Hotel That Inspired 'Dirty Dancing' Partially Destroyed in Fire
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The Grossinger’s Catskill Resort Hotel was abandoned decades ago.
A historic resort in the Catskill region of New York was the victim of a "devastating" fire this week. The Grossinger's Catskill Resort Hotel, long-abandoned, served as inspiration for the classic film Dirty Dancing.
The fire occurred on the evening of Tuesday, August 16, just days shy of the 35th anniversary of the beloved film starring Jennifer Grey and Patrick Swayze, but the news wasn't made public until the Liberty Fire Department announced it on Wednesday.
Crews were first dispatched to an "unknown type fire" in the general area of Route 52 and Sullivan Ave in Liberty, New York, but several calls en route revealed that it was actually a large structure fire on the property of the old Grossinger's Hotel, which was once a prominent vacation destination upstate.
The department reported that the smoke column from the blaze was visible for several surrounding miles, and when the first units on the scene finally made it to the building—they were stalled when they had to cut through a gate to access the roadway, and the overgrown property and concrete road barriers were difficult to navigate—they found a three and a half story building "well involved."
It took mutual aid from several surrounding departments and over 1000 feet of hose to help bring the fire under control. Once it was out, Town of Liberty Code Enforcement requested the building to be completely demolished, and an excavator was brought to the scene.
The New York Times reported that the lost structure was one of the "main buildings" on the property, though it's unclear exactly which of the resort's many buildings were involved; the Times also said that several buildings have already been demolished throughout the years. The cause of the fire is still under investigation.
The Grossinger's Catskill Resort Hotel is said to have inspired Eleanor Bergstein, the screenwriter of Dirty Dancing, during many of her childhood vacations there. In footage from a recent event with the Center for Jewish History, Bergstein shared memories of dancing at the resort.
One audience member asked: "I went to Grossinger's for Passover holiday when I was in high school in the '60s. Getting on the dance floor to cha cha with a handsome college student was magical. Did you have that experience, too?"
Bergstein was younger when the magic hit her, but she shared her own version of it. "When I went with my parents to the Catskills, they had a champagne hour where they had people come out to dance. My parents would hit the golf course, and I would just go to the dance studio. I was just a little girl, but I would put my nose against it [and watch]." She got to take lessons, too, and started performing during the champagne hours.
Before the sprawling resort went belly up, it was listed for sale by the Grossingers in 1985. It closed early the next year, shortly after it was sold, with plans to reopen after renovation. It never did, despite several different attempts to revamp the location. Real estate developer Louis R. Cappelli bought the property in 1999 and in 2002 teased plans—which he said were still in the design stage—to open a spa and golf resort.
In 2017, Cappelli requested the State Department of Environmental Conservation classify part of the property as a brownfield, marking it a contaminated site. The property remained home to "scores of crumbling buildings on hundreds of acres," and Cappelli claimed that chemicals spilled from decaying dry-cleaning and machine repair shops had infiltrated the soil and that the designation could allow him some financial help from the state to remediate the soil and groundwater. At that time, Cappelli was still intent on "bring[ing] back the world-class resort." According to Mid Hudson News, that cleanup was completed in 2019. It's unclear where redevelopment plans currently stand.
But while the property may never have its time to shine again, Baby may be gearing up for a comeback. A Dirty Dancing sequel is currently in development, slated to hit theaters just in time for Valentine's Day 2024.
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