Let's Buy a Hotel!
It was the fall of 1947 when my parents, Charles and June Hoffman, saw an ad in the Realty for Sale section of a Bergen County newspaper. The advertisement offered a summer hotel of twenty-seven rooms for sale at $14,000. It included twenty bedrooms, a living room, a parlor, a recreation room, a small kitchen, a commercial kitchen and a dining room for fifty guests. The hotel came completely furnished and boasted a three car garage, four acres of land and access rights to a lake one half mile away. Now I know this sounds too good to be true and there were a few flies in the ointment. The hotel was built in the early thirties, adding on to an earlier cottage of six rooms. The main concern was that the hotel had not operated as a business for ten years and was sadly in need of paint and minor repairs. Now that I think of it, there were tenants in the hotel - 20,000 bats in the attic and a few squirrels nesting in the soffets. Charlie and June packed up and arrived with their three children and meager possessions in November of '47. They spent the winter huddled in the small living room warmed by a cozy fireplace and cooking on an old coal stove. That winter graced us with two snow storms of over four feet of snow each and lots of 10 below degree weather. The made plans for sprucing up the place for the coming summer opening on Memorial Day. First, they discarded all the cotton batting mattresses on the brass beds and replaced them with high quality inner spring mattresses. Then all the rooms were wallpapered (by ourselves) with cheerfully patterned designs and the woodwork and ceilings painted. Finally, all the linoleum was removed, revealing wide pine boards underneath. A floor sander brought out the lovely grain and two coats of polyurethane lacquer made them shine. The dining room was so large that there was room for a used full sized pool table, four oval dining tables seating eight and two antique hutches for the dishes. The recreation roof was fitted with a new pool table, two card tables and a wind up Victrola with matching record cabinet. The room next to the rec room (formally the original dining room) sported an upright player piano inherited from the grandparents. Charlie later found time to electrify this piano using a vacuum motor and parts from my Erector Set. The parlor still contained the original Victorian Love seat and matching side chairs. Outside, a wide wrap around porch held six rocking chairs and a porch swing. The gargantuan task of painting the outside was solved by Charlie and June inviting all their relatives to visit us in April for a painting party. They were warned to bring paint clothes and brushes. By May first all the painting was done, the storm windows stored in the garage, the grass cut and the kitchen put in working order. There, new linoleum (hand decorated with a textured roller) was installed along with a huge hand operated meat slicer brought from my grandfather's grocery store. A large inch thick marble dresser top held its overnight coolness for the coming pies my mother made. Down at the lake, I helped renovate two row boats and a canoe. After calking the cracks, we painted them forest green but kept the oars and paddles natural. Originally there existed a twenty foot round, screened gazebo overlooking the lake but it had been removed before we bought the property. There was a matching gazebo on the front lawn for guests to play cards and read in the out of doors. Mosquitoes were never a problem since we could never get rid of the 20,000 bats in the attic. Another lake a mile and a half away contained a very nice sand beach and a nearby airport serviced the flying customers. The main lake (Cedar Lake) was too deep (88 feet deep) for swimming but held rainbow trout, wide mouth bass, pickeral and sunfish for the fisherman. In past years the hotel catered to a few hardy ice fishermen. For the next thirteen years our guests had ball fishing, hiking the trails, swimming and boating. We had no TV, bar (my father was a teetotaler) or gambling. We did have live music (singing around the piano - I was the piano player) and canasta parties in the evening. Most guests wore themselves out during the day and were glad to come home to the hotel for a huge home cooked hot meal and bed. For a young married couple with three children to take on a summer hotel was brave beyond belief. It was the most fun up-bringing I could ever hope for.About the Author: A retired portrait and wedding photographer, I enjoy writing, how to articles, helpful articles on photography and many other subjects. Myhobbies include quartet singing, shop, bicycling and photography. Please visit my web site at http://www.photoartbyken.com [Articles, Digital Art, Poetry, Original sheet music.] Article Source: [http://EzineArticles.com/?Lets-Buy-a-Hotel!&id=6175523] Let's Buy a Hotel!
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