In Search Of The Opulent Past 

What historic places you’ve visited best depict the legacy of the rich and famous?

“The arrival at Mount Washington was like a fairy tale. As New England’s largest wooden structure, the hotel stands out like a heavenly apparition of a place that you go if you have been really good in life.” (Larry Turner)

We’d just completed the popular cog train ride to nearby Mount Washington, the highest point in the White Mountains of New Hampshire as our only  intended destination that day.  But a quick glance six miles outside this mountainous park at a historic presence in the distance of the Mount Washington Resort Hotel called for a road trip sidetrack visit. For I’d often felt “drawn to” places like this that revealed the life of the rich and famous during the heyday of early twentieth century, Victorian times in America. 

Fortunately, by choosing to enter the spacious grounds of the hotel through the employee entrance, we’d been granted an opportunity to encircle around this grand mansion from various vantage points. In those moments, I envisioned a long ago era when private carriages pulled by horses and elegant passengers offloading from nearby trains arrived on the  grounds. Certainly the occupants of those times would have been mesmerized on their arrival  by the stunning backdrop of the White Mountains without those unsightly vehicle parking lots existing today to spoil their view.

Observing no entrance fee or mandatory tour at the front entrance, we now felt free to roam around the spacious interior at our leisure. Immediately then I felt an air of privileged luxury with “The Gilded Age” era enveloped in white granite pillars, elaborate glass chandeliers and sturdy wooden chairs. For in those slower Victorian times, the elite crowd must have casually relaxed here with friends or family over a warm cup of tea with pleasant chamber music playing in the background.

No doubt the outdoor lounge and attached main dining room in the rear of the hotel similarly served such an  informal gathering purpose for both hotel guests and esteemed dignitaries at the time. As a testament to that belief, know that over 730 delegates from over 44 allied nations once gathered here at the Bretton Woods Conference to help restore world financial order during World War II.

So if you desire to find some refined seclusion to stay at the Mountain Washington Hotel, know you’ll be immersed in a site that’s now listed in the National Register of Historic Places. Or if you want to go modern, you can bring along your golf clubs or snow skis on the upgraded grounds. But as for me, I would just settle in simply for a sustained look beyond those fine mountain views.

Sources Used:

https://www.omnihotels.com/hotels/bretton-woods-mount-washington/property-details/history

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mount_Washington_Hotel