I Am on the Third Floor

Postmarked 24 July 1906
Holyoke, MA

Message:

Dear Friend, I am on the 3rd floor of this building now will visit(?) later. / Ernest

The Summit House was built in the mid-1800s, and enjoyed popularity in part because of its novelties - one of the area's earliest telephone lines, a tramway, a steamboat... However, the advent of the car along with the Great Depression kept many guests away. After a 1938 hurricane significantly damaged the structure, Joseph A. Skinner, the owner at the time, tore it down. Skinner, in 1940, gave the hotel and its 375 acre property to the state for a public park. According to the Massachusetts Department Conservation and Recreation's website:

At the dedication ceremony, Skinner expressed the wish that the place be a “thing of beauty and a source of joy to the people of the Commonwealth.”  

A 1988 restoration allows current visitors to see the Summit House as it appeared at the turn of the 19th Century.

The Summit House