Mountain View Grand Hotel, New Hampshire

One of three or so remaining grand hotels of the White Mountains, the Mountain View Grand Hotel in Whitefield, dates back to the 1860s, but was expanded to close to its present state in the 1920s. Like some of the others, it proved hard to maintain in the modern era, and was shuttered in 1986. It was purchased by a Boston developer in 1998, for $1.3 million, and after four years of renovations, opened to the public as a luxury spa and golf course in 2002. There once were more than 200 such “grand dame” resort hotels across the country, and only a few dozen remain. One way they survive is to sell off their land, and allow private development nearby, as part of an expanded resort complex, with golf, skiing, and other nearby year-around activities, as occurred at the Mount Washington Hotel at Bretton Woods, the largest of these hotels in New Hampshire. Others include the Greenbrier Hotel in West Virginia, the Cliff House, on the coast of Maine, and the Mohonk Mountain House in New Paltz, New York.