Ron Resden's Photo Archives (Set
09) of
the Sunset Hill House Resort
Bob Jensen at
Trinity University
In Summer of 2017 a
friendly stranger walked up our drive
He introduced himself as Ron Resden, a gunsmith from Guildhall, Vermont
He recalls both the old iron mine of Sugar Hill, NH and the
1880 Sunset Hill
House Resort that was torn down in 1974
At one time he worked and lived in the resort's dormitories
Our cottage sits where
the main hotel of the 1880 SHH Summertime Resort was located
I previously wrote about the history of this resort
Scroll down to Cottage History at
http://faculty.trinity.edu/rjensen/Pictures.htm
To date you will see sets of pictures Ron has sent me.
Ron still keeps
feeding me history pictures of the SHH Resort that he buys over time.
In Set 9 you will find some of his latest finds
The SSH Resort in Sugar Hill was popular 1890s -1960s along with the many other summer
resorts in the New England mountains and along water fronts.
Before the days of air conditioning families from the sweltering cities would
check in for weeks or even months to cool off in these
White Mountains
Children were often parked in nearby summer camps, and husbands commuted by
passenger trains on week ends
On week days vacationing wives enjoyed reading on the big front porch, bowling,
hiking, and playing golf, tennis, shuffle board, etc.
There was also a casino that guests found entertaining
This is the historic context in which the following pictures should be viewed
(explaining why women are featured in so many of the photographs)
Ron Resden was a young man who lived in one of the SHH employee
dorms
He has fond memories of his youth and repeatedly sends me pictures of the SHH
Resort
Of course most of the photographs were taken before his time
The SHH Resort was closed in the winter season
Most of the buildings (including the big hotel) were torn down by 1974
The picture below shows where Sugar Hill, New Hampshire is located relative to the Kinsman Range of Mountains to the east
Below is a 1911 view of the SHH Resort as photographed from
the south up Sunset Hill Road
The barns housed horses, carriages, milk cows, chickens, and farm equipment
The resort raised a lot of its own food before the days of refrigeration
The Annex and dormitories housed the resort staff in the summertime and autumn
months
Guests arrived by horse carriages from nearby train depots in
Sugar Hill,
Lisbon, and elsewhere
By 1911 there were also some automobiles
The Village of Sugar Hill (not shown below) is to the left
(west) of the
SHH Resort shown below
The White Mountains to the right (east) are also not shown below
The historic Village of Franconia founded in 1674 is about two miles to the east
The Town of Littleton is about 10 miles north
After most of the SHH buildings were torn down, the Annex was
renovated and is now a small SHH Hotel open 11 months of the year
https://www.thesunsethillhouse.com/
The SSH Resort was the largest of four resorts plus assorted
other large hotels in Sugar Hill for nearly 100 years
The main SHH Resort Hotel housed up to 350 guests served by a staff of about 300
seasonal employees
It boggles my mind that this resort could feed over 600
people three meals daily
Below is a picture of some of the dining servers
Below is an 1892 noon menu (before the days of electric
refrigerators for food storage)
Room prices included meals
Below are some pictures of the main hotel
The long porch on the east side of the hotel looked out toward the White Mountains
This is a view of the
Kinsman
Range of the
White
Mountains to the east of the resort
The Kinsman Range is about 10 miles away at the closest point
Below is a postcard from 1904
Most of New England's largest resorts, including the SHH
Resort, were closed in the winter
Keeping them warm would've been very difficult
The smaller Pecket's Resort in Sugar Hill, however, remained
open in the winter and boasted of having the USA's first ski school
Before Pecket's Hotel was torn down, film star Bette Davis bought the nearby
Butternut Farm and married the manager of the Pecket's Resort
http://faculty.trinity.edu/rjensen/Tidbits/Houses/Set01/HousesSet01.htm
In the SHH Resort there were three "cottages" alongside the golf course
(behind the
hotel) that could be rented with resort privileges
Cottage 3 is now a private home still in place alongside the golf course
Cottage 2 burned down ---
www.trinity.edu/rjensen/tidbits/CottageHistory/Fire/FireSet01.htm
Cottage 1 (that became our retirement home in 2006) was moved in 1977
up to the site of the hotel after the hotel was torn down
http://faculty.trinity.edu/rjensen/Tidbits/CottageHistory/OldSite/Set01/Set01.htm
http://faculty.trinity.edu/rjensen/Tidbits/CottageHistory/NewSite/Set01/Set01.htm
In the 1960s not long before before the hotel was torn down in 1973-74 a swimming pool was added between the above cottages and the backside of the hotel
This is how the Pavilion (Brayton) Cottage 1 (now our home)
looks today after being moved and added onto in the back
The open front porch was closed and winterized
About 100 yards away is the old resort power station that became our barn
alongside the golf course
A new widow's walk shown below replaced the rotting old widow's walk
Why were over 100 such big summer resorts in New Hampshire, Vermont, Maine and
Canada demolished after 1960?
The answer is complicated but widespread air conditioning was a major cause
Families no longer had to leave the cities to cool off in the mountains
Some that took vacations in these mountains headed north on new super highways,
found lots, and built their own vacation homes
After the 1960s cruise ships commenced to compete with resorts for expensive
vacations
Three large and expensive resorts that still operate in New Hampshire are:
Mt. Washington (Omni) Resort in Bretton Woods ---
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mount_Washington_Hotel
Mountain View Grand Resort in Whitefield ---
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mountain_View_House
Wentworth by the Sea in Newcastle ---
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wentworth_by_the_Sea
Cottage
Set 01 of my cottage pictures --- http://faculty.trinity.edu/rjensen/NHcottage/NHcottage.htm
Set 02 inside the cottage --- http://www.cs.trinity.edu/rjensen/Tidbits/2009/Tidbits090723.htm
Set 03 inside the cottage --- www.trinity.edu/rjensen/Tidbits/Cottage\Inside/Set03/Set03InteriorCottage.htm
Set 04 inside the cottage --- http://www.cs.trinity.edu/rjensen/Tidbits/Cottage\Inside/Set04/Set04InteriorCottage.htm
Photographs of Putting a New Rubber Roof Under Our Widow's Walk
http://cs.trinity.edu/rjensen/Tidbits/CottageHistory/WidowsWalk/WidowsWalk.htmIndoor Plants --- http://www.cs.trinity.edu/rjensen/Tidbits/IndoorPlants/IndoorPlantsFavorites.htm
Amaryllis --- http://www.cs.trinity.edu/rjensen/Tidbits/2008/Tidbits080212.htmVideo: The Inn on Sunset Hill (just down from our cottage) ---
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=A5cqUX0LcbU&t=9s
Cottage History
Sunset Hill House Resort History Set 01 ---
http://faculty.trinity.edu/rjensen/tidbits/CottageHistory/Hotel/Brochure/Brochure1900.htmHistoric Photographs (Set 01) of the Sunset Hill House Resort Shared by Gunsmith Ron Resden from Vermont
http://www.cs.trinity.edu/rjensen/Tidbits/Resden/01ResdenSSH.htmHistoric Photographs (Set 02) of the Sunset Hill House Resort Shared by Gunsmith Ron Resden from Vermont
http://www.cs.trinity.edu/rjensen/Tidbits/Resden/02ResdenSSH.htmHistoric Photographs (Set 03) of the Sunset Hill House Resort Shared by Gunsmith Ron Resden from Vermont
http://www.cs.trinity.edu/rjensen/Tidbits/Resden/03ResdenSSH.htmHistoric Photographs (Set 03) of the Sunset Hill House Resort Shared by Gunsmith Ron Resden from Vermont
http://www.cs.trinity.edu/rjensen/Tidbits/Resden/03ResdenSSH.htmHistoric Photographs (Set 04) of the Sunset Hill House Resort Shared by Gunsmith Ron Resden from Vermont
http://www.cs.trinity.edu/rjensen/Tidbits/Resden/2019/04ResdenSSH.htmHistoric Photographs (Set 05) of the Sunset Hill House Resort Shared by Gunsmith Ron Resden from Vermont
http://www.cs.trinity.edu/rjensen/Tidbits/Resden/2019/05ResdenSSH.htmHistoric Photographs (Set 06) of the Sunset Hill House Resort Shared by Gunsmith Ron Resden from Vermont
http://www.cs.trinity.edu/rjensen/Tidbits/Resden/2019/06ResdenSSH.htmHistoric Photographs (Set 07) of the Sunset Hill House Resort Shared by Gunsmith Ron Resden from Vermont
http://www.cs.trinity.edu/rjensen/Tidbits/Resden/2019/07ResdenSSH.htmHistoric Photographs (Set 08) of the Sunset Hill House Resort Shared by Gunsmith Ron Resden from Vermont
http://www.cs.trinity.edu/rjensen/Tidbits/Resden/2019/08ResdenSSH.htmHistoric Photographs (Set 09) of the Sunset Hill House Resort Shared by Gunsmith Ron Resden from Vermont
http://www.cs.trinity.edu/rjensen/Tidbits/Resden/2020/09ResdenSSH.htm
After the Sunset Hill House Resort was nearly all demolished in 1973, our cottage (before it was ours)
was moved in 1977 from the golf course across a tennis court and up to where the former hotel site.
I show pictures of the preparation work prior to the moving the cottage and its four fireplaces
http://faculty.trinity.edu/rjensen/Tidbits/CottageHistory/OldSite/Set01/Set01.htmNext I show pictures of the move to the new site
http://faculty.trinity.edu/rjensen/Tidbits/CottageHistory/NewSite/Set01/Set01.htmNext I show the pictures of a 1980 spectacular fire inside one of the remaining three cottages
www.trinity.edu/rjensen/tidbits/CottageHistory/Fire/FireSet01.htmIron Ore From Ore Hill and Historic Iron Works Operations in Franconia
http://www.cs.trinity.edu/rjensen/Tidbits/Resden/IronMine/Set01/01IronMine.htmSunset Hill House Hotel: The American Dream ---
http://www.cs.trinity.edu/~rjensen/temp/SunsetHillHouse/SunsetHillHouse.htmPart 1 of the History of the Homestead Inn Torn Down in 2015
http://faculty.trinity.edu/rjensen/Tidbits/Hotels/Homestead/Set01/Set01.htmPart 2 of the History of the Homestead Inn
http://faculty.trinity.edu/rjensen/Tidbits/Hotels/Homestead/Set02/Set02.htm
What is now the Sunset Hill House Hotel is a renovated
resort building called the Annex that was once one of the dormitories for hotel
staff ---
The Sunset Hill House --- https://www.thesunsethillhouse.com/
More of Bob Jensen's Pictures and
Stories
http://facuolty.trinity.edu/rjensen/Pictures.htm
Blogs of White
Mountain Hikers (many great photographs) ---
http://www.blogger.com/profile/02242409292439585691
Especially note
the archive of John Compton's blogs at the bottom of the page at
http://1happyhiker.blogspot.com/
Question
Are there trails in our White Mountains of New Hampshire that have ice in summer
as well as winter?
See "The Ice Gulch, Would I do it Again" by John Compton, August 5, 2011 ---
http://1happyhiker.blogspot.com/2011_08_05_archive.html
Okay, you might ask, is there really ice in the Ice Gulch, even in August? Yes, there is! The next photo shows one small patch of ice. There were many larger patches, but they were at the bottom of some of those deep gaps that I mentioned above. I took some photos, but none of them really turned out, even with using a flash to illuminate these dark, dank, deep spots.
White Mountain News --- http://www.whitemtnews.com/
On May 14,
2006 I retired from
Trinity University after a long and
wonderful career as an accounting professor in four universities. I was
generously granted "Emeritus" status by the Trustees of Trinity University. My
wife and I now live in a cottage in the White Mountains of New Hampshire ---
http://facuolty.trinity.edu/rjensen/NHcottage/NHcottage.htm
Bob
Jensen's Blogs ---
http://facuolty.trinity.edu/rjensen/JensenBlogs.htm
Current and past editions of my newsletter called New
Bookmarks ---
http://facuolty.trinity.edu/rjensen/bookurl.htm
Current and past editions of my newsletter called
Tidbits ---
http://facuolty.trinity.edu/rjensen/TidbitsDirectory.htm
Current and past editions of my newsletter called
Fraud Updates ---
http://facuolty.trinity.edu/rjensen/FraudUpdates.htm
Bob Jensen's past presentations and lectures
---
http://facuolty.trinity.edu/rjensen/resume.htm#Presentations
Our
address is 190 Sunset Hill Road, Sugar Hill, New Hampshire
Our cottage was known as the Brayton Cottage in the early 1900s
Sunset Hill is a ridge overlooking with
New Hampshire's White Mountains to the East
and Vermont's
Green Mountains to the West
Bob Jensen's Threads --- http://facuolty.trinity.edu/rjensen/threads.htm
Bob Jensen's Home Page --- http://facuolty.trinity.edu/rjensen/