South Fallsburg had always been an important Ontario and Western station. A line from South Fallsburg to Monticello was underway to make transportation easier. Unfortunately, many tragedies and accidents took place there. The (South) Fallsburg station was used until 1957, the last year the O&W line ran.

History of Fallsburg goes back all the way to 1819 when a stone arch bridge was built over the Neversink River by Neversink Falls. Just below the bridge was a pioneer Sullivan County tannery, started by Rufus Palen and Matt Adams. Nicholas Flagler became a partner. He had a daughter, Carrie Flagler Angel. She started the Flagler House, the region's first resort (est. 1872). In a short walking distance from the hide tannery and mill, there were a few boarding houses.

Many hotels went up in the Town of Fallsburg. It would be impossible to name them all, but they included the Flagler, Saxony, Levitt, Hotel Hurst, Ambassador, Russell House, Hotel LeRoy, McCormack House, Hoffman's Mountain View House, Welworth, Windsor, Hotel Nemerson, Paramount, Ratner (now Raleigh), Daisy View Inn and Monica Lodge (later The Pines), and others. Of course, it's the same old story - they all had their good times, but then closed. The Raleigh Hotel is the only one left operating to this day.

The Pines Hotel

The Pines Hotel opened in 1944, but was called different names before that. In the 1920s, the hotel was the Daisy View Hotel. After that came the Monica Lodge. Then came the Pines. In July 1930, a $100,000 fire at the Monica Lodge resulted in the disappearance of a large number of guests, who slipped away without paying hotel bills totaling more than $1,000. The hotel men's association filed a suit against the non-paying guests.

In the 1940s, the Schweids had come up to the Catskills because their daughter, Harriet, had asthma. They bought a hotel in Ellenville, called the Clearmont. They sold the Clearmont in 1944 and bought the Monica Lodge, a larger hotel. Harriet married Jerry Ehrlich, a bellhop, and had four children. Cliff Ehrlich and his brother (sons of Harriet and Jerry) worked at the Pines and their two daughters lived locally. They used to say, "there is always an owner on the premises."

The Pines was famous for attracting guests from all over the country with their theme weekends and conventions. Many new wings had been added and the Pines was one of the largest resort hotels in the Catskills until it closed around 1996.

The Raleigh Hotel

Before the Raleigh, the hotel was known as the Ratner House. The Ratner House was established in 1902 by Harry Ratner; however, during the Great Hotel Expansion Period of the 1930s, the larger hotel became known as the Winter House, although the Ratners still owned it. Eventually, the name was changed back to the Ratner Hotel. A few years later, the hotel changed owners. There was a big "R" on the building which was too expensive to remove at the time, so the new owners chose a name with that letter and they became the Raleigh. The Raleigh is famous for its popular entertainment, and is the only hotel that still has a Mambo Night, which they claim the movie Dirty Dancing stole from them.

© 1991, 2000 Scott Eckers