Tuesday, February 15, 2005

Small Town Ellen

As a kid, we spent some summers in the Catskills and at some point would end up in Ellenville. I remember feeling incredibly special being in a town bearing my name and always wondered who the Ellen was it was named after.

Read "The History of Ellenville" to reveal that answer. Lots more history can be found here.

Ellenville was the home of many hotels and bungalow colonies where many of my relatives went to escape the heat of the summer. I didn't get it exactly, since it was pretty hot up there too. Guess it was more affordable than other places. Among the many hotels was the Nevele, which amazingly is still there. I was a spellling whiz in school and I remember feeling so clever when I figured out that Nevele is "eleven" spelled backwards. Here are some examples of Ellenville hotels in their heyday:
Mt. Meenaga Hotel
Breeze Lawn
Cherry Hill
Fallsview

Wanna fly? Ellenville's The Hang Gliding Capital of the East.

Wonder if you get any town discounts for being an Ellen?

1 Comments:

Blogger Unknown said...

Am just learning about Ellenville, NY. A place where my great great grandfather, James Ryan and his brother, John Ryan, worked at the local pottery on the corner of Center and Warren Sts. Found a link to your blog on the history page. Very interesting little blurbs you have and how you've picked out the "Ellen" in them. :)

4:33 AM  

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