Mamakating Park Historic District
The pin is a point inside the NPS boundary polygon, not a surveyed location.
Why it's listed
Mamakating Park is a small summer cottage colony on a wooded ridge top about five miles northwest of Wurtsboro, in Sullivan County, New York. It was the only developed part of an 1890s scheme to build a vast resort of more than two thousand lots on over four thousand acres around a large hotel. The Depression of 1897 ended that plan, leaving the hotel and about twenty cottages built by 1903. The hotel operated for decades before a fire in the 1970s, but its horseshoe-shaped site still anchors the street grid. The surviving cottages, dating from 1891 to 1903, are rambling gable-roofed frame buildings with wide verandas, varied siding, large fireplaces and beaded-board interiors. A ruined stone chapel, a casino, a barber shop and tennis courts also remain. By the late 1940s an owners association of families from New York City held most cottages. The district is notable for its role in Catskills recreation and its intact resort architecture and landscape.
Significance in brief: The district is significant for its association with recreation and seasonal resort use in the Catskills, and for its well-preserved collection of late nineteenth and early twentieth century resort buildings. It is the surviving core of a much larger planned resort scheme that collapsed after the Depression of 1897. The cottages and landscape retain the original layout around the former hotel site and reflect the community's changing character over nearly a century.
Machine-generated summary. This summary was generated by a language model from the official nomination document and has not been reviewed line by line by an editor. It may contain errors. Check the source document before relying on any detail. Source: nomination document (PDF) · National Archives catalog entry. NRHP reference 98001393, listed November 19, 1998. Summary generated October 2026 (model claude-sonnet-5-5, prompt v1.0-2026-10-29, confidence medium).
Key facts
| Address | Roughly along Park Rd, Columbian Rd., and Mamakating Ave., Wurtsboro |
|---|---|
| County | Sullivan County |
| Listed | November 19, 1998 |
| Reference number | 98001393 |
| Resource type | District |
| Period of significance | c1891-c1940 |
| Architect / builder | various |
| Architectural style | Late Victorian |
| Criteria |
|
| Areas of significance | Entertainment/Recreation, Architecture |
| Level of significance | Local |
| Status (as stated in the nomination) | The hotel was destroyed by fire in the 1970s; twenty historic cottages survive. The chapel and tennis courts are being restored, and the casino is now used as a gymnasium. |
| Acreage | 40 |
| Coordinates | 41.61249, -74.53622 (NPS GIS) |
What listing means for this property
This is a historic district. Buildings within its boundary are either contributing (they add to the district's significance) or non-contributing. Owners of contributing income-producing buildings can claim the 20% federal rehabilitation tax credit; homeowners should look at state credits. National Register districts impose no design review by themselves; a local historic district ordinance, if one exists, does (the difference explained).
General information, not legal or tax advice. Rules change; confirm with your State Historic Preservation Office or a qualified adviser.
Sources and further reading
- National Park Service, National Register of Historic Places database (snapshot May 2026), reference 98001393.
- Nomination form (PDF, National Archives) — catalog entry
- Wikipedia article (used for cross-checking only; text not reproduced here)
- Wikidata Q1888122
- This listing as JSON
Last updated October 2026. Found an error? See the editorial policy for how to report it.