Kutsher's Hotel

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 1920s and 1930s. In the 1940s, 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." [ [http://www.brown.edu/Research/Catskills_Institute/hotelnews/milton.html RESORT OWNER MILTON KUTSHER DIES] ] , [http://www.thejewishweek.com/news/newscontent.php3?artid=8267&print=yes From Borscht To Blackjack] , "The Jewish Week", August 1, 2003] 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 and as did Floyd Patterson in the 1950s." He saw sports as a way to bring young people to the resort. 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" [ [http://www.hoophall.com/halloffamers/TwymanJ.htm Basketball Hall of Fame: Jack Twyman] , accessed November 14, 2006] has been sponsored, either totally or in part, by Kutsher's and played at either the hotel or the Kutsher's Sports Academy. [ [http://www.newcolabs.com/live/kutshers/pg8.htm Kutsher's Sports Academy Clair Bee Fieldhouse] , accessed November 14, 2006] It started out as a basketball exhibition but now is the Maurice Stokes/Wilt Chamberlain Celebrity Pro-Am Golf Tournament. [ [http://cache.zoominfo.com/cachedpage/?archive_id=0&page_id=314483483&page_url=%2f%2fwww.onlineathens.com%2fstories%2f080402%2fspo_20020804060.shtml&page_last_updated=8%2f10%2f2002+1%3a07%3a38+PM&firstName=Mark&lastName=Kutsher Twyman's empathy for Stokes a lesson for rest of America] , Online Athens, August 3, 2002] [ [http://cache.zoominfo.com/cachedpage/?archive_id=0&page_id=815841249&page_url=%2f%2fwww.sc-democrat.com%2farchives%2f2004%2fsports%2f08August%2f10%2fcelebrity.htm&page_last_updated=9%2f7%2f2004+11%3a02%3a00+PM&firstName=Mark&lastName=Kutsher Hoops Legends Compete In Annual Celebrity Golf Event] , "Sullivan County Democrat", August 10, 2004] , [ [http://www.sc-democrat.com/archives/2005/sports/06June/07/kutshers.htm Fundraising Efforts Lead to High Honors] ]

Part of the hotel's empire included the Kutsher's Camp Anawana and until recently, Kutsher's Sports Academy. [ [http://www.sc-democrat.com/archives/2005/sports/06June/24/ksa.htm 37th Season] ]

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 1987 movie "Dirty Dancing". [ [http://www.findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_qn4155/is_20050619/ai_n14689092 Borscht Belt's Last Hurrah] ]

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 convert|1400|acre|km2|sing=on 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" that he intended to retain the hotel and to sell about convert|1000|acre|km2 of land." [ [http://www.pga.com/news/industry/kutshers121305.cfm Kutsher's Country Club, one of the last Borscht Belt hotels, is up for sale: The $50 million asking price for the convert|1400|acre|km2|sing=on resort includes a 400-room hotel, an 18-hole golf course and other amenities.] , dated December 12, 2005] [ [http://www.ucgre.com/?id=1142 Listing #1142: convert|1438|acre|km2|sing=on Catskill Resort] , accessed October 16, 2006]

As of September 2007 the hotel is still owned by Kutsher and is operating as a hotel until Thanksgiving 2007. [Multiple calls to Kutsher's, October 2007] Kutsher's sent a letter to its long-time guests at the beginning of November 2007 informing them there will be no availability for the coming summer. As of March 2008, the hotel's website says that Kutsher's is closed for renovations and will reopen in spring 2008.

In the late winter/early spring of 2008, the Kutsher family entered into an agreement with Louis Cappelli of Westchester County, NY to bring changes to the management and/or ownership of the hotel. [ [http://findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_qa5278/is_20080407/ai_n25369437 New dreams for Kutsher's | Westchester County Business Journal | Find Articles at BNET ] ]

External links

* [http://www.brown.edu/Research/Catskills_Institute/hotelnews/milton2.html Jack Landman Remembers Milton Kutsher]
* [http://espn.go.com/classic/biography/s/stokes_maurice.html Maurice Stokes Biography]
* [http://archive.recordonline.com/archive/2000/04/19/sikutsh.htm The hotel that reinvents itself MONTICELLO: What follows is the story of a Catskill hotel that's survived – and thrived.]

References