Overlook Mountain House: the hotel that burned three times
Marek Halden
Updated 24 September 2026
7 min read
Woodstock, New York, USA
High on Overlook Mountain, above the town of Woodstock in New York's Catskill Mountains, there is a hotel with no roof, no floors and no guests — and it has been that way for most of a century. Overlook Mountain House is one of the most photographed ruins in the eastern United States, and its story is a lesson in how a great idea can be defeated by a single practical problem: how to get people up the hill.
A hotel above the clouds
The dream began in 1833, when a simple shack was built on the mountain to show investors the view. The first real Overlook Mountain House opened in 1871, designed by Lewis B. Wagonen for Robert Livingston Pell. At about 2,920 feet, it stood higher than any other hotel in the Catskills — including the famous Catskill Mountain House — and it could take three hundred guests.
It burned down in 1875. It was rebuilt the same year by the Kiersted Brothers, and for a while it prospered. But competition was fierce, from the Grand Hotel, the Hotel Kaaterskill and the Laurel House, and Overlook had a disadvantage the others did not: it was hard to reach.
Burned, rebuilt, and never finished
The hotel burned again in 1923. Its owner, Morris Newgold, hired the architect Frank P. Amato to design a new building in concrete, and work began — but the design was never completed. The combination of the hotel's high elevation and the lack of a railway to the summit made it too difficult for guests to get there, and Newgold's money ran out.
New York State acquired much of the surrounding land, and in 1940 the half-finished hotel was boarded up. Further fire damage in the mid-1960s brought down the last rooftop tower that had been standing. What remains is a concrete skeleton: walls, window openings and stairways, open to the sky, with red oak and spruce growing up through the middle of it.
A ruin you can walk to
Unlike most places in this archive, Overlook Mountain House is genuinely accessible. A marked trail leads up from Woodstock to the ruins, and the walk continues to the Overlook fire tower — a sixty-foot tower built in 1927 on another hill and moved here in 1950, which still offers one of the finest views in the Catskills, out over the Ashokan Reservoir and the Hudson Valley.
The ruins are within a state forest, so they belong to everyone. That is both a gift and a responsibility: the concrete is fragile, the site is unprotected, and the best way to keep it for the next visitor is to leave it exactly as you found it.
Walking to the ruins
The ruins sit in the Overlook Mountain Wild Forest and are reached on foot. They are open to the public, but they are not safe to climb on.
- Follow the marked trail from Woodstock; do not cut your own route.
- Do not climb on the walls or enter unstable parts of the structure.
- Carry out everything you carry in, and leave the ruins as you found them.
Frequently asked questions
What was Overlook Mountain House?
A grand hotel on Overlook Mountain in the Catskills, first opened in 1871 and rebuilt several times.
Why was it abandoned?
It burned in 1875 and 1923, and the final rebuilding was never completed because the site was too hard to reach.
Can you visit the ruins?
Yes. They are in a state forest and are reached by a marked hiking trail from Woodstock, New York.
What else is on the mountain?
An historic fire tower, moved to the summit in 1950, with wide views over the Hudson Valley.
Related places
If this one stayed with you, these entries sit in the same corner of the archive:
- Grossinger's Resort: the Borscht Belt hotel that inspired Dirty Dancing — United States
- Halcyon Hall: the college that closed and never reopened — United States
- Lake Shawnee: the amusement park that never reopened — United States
Marek Halden
Marek Halden has been photographing and researching abandoned places since 2019, working legally and leaving every site as found. This archive records architecture, history and the human stories behind the walls — and never encourages trespassing.