Mt. McGregor Legacy

by Stuart Stiles

Overview

This is the story of the legacy of the development of Mt. McGregor in Saratoga County, based on notes prepared for the 2014 Annual Meeting of the Friends of Ulysses S. Grant Cottage, and for a public porch chat at Grant Cottage.
The New York State Historical Site at Grant Cottage was located within the grounds of a state correctional facility until the prison was vacated in July of 2014.
Grant Cottage was the original resort (1872-1881) built on the mountain by Duncan McGregor.
The Hotel Balmoral (1881-1897) moved McGregor's hotel, to make room for the new hotel to be built at the same location that McGregor had chosen.The old hotel became the private cottage of Joseph W. Drexel.
In the summer of 1885, Gen. Ulysses S. Grant was Drexel's guest at the mountain retreat, so that Grant could have some relief during his terminal illness. While there, the General lived long enough to complete the writing of his "Memoirs." Because Grant died at the cottage, the place became the American shrine to his memory that is now the Grant Cottage New York State Historical Site.

Product Details

BN ID:	2940149647446
Publisher:	Stuart Stiles
Publication date:	04/14/2014
Sold by:	Barnes & Noble
Format:	eBook
File size:	3 MB

About the Author

Old maps of Wilton, New York bear the imprint Stiles Hill on the southern slope of the mountain range that contains Mt. McGregor. The author is a descendant of the family for whom the hill is named. He was born in Saratoga Springs and he heard stories; went with his family for visits to the Eastern Outlook of Mount McGregor; and he saw the Stiles Tavern, but as a child he never entered Grant Cottage .
As his careers in college education and ministry came to a close with his retirement in 2000, he found more time to revisit the heritage of his home territory. An interest in stereo photography led him to compile a book of Victorian stereo images of old Saratoga Springs hotels and other landmarks. He published images and articles about Wilton-born artist and tourism promoter, Seneca Ray Stoddard.
Then he set out to build some stories about the people who were part of his past; teachers, craftsmen, immigrants, wealthy neighbors and the mixed, but primarily Irish community in which he had spent his childhood, during the World War II years of hard times, rationing, and uncertainty . . What emerged was his book Hotel Balmoral on Mount McGregor.