Omni Mount Washington Resort

The road from Crawford Notch drops into a valley of meadows, and across them, against the flank of Mount Washington, stands a white hotel with red roofs, two octagonal towers and a veranda that runs the length of the building. The Omni Mount Washington Resort in Bretton Woods, New Hampshire, was built to be seen from this distance, and in 1944 it was seen by the whole world.

History

Joseph Stickney, a New Hampshire-born coal and railway magnate, bought 10,000 acres at Bretton Woods and hired the New York architect Charles Alling Gifford to build a grand hotel. Some 250 Italian craftsmen worked on the structure, which has a steel frame, unusual for a resort hotel of the time, and opened on 28 July 1902. Stickney died the following year, and his widow Carolyn, later the Princesse de Lucinge, ran the hotel for decades as the centre of the White Mountains summer season, when guests arrived by train from Boston and New York with trunks for the season.

In July 1944, with the war still on, the United Nations Monetary and Financial Conference brought 730 delegates from 44 countries to the hotel, chosen because it was large, remote and empty. Over three weeks, with John Maynard Keynes leading the British delegation and Harry Dexter White the American, they agreed the system of fixed exchange rates tied to the dollar and gold and created the International Monetary Fund and the International Bank for Reconstruction and Development, the World Bank. The final documents were signed in the room since named the Gold Room.

The hotel declined after the war, closed in winters and changed hands several times. It was designated a National Historic Landmark in 1986. A full restoration and winterisation in the late 1990s made it a year-round resort, and Omni Hotels and Resorts took it over in 2009 and later bought it outright.

Architecture and design

Gifford's design is called Spanish Renaissance Revival: white stucco walls, red-tiled roofs, arched windows and the two towers that flank the main block. The veranda, about 900 feet long, faces the mountains. The lobby is a great room with a coffered ceiling supported on columns, and the octagonal Dining Room was designed without corners so that no guest would be seated in one. Tiffany glass, the original Otis lifts and the mahogany of the Conservatory survive. The grounds hold an 18-hole course laid out by Donald Ross in 1915, a second nine, and the Bretton Woods ski area on the slopes opposite.

Rooms and suites

The hotel has 200 rooms and suites on the upper floors of the main building, with further accommodation in the Bretton Arms Inn, a smaller 1896 house on the estate, and in the Lodge across the road. Rooms in the main hotel keep their high ceilings and tall windows; the tower suites have the views up the valley.

Dining

The Main Dining Room, the octagonal room with an orchestra balcony, serves breakfast and dinner. Stickney's, in the former billiard room, is the pub, and the Cave, a stone-walled speakeasy in the basement that operated through Prohibition, is open in the evening. The Rosebrook Bar is on the veranda side with the mountain view. Other restaurants are at the ski area and the golf clubhouse.

Wellness

The spa occupies a wing of the hotel with treatment rooms and a relaxation area, and there are indoor and outdoor heated pools, a fitness centre and tennis courts. In winter the ski area, cross-country trails and sleigh rides are reached from the hotel; in summer, the golf courses and the Cog Railway up Mount Washington, a few miles away.

Weddings and events

The resort markets about 30,000 square feet of meeting space. The Grand Ballroom, the Gold Room and the Conservatory are the principal rooms, and the hotel hosts weddings on the veranda, on the lawns facing the Presidential Range and in the ballroom. Conferences use the ballroom and the smaller rooms on the ground floor. Capacities depend on the room and the layout.

Location

Bretton Woods lies on Route 302 at the head of Crawford Notch in the White Mountain National Forest, about 50 kilometres from North Conway and two and a half hours by car from Boston. Manchester-Boston Regional Airport and Portland International Jetport are each roughly two hours away. There is no scheduled passenger rail; the Conway Scenic Railroad runs excursion trains through the Notch in season. For a luxury hotel in Bretton Woods the setting and the history carry equal weight.