March 20, 2012

Lost Photos Of The Catskills Concord Hotel

I was on the Huffington Post recently and stumbled across this amazing shot of the Concord Hotel, one of the famed hotels of the Borchst Belt that prospered in the Catskills during the mid-20th century.  These are actually photos from a series of postcards that were sold at the hotel, recently discovered and collected by Jordan Smith.  They show a lost world of glamour and leisure--where Don Draper might have gone on vacation (if he was Jewish, that is). You can watch the full slide show here.

The Concord was abandoned in the mid-1980s and recently demolished to make way for a potential casino. Regardless of its future, there is no denying it had a gorgeous past. I get very nostalgic for this era when I see photos like this, even though it was well before my time.  There is a certain glamour to it all which remains appealing, some 50-odd years later.