THE ONTEORA CLUB
Fig. 1. Detail of the rustic porch rail at Witchwood cottage (Fig. 2). Except as noted, photographs are by Pieter Estersohn. In 1887 a business venture called the Catskill Mountains Camp and Cottage Company incorporated, with offices at 116 Reade Street in New York City. The aim was to promote and populate a select community in the northern reaches of the Catskills, a place with healthful air, beautiful views, and rustic amenities in the form of an inn and a few small houses. You could stay at the inn—it had a French chef—rent a cottage, or buy a plot of land and have the company build you one, or you could simply pitch a tent in the woods for a few summer weeks. The place was called Onteora. Fig. 2. Witchwood cottage, designed by the Associated Artists for composer Mary Knight Wood (1857– 1944) at the Onteora Club, Tannersville, New York, c. 1892. Unless you’ve visited this private park nestled high above Kaaterskill Falls, you might have trouble pronouncing the name (think of it as your Aunty Ora and you have it). It comes from the local Native American Munsee language and means “land in the sky” or “hills of the sky.” One of the oldest of America’s summer colonies, Onteora is a remarkable survivor, a holdover with a rich literary, artistic, theatrical, and musical past. The majority of its cottages still stand, as do its handsome library, theater, church, and field house. Shaded trails, an arboretum, golf course, tennis courts, a lake, and the same mountain views that inspired the Hudson River school painters round out the landscape. Fig. 3. The living room at Witchwood cottage. To appreciate Onteora, you must know more about how it came to be and what it was like to spend summers