When I began this photographic series I was principally drawn to the region’s history and the concept of what had been. Driven by an intrigue for history and my own memories, it was quite obvious the Borscht Belt era had passed.
Growing up in the region there was always a family member, friend or local quick to conjure up a story about how booming the area once was. Tales of the Borscht Belt were practically unavoidable in car rides or dinner table conversations as a kid.
While I primarily define myself as a photographer, within this series my actions are akin to those of an archaeologist, searching for clues and remnants of a former time.
One of my first jobs was as a lifeguard at The Concord, which closed a couple of years later, in the fall of 1998.
I still can recall visiting the hotels on weekends with my grandparents, who met while my grandmother and her sister were hitch hiking the county’s windy roads.
Growing up in Sullivan County I hold an indelible connection to the region and as a photographer I felt inclined to document its history, decline and what of it remains.
My family and I would go to Kutsher’s or The Concord to visit my grandfather in card rooms infused with the scent of cigars and afterwards take a swim in one of the massive pools or play a game of bingo.
Using my research into the past as a map, my expeditions led me to discover each site lying entangled within a resurgence of nature, with residuals from squatters, paint-ballers and scrappers fueling each encounter I had with a ruin.
I find myself enamored of these leftovers, abandoned and forgotten within the mountainous landscape of their former pasts, lying in a state of exquisite and captivating entropy.
*****
For more of Marisa’s photography, visit her site.
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About the Author
Marisa Scheinfeld was born in Brooklyn, NY in 1980 and raised in the Catskills. She took her first photography class at age 15 and hasn't put the camera down since. In 2002, she graduated from The State University of New York at Albany. From 2002 - 2003 she interned in the Community Programs Department at The International Center of Photography. In 2003 Marisa moved out west and worked in the Education Department of the Museum of Photographic Arts (MoPA) in San Diego, CA for four years while teaching it's outreach photography programs, curating many exhibitions and managing its Docent Program. In 2009, she was accepted into the graduate program at The School of Art, Art History and Design at San Diego State University. Scheinfeld’s work is motivated by an interest in the ruin, or site, and the histories embedded within them. Her photographic projects and books are in the collections of The Simon Wiesenthal Center in Los Angeles, CA, The La Jolla Athenaeum in La Jolla, CA, The Edmund and Nancy K. Dubois Library at MoPA in San Diego, CA and The International Raoul Wallenberg Foundation. Her work has been exhibited in New York, Washington, DC, California, Kansas and London and has appeared in publications such as Tablet Magazine, Feature Shoot, The San Diego Union Tribune, The Washington Post, The Lo-Down, Hadassah Magazine and GOLDBERG Magazine. Scheinfeld received her MFA in the spring of 2011 and relocated back to New York. She is currently living in the Lower East Side.
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32 comments
SUSAN MICHAEL-SHANE
Jan 8, 2013
I lived in Liberty NY, then Monticello for about 15 years. 1972-1985. My husband was an entertainer and played the circuit. In fact, we met at the Pines Hotel and got married at the Homowack Lodge on August 21, 1972. What wonderful years. The summers were great. We had a “circle of friend” in the hotel business. Great times, all gone, but nevertheless, great memories.
Joe Beim
Jan 8, 2013
At least the Fleisher’s Hotel on Parksville Rd, by Rehovah, not only wasn’t torn down, but was put to a very useful function..serving now as the HACS-Hebrew Academy for Special Children, summer camp. I was there when it was a resort in 1959, 60 and 62. If it had to go, I’m glad it serves to help children now. Anyone else remember it when it was Fleisher’s?
David Wolf
Jan 8, 2013
Marisa,you grew up watching the end of the Borscht Belt Hotels.It’s all history now.
rosanne skopp
Jan 8, 2013
I of course remember Fleischer’s and all of the other now pathetic sites in these terribly sad photos. I spent every summer of my childhood at my family kuchelein in Parksville. These were the golden years of the 40s and 50s when the Borscht Belt shone and made memories that last a lifetime. Does anyone remember the Bauman House which is now torn down and replaced with the Parksville Post Office? My heart is still there.
Ronit
Jan 8, 2013
How sad to look at these pictures and see what happened to that area. I went to some of the hotels for single weekends, boy were they fun. Memories, that’s all that’s left.
marta braiterman tanenbaum
Jan 8, 2013
My husband and I knew Marisa growing up as a thoughtful teenager in Sullivan County, New York. Now, it is absolutely wonderful to see her camera and heart come together in this unique project. – Marta Braiterman Tanenbaum
Vicki Kampler
Jan 8, 2013
Ah, I remember both the Concord and Grossingers. They were fabulous hotels. It seems like all good things come to an end. But that is the way of life. Things, from the beginning of time have changed and it will always go on that way. Otherwise we would be living as they did thousands of years ago. We might think we know what the future will bring, but we actually do not know.
There were two other hotels that I also went to and the hotels and those days are now history. But I am happy to be living in the world of today. Most people travel a lot more today and that way we get to see what far-away places are like! Enjoy each day for what it brings, is my motto.
Janet Goren
Jan 9, 2013
I appreciated, if not enjoyed your pictures. Seeing the ruins of such a central part of my childhood is not easy. As my sister Rosanne so correctly put it – my heart is still there.
Debbie Fox
Jan 9, 2013
These pictures were devastating to me. I lived in Westchester County until 1971 and my family went to the Catskill hotels at least once a year. Then, in 1971, for my senior year in high school, we moved to Ellenville and then I started working weekends in the hotels. I have the prospective of both sides of hotel life and it was great from both sides. Those were the days. It breaks my heart to see what happened to such a phenomenon.
ruth scheinfeld
Jan 9, 2013
my granddaughter marisa got it down pat, if memories are all there is left of those wonderful days, memories are enough. i am so pleased that she is so talented and sensitive and i admire her work.
Doris Rainish Katz
Jan 9, 2013
Another piece of the Borscht belt was the bungalow colonies or as some were called, the “kuckaleins.” My granparents owned the Mongaup Colony on the road between Hurleyville and Liberty. I spent my summers there, with my parents (my Dad of course only on weekends) and lots of relatives and regulars, from the late 40′s to late 50′s. We visited most of the hotels seen in the pictures and I had a great-uncle who played piano at Grossingers. My memories of those years are idyllic and simply marvelous. I fell in love with my husband when we were dating as teenagers and he came to spend several weekend in “the country” with my family. I feel blessed to have spent the 12 years or so at Grandma and Grandpa’s.
Lynn Kaplan
Jan 9, 2013
These pictures break my heart, but are a perfect documentary! I was born and grew up in Ellenville. We lived on my grandparents farm and “kuchelein” bungalow colony, down the road from the Echo Hotel and the Greenwood Inn. I worked at the Nevele, Fallsview and Homowack and loved the shows…Freddie Roman, London Lee, Dick Capri, Jackie Eagle, Dick Shawn, and on and on. There will never be another Borscht Belt! It was like living at the Friar’s Club every weekend. Where did the time go?
Jodi
Jan 9, 2013
It breaks my heart to see these pictures. I spent nearly 20 summers growing up at Slatkins, Krauss, Silberts and Candlewood Cottages. My mom played mah jon, dad came up on the weekends and I went to camp and made life-long friends. I went dancing at the chalet and watched the dating game at the Pines. I often went to the Concord and ice skated in the shows at Kutchers. I have such fabulous memories of such an amazing time and place.
Jillian Paige
Jan 9, 2013
My sister rocks!
Francis Joseph Stavish
Jan 9, 2013
Beautifully done photography and discussion of painful, heart wrenching changes over the years. The Belt was for a long time a big and great part of my life and the memories of it have been and will be with me forever. I often find myself quietly imagining a resurrection of the golden days but hear far more often of attempts by various investor groups to ally with one or more of the American Indian nations for the creation of a casino mecca. The Belt as it was is what will always be a part of me.
Susan Menchel
Jan 9, 2013
To Marisa Scheinfeld: you did a very fine job with this photo shoot. I visited both hotels and have fond memories of them. I also spent time at another place called McNaughton’s Farm in Greenville, NY which I hear is also gone now. When looking at your photos it brings back memories of meeting so many people every summer and keeping in contact with them over the winter months. Thanks for the memories.
From another Brooklyn-born resident 1955-1980,
Susan Brown Menchel, Bellevue, WA 98006
evelyn goldstein
Jan 10, 2013
my aunt, anna cohen, owned a hotel called the shady nook in lock sheldrake, in the catskills. the famous actor fivish finkle, his wife and two sons spent one suumer there, probably 1943 or 1944, where fivish worked as a tumbler, entertaining the guests duing the summer. i was about 13 and worked there as a governess. your pictures are very moving.
Irwin
Jan 10, 2013
Oh, boy.Everyone’s sentiments reflect my own. I worked different hotels in the fifties, lived in a firetrap of an attic above the hotel, ate constantly, met my first love there, who turned out to be G.U.(geographically undesirable; I lived in Brooklyn, she lived in the Bronx) Jan Murray and others performed there, husbands came up on weekends and some wives played around during the week, spent summers in kocheleins growing up, my father was mashgiach at Grosingers. Seeing the ruins of these places makes me ask if I am any different from them, 50 years later.
Ron Frisch
Jan 10, 2013
As a waiter and busboy, I spent over one year of my life (seven seasons) at the Harmony Country Club. It paid my total expenses at CCNY and some of grad school. But I have few good memories of the exploitation by owners and guests. Still, it’s sad to see the disappearance of the “mountains” .
Arthur Sinensky
Jan 10, 2013
Great memories, indeed. But, rather then dwell on the ruins, we should focus on the rebirth occurring right now. The new Bethel Woods Performing Arts Center on the site of the Woodstock Festival has great concerts all summer long, and is a beautiful venue for music, a step beyond Tanglewood, yet close to NYC. Developers have recently purchased the old Concord sight and are planning a new resort destination. Kauneonga Lake is thriving with great new restaurants, an art gallery and a few stores. And, the Chapin Estate (www.chapinestate.com) features great mountain homes to spend summers. Most importantly, the old country spirit is alive and vibrant, evoking great memories as the posts above attest to. Come visit and see for yourself.
Noe Gold
Jan 10, 2013
Me too, Ron Frisch my fellow CCNY grad, worked at the Flagler in So. Fallsburgh as a busboy but my roots go back to the halcyon summers in the “Lager survivors’” bungalow colonies of Woodburn and what we used to jokingly refer to as Lokch Shel Drek (hole of crap) lakeside in Loch Sheldrake, where I used to go fishing for gefilte fish behind the shul on Route 52, the main drag.
There is a reference to the word “tummlers” in my new book, Yiddish Glossary for Goyim. Check it out on amazon.
It wouldn’t hurt.
Ebook: Http://www.amazon.com/Yiddish-Glossary-Goyim-Shmoozers-ebook/dp/B00ATEDIOM/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1356583363&sr=8-1&keywords=Yiddish+Glossary+for+Goyim
Marlene Wolff
Jan 11, 2013
Theses photos just break my heart. My family spent many summers at Gilbert’s hotel (1955-1960) My sister and I worked at the Gilbert’s hotel as governesses. Watching the entertainers from Shecky Green, Mal Z. Lawrence, Jackie Mason perform, was an eye opening experience for an impressionable young gal. I had the time of my life there, and so did my friends from Queens. Happily I too have my memories. Later on my Dad bought a bungalow colony called Wolff’s Bungelows across the road from the Windsor hotel in south fallsburg. .
Marc
Jan 11, 2013
Sad
Bari gold
Jan 13, 2013
I am 42 years old and frm the age of 3 till my grandparents sold their bungalow colony Gold and Rados I spent every weekend and before camp started and ended there I helped take the pictures out of the unsold little frames. My umcle stevie took me to the concord to swim and my dad took me to the pines to ice skate in the winter. I remember going to poppins where my aunt Esther worked. I remember like it just happemd my grandma over the load speaker telling eberybody the bakery truck was there, the pickle man, and ruthies consection stand was open. I remember my dad and grandpa dragging me to the Concord every saturday for services and seeing the grandest staircase i ever saw in my life to this day.i always new we were close when we passed the Royle hotel which i stayed at for one weekend every summer w my moms parents. I remember trying to see into the casino windows when the striptease ladies where there never did see anything lol. But really how sad it’s become. But great times and memories I will always have.
Brad
Jan 14, 2013
I used to work summers in several of the hotels in the area. I remember the woman who owned one of the hotels making us egg creams while we smoked something in her penthouse. The state police would raid the hotel’s workers quarters on occasion too. I saw Paul Anka and some others perform.
Marc
Jan 17, 2013
It’s sad to see Grossinger’s like that now. I had some good times there in the early 1970s. Even though I have been happily married since 2008, I have never forgotten a Ping Pong game at Grossinger’s
one weekend in April 1973….the happiest weekend I had in the 20th century.
Rick Sacks
Jan 20, 2013
Born in Mountaindale in 1952. Worked delivering fruit and vegetables to these hotels as a teen ager. Spent a lot of time in the woods playing, camping, growing up. As the new generation started ytraveling to Europe and the Western US (Taos, San Francisco), the hotels that catered to their parents sold to Transcendental Mediation Gurus, were taken over by drug rehab and mental health facilities and bought up by Hasidic organizations. None of these outfits paid taxes and the “Borscht Belt” was declared a depressed area. Still, it’s a charming and magical place with a certain ‘scale’ to the geography that invites you to explore and enjoy. I can’t go back but the memories are warm and rich.
Iralgo
Jan 20, 2013
My family would “move” up to the mountains at the end of school and stay up there until the weekend after Labor Day. My mother stayed all week and yentered all week. My fahter would drive up Friday evening and go back on Sunday night. Always heard about his old Studebaker overheating on the Wurtsboro incline. My father’s family ran the kosher butcher shop in Wurtsboro, the bakery and general store in Highview. It’s terrible what has happened to the area. I remember thos comics would tell a joke and and do the punchline in Yiddish which I never understood.
Noe Gold
Jan 21, 2013
It’s never too late to learn the Yiddish those “tummlers” spoke. To find out what the punch lines meant, and even what a tummler is, check out me new book, and go to my Facebook page (http://www.facebook.com/YiddishGlossaryForGoyim), which is a lot of fun.
Here’s the deets: Noë Gold’s “Yiddish Glossary for Goyim” is now published as an ebook and a hard copy. The ebook is available from amazon.com, described here: http://t.co/q7VAeEhF. Hard copy: $12 per for FB’ers: [email protected].
Heeb editors take note: drop me a line and I will send you a review copy pdf.
Mitch
Feb 22, 2013
I remember staying at the Pines and the Raleigh with my extended family for a few summer weekends in the mid-late ’60′s and very early ’70′s. We could not afford more than long weekends. Frankly, my recollection at that time was these hotels were tired and ultimately doomed. Even as a teenager, I was aware that the places were worn around the edges and the entertainment boring and dated. I suppose if my siblings and cousins and I had gone there for weekends from the city 10 years earlier, the places would have offered a more idealized memory. The thing that I do miss is the extended quality time spent there with my grandparents, aunts, uncles, cousins, parents and siblings. There is no parallel I can think of, these days, for me with my kids and extended family. That slow paced, quality family time really interacting directly with each other in “real time” is something I miss (regardless of where) and is something valuable my kids never experienced. For good and evil, the electronics are damaging close, personal and direct human interactions.
Jeff
Mar 24, 2013
I went to Skopp’s bungalow colony next to the Brickman’s down the road from the Pines. Fond memories.
Andrew
Apr 28, 2013
I was so lucky to have had Grandparents whom had summer cottages up the road from Sackett lake. Until I was 11 we spent every summer in “the country” The end of school couldn’t come fast enough to leave the sweltering city. Living next to camp ta go la was always fun, watching the antics of those sneaking out to meet friends or go to the lounge by the lake. Ah what sweet memories of going to Shankers day camp or fishing for perch at the lake. I remember my grandparents all dolled up for a night at the laurels or Congress, hearing taps and revelle daily from ta go la still echoes in my head. Warm summers, loving family and the smell of burgers on the outdoor fireplace can’t be replaced and only revisited in memory.
So long Phil and Fae Levine, Jack Hankin and the Bermans.
Andrew Schwartz