough money saved then. He knew we were grocers. “You said you worked in your parent’s grocery store. Selling skis is the same thing.” So, I did that for winter.

Carli Where was that? Where did you work?

Sonia Heller’s Ski Shop in um, it’s the building is still, you know, where the rotten buildings are, [the] broken down buildings? Right next door was the ski shop.

Carli Okay, cool.

Sonia Heller’s Ski Shop. And it was Irving Schwimmer’s. So I worked there that winter. And in the springtime, I said, I can’t live up here. You don’t make any money. Everybody’s on unemployment. I mean, the creek, I couldn’t go swimming in the winter. Cuz the creek was an attraction to me. The creek, definitely.

Alexandra Of course, yea it’s beautiful.

Sonia I moved up here. And then after that, that’s when I bought a chainsaw and I started burning wood. And I didn’t have stockings anymore. You know, I had hammers and screwdrivers.

Carli Nice.

Sonia And I have no regrets.

Additional conversations about Armenian history on the Mountain Top, including photos, recipes and more will appear in the Summer issue of The Hemlock and future blog posts.

I look forward to further interviews with Sonia as she is a fountain of memories regarding the Armenian culture,  people and history here on the Mountain Top.  She not only remembers the history of the numerous hotels that existed in the old days but the huge variety of cultures that visited here and established them.  Armenians escaped a huge genocide and were welcomed here as immigrants after WWI  as were the Jews,  Greeks,  Syrians,  Irish and others as strife and wars in Europe continued.

-Athena Billias

Wiltse Dunn Glass Plate Negative Collection

A collection of 42 glass plate negatives donated by Shirley and Gerald Dunn. The photographs were taken in the early 20th Century by Oscar Showers and include photographs taken in and around Tannersville. They include some images of general interest and several family photographs of the Showers family and others as well as local homes and buildings. 

View the full collection online for the first time:

  • Sam Hommel

Inside the Archives

Decorating for Christmas, Main Street, Windham, 1981.
Do you recognize the men in the photo?

Frank Lacky’s Store, Tannersville early 20th C.
After heading down the rabbit hole with several archival enthusiasts, we turn the “discovering” over to you…
Do you remember where Frank Lacky’s store was located in Tannersville? What kind of store was it?
Egbert Dibble’s Station Corner 23A & 296, circa mid 20th century.
Postcard of a corner of The Grill at The Sugar Maples in Maplecrest in the Catskills, NY. Date Unknown.

Station for the Otis Elevating Railway with view of Catskill Mountain House, 1889.
Tannersville U&D Station, late 19th century.
Archivist Notes: Women and a little girl, in Tannersville standing in front of a sign which reads the miles to Kingston and to Kaaterskill.

Jack Hommel with sithe (for cutting grass) Mountain Golf Course. C. late 19th/early 20th century.

Colored photograph of 3 men and 3 bears with halters/muzzles and leashes. Caption: “Met ’em in Kaaterskill Clove”
Archivist Notes: In the late 19th C. and early 20th C., as tourism and hospitality became a major part of the economic backbone of the Catskills region, it was a common practice to capture wild bears and keep them as pets or use them as entertainment.
The times have certainly changed and there are now rules and regulations prohibiting these actions as well as intentionally feeding or unintentionally feeding through reckless misconduct. As we continue to experience warmer weather seasons, please stay vigilant about not leaving trash behind.
Tannersville’s Rip Van Winkle Airport, C. 1929
Archivist Notes: Tannersville’s Rip Van Winkle airport was built by the Town of Hunter at Gaffey’s corner (Elka Park Road, off Route 16) for the purpose of creating an airport. The agreement was signed on July 8, 1929.
The lease gave Perry Edwards exclusive rights to its use it for commercial aviation with a lease period allowed him to run for five years until July 15, 1933. The field would be used during July and August. At the same time Edwards was to guarantee an airplane would be operate on at least one day a week during those two months. It was further agreed that the Town of Hunter would not be responsible for the maintenance of the grounds. — The late Perry Edwards, retold by Justine L. Hommel and transcribed by the volunteers of the MTHS.
Buying Meat in the Catskills.
Archivist Notes: Postcard of a butcher selling meat from a horse drawn wagon. Side of wagon says AJL Mulford.
Postmarked September 1, 1914

Harlem Hell Fighters from the North Country, Zoom Presentation

Please note this will be a Zoom presentation. USE THIS LINK to enter presentation. 
Local men of the Harlem Hell Fighters, the most famous regiment of the American Army during World War 1 will be featured in the Black History program on February 6th, via Zoom. Unit historian, Richard Sears Walling, will explore the service of the regiment with an emphasis on the dozens of men of our region who served in this famous regiment.
In addition to better-know heroes such as Sgt. Henry Johnson of Albany, there were men of our area including Sgt. Carl and Harrison Vroman of Schoharie. And James Jamieson of Saratoga Springs.  The regiment went overseas in 1917 with an original complement of 2200 men and 76 officers and returned with 1200 men and 35 officers in 1919 of that group. Their heroism in France earned them their immortal nickname, the Harlem Hell Fighters.
Walling’s work specializes in African American and Native American history and genealogy. He is the recipient of the Oliver Cromwell Black Historical Society and the Sons of the American Revolution. He resides in Stamford.

KAATERSKILL JUNCTION HIKE with Paul LaPierre

You will be stepping back in time to the days when the Kaaterskill and Stony Clove Railroad came up to the Junction from Phoenicia and then split to the west on the Hunter Branch and headed east on theTannersville Branch toward the Hotel Kaaterskill. A track plan of the junction and photographs showing the several sidings that served the sorting of freight and passenger cars to the two branches will be provided, supported by rail ties that still remain 84 years after the abandonment of the line in 1940. To the east
the hike will visit the remains of the Light Dam Bridge over the Schoharie Creek. A side excursion to the new Hunter Branch Rail Trail pedestrian bridge over a tributary of the Schoharie Creek will be added after returning to our start at the Junction site.
Meeting time: 9:00AM 5 October 2024
Difficulty: This is a moderate hike on an old, mostly level railroad bed, about 4
miles long with leader Paul LaPierre exploring the area around Kaaterskill
Junction on State Route214. There is one small shallow stream crossing with
stepping stones—hiking poles or staff are advised.
Directions: Address: 4282 Rte 214
About a mile south from the 23A end of Rte 214 on the left there is a sign
planted in the grass marking the Junction —drive in and park on the U-shaped
driveway.

Narrow Gauge Trains of the Catskills: John Ham Book Signing at the Mountain Top Historical Society

UPDATE: Due to unforeseen circumstances, the book signing is cancelled. However, we are pleased to inform you, due to popular demand, we have a handful of copies of Narrow Gauge Trains of the Catskills to sell. If you would like to purchase the book, please email mthsdirector@mths.org or call 518-589-6657. They will also be available for purchase this Saturday, 8/17 1-4:30 PM at the Ulster & Delaware Train Station on the MTHS campus.
John Ham will be at the historic 1913 Ulster & Delaware Train Station to sign copies of his latest book, Narrow Gauge Trains of the Catskills, Saturday, August 24th from 1:00 – 3:00 pm.
This is John Ham’s newest (and most likely, last) railroad book. It is entitled Narrow Gauge Trains of the Catskills, showing in detail the six decades of railroad operations in the “Resort Ridge” region of the Northern Catskill Mountains, primarily in the Township of Hunter.
This hardcover book contains 304 glossy pages of history. It is also a superb collection of more than 530 crisp, clear photographs, maps, original construction contracts, and so much more inside this all-encompassing book.