"Having a Grand Time:" Armenian Summer Resorts in the Catskills, Revisited ~ Treasures of NAASR's Mardigian Library

Wherever you are reading this, it is probably hot—perhaps very hot—so we thought a getaway to a cool, shady place with the chance of a swim might provide some relief, and it is in that spirit that we offer a NAASR Library Treasures mini-feature on Armenian summer resorts in the Catskills of days gone by.

We know, of course, that the Catskills were not the only place Armenians went to gather together and beat the heat—Cape Cod and Asbury Park, NJ, were two other major destinations—but at least for this feature we will stay on the Catskilli jampan. Read the full article here.

Compiled by Ani Babaian and Marc A. Mamigonian

Many of the items in this feature come from the collection of the late Edward (Yervant) Alexanian (1895-1983) and Grace Alexanian (1912-96) and were donated to NAASR, along with many other important materials, by their daughter Adrienne Alexanian of New York City. (For more about the Sebastia-born Yervant Alexanian, see his remarkable memoir Forced into Genocide: Memoirs of an Armenian Soldier in the Ottoman Turkish Army, edited by his daughter [Transaction Publishers, 2017].) We are deeply grateful to the family for collecting and preserving these items.

If any readers have similar pieces of ephemera relating to these now long-gone establishments, please be in touch!

Above: "Having a Grand Time:" Souvenir postcard from the Waverly Hotel in Tannersville, NY (Greene County), sent to Edward and Grace Alexanian, dated possibly 1955. The hotel was owned by J. Melkon Ohannesian (NAASR Mardigian Library, from the collection of Edward Alexanian.)