One of the oldest parts of the hotel is this corridor, leading now to the restaurant, resplendant with original light fittings. Click to see a newly refurbished corridor section
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Mohonk Mountain House predominantly dates from the end of the nineteenth century, and the refurbishment by the design studio is updating the buldings in keeping with the ethos of the original. It is difficult to be contemporary and still in harmony with tradition.
It is more difficult to see the impact of this when so much of the hotel is still awaiting refurbishment. Good housekeeping keeps rooms looking good, and the traditional feel that is being carried through the new areas makes it difficult to distinguish new from old. However the designers are moving walls, creating interconnecting rooms, and have created corridor links into the new Spa extension all seamlessly integrated with the look and feel of the original hotel.
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Creating and running a family hotel of this size and reputation is an enormous undertaking. It is remarkable that the Smiley family have made, and continue to enhance, not only an hotel that is now a US National Historic Landmark, but the centrepiece of a National Park. This is a tribute to their Quaker ideals, their philanthropy and their far sighted idealism in adopting from the outset policies that put them at one with their environment.
It has become the urban tradition that the man-made environment pays no obeisance to the natural world. Global warming is, according to some, a retribution for this approach. Mohonk Mountain House shows that by looking backwards to how we once lived and played we can again create hotels that are in harmony with our world. To paraphrase Goethe, if we ignore history we are condemned to repeat it.
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