In his 1945 essay about the village of Monticello, Adelbert M. Scriber, Sullivan County’s first official County Historian, wrote about the many changes that had taken place in the village since its founding some 140 years before.

“[M]ost notable among them was the transition from just a quiet little hilltop farming community to the hub of what it is now – one of the world’s most interesting and well populated resort sections,” he wrote. ”The Osborn House, the Latourette Hotel, the Mansion House, the Carlton Hotel, the Erie Hotel on St. John Street, the Park View, the Fulton and the Rockwell House were among the most popular resort places at the turn of the century. Farm boarding houses were also quite popular but were not operated as real money-making enterprises until they were acquired by new owners in the past fifty years.”

This little-known essay, entitled “Monticello 1805 – 1945” was just a few paragraphs long, but it serves to whet one’s appetite for more information about the evolution of Monticello over the years. A number of years ago, this columnist, the current Sullivan County Historian, presented a program at the Ethelbert B. Crawford Public Library in Monticello entitled “From Brushland to Broadway: The Evolution of Monticello’s Main Street,” which delved into those changes even more deeply.

 And next week comes another look at the changes from a slightly different angle, with a new presentation entitled “Monticello’s Hotels.”

Many people are familiar with the Hotel Rockwell and the Palatine Hotel, two massive Main Street structures that sadly met their demise in the great Monticello fire of August 10, 1909, but, as Scriber pointed out, they were just two of many popular hotels in the village during Sullivan County’s Silver Age of tourism and in the transition years that followed.

The Rockwell, of course, was owned by George Rockwell and was located on the corner of what was then Mill Street and Main, or today’s St. John Street and Broadway. The Palatine, owned by Peter C. Murray, was on the corner of Orchard and Main, or what is now known as Landfield Avenue and Broadway. Sadly, neither survived the most destructive fire in Sullivan County’s history.

Murray was the man who had electrified Monticello in the first place, and his main power plant was located just behind the theater that was attached to the rear of the Palatine. A malfunction in that power plant started the conflagration, which was out of hand before anyone knew what was happening. The Palatine was one of the first buildings to fall.

Interestingly, two of Monticello’s most prominent surviving hotels were claimed in Monticello’s other great fire, on June 30, 1919.

That fire destroyed one of the village’s oldest hotels, the Monticello House, which had been one of the principal stopovers for travelers on the old Newburgh-Cochecton Turnpike, including cattle drovers from farms on the western side of the county on their way to the markets reached via the Hudson River.

“Oft times night fall would overtake the weary drovers as they neared Monticello, and the Monticello House was their abode for the night,” wrote Edward F. Curley in his book, “Old Monticello.”

“There was ample accommodation for the cattle at this inn. In the year 1873 or 1874, Thomas M. Kane, a native of Goshen, came to Monticello and purchased this property. Mr. Kane was an excellent hotel man and conducted this hotel successfully for many years.”

On the other end of what was known as the Rudolph block, the 1919 fire took the Palm Hotel, another of the village’s venerable lodges, at the time very popular with tourists. The Palm was owned by Joseph Engelmann, who had come to Monticello from Narrowsburg in 1892 to erect a cigar factory on Mill Street. Engelmann had been the president of the village’s Board of Trustees– the equivalent of today’s mayor– during the great fire of 1909.

The Hotel Palm had been built on the former site of the flour, feed and coal store operated in the early days of the village by G.B. Wales, and then later by C.B. Brinkerhoff. As tourism grew in the county, it became one of the choice Monticello inns, especially after the 1909 fire claimed the Palatine and Rockwell. Guests at the Palm would often compete in tennis and croquet tournaments against those staying at other village hotels, including the Albert House, the Hoffman House, the Latourette, and the Frank Leslie.

While next week’s presentation will not feature all of those establishments, it will take a look at a number of them, and should provide new information and insights for even those with more than a passing knowledge of Monticello’s history.

The Crawford Library program is scheduled for Tuesday, July 30 at 6 p.m. It is free and open to the public. Contact the library for more information.

John Conway is the Sullivan County Historian and a founder and president of The Delaware Company. Email him at jconway52@hotmail.com.