The Mount Washington Hotel

The Mount Washington Hotel. . , "Comfortable Quarters and a Good Table"… accommodating visitors to the White Mountains , The rugged mountain tops, fearful chasms and beautiful intervals” of the White Mountains have beckoned visitors since the early 1800s. White Mountain innkeepers welcomed guests traveling on horseback, then stagecoach, in simple taverns and modest hotels. When trains made the area generally accessible, the era of the Grand Hotels began. The Grand Hotels were large summer retreats frequented by wealthy city-dwellers and known for their luxurious amenities and extensive staff. During their heyday roughly two dozen of these fashionable hotels were spread throughout the White Mountains. Today, the Mount Washington is one of only a few remaining White Mountain Grand Hotels. , The Mount Washington Hotel was one of the last constructed, the largest and the grandest of New Hampshire's grand hotels. It was the inspiration of Joseph Stickney (1840-1903), a New Hampshire native who had purchased and expanded the Mt. Pleasant House that stood near this location. But he had bigger dreams for the dramatic 10,000-acre site closer to the mountains. He chose New York architect Charles Ailing Gifford (1861-1937) to design an opulent, technically innovative, five-story hotel that could accommodate 600 guests. The doors opened on July 28, 1902 with a staff of 350 on hand to greet visitors. , The hotel was almost entirely self-sufficient with its own water, electrical heating telephone Laundry. and sewage systems print shop. telegraph. and daily newspaper. Guests enjoyed the novel heated indoor swimming pool. Turkish baths, billiards, bowling horse trails, golf course, and orchestral entertainment In its heyday, the hotel's coach met 50 trains a day. ferrying such famous guests as Winston Churchill Thomas Edison and Babe Ruth From the beginning the Mount Washington catered to the increasing number of automobile owners with a spacious garage and living quarters for chauffeurs. , "nothing that genius could suggest or skilled craftsman execute has been omitted in this palatial edifice." , During world war two the hotel achieved international fame as the site of the July 1944 Bretton Woods Conference, which planned funding for post-war reconstruction, mapped a new course for the world's monetary system, and sought ways to avert future global economic depressions. It resulted in the creation of the International Monetary Fund and World Bank.