(Above) Executive Director Ellie Cashman examines the property's pool house, destined for a Spring 2006 renovation into the new home of the center's Youth Art Program.

by Loretta Fontaine

Susan Beecher teaches at the wheel in the center’s renovated ceramic arts building.

A RUN-DOWN RESORT IS DONATED

For as pristine and neat as this renovated studio is, across the street sit vacant buildings on the property. They are dilapidated, overgrown with saplings and knotweed and surrounded by forlorn tennis courts lined with rows of rusting metal chair frames. The former Sugar Maples Resort, on 30 acres of land, was donated to The Catskill Mountain Foundation in 2003 after being abandoned for roughly 20 years. An ambitious plan will renovate all of the property’s 22 buildings. The cleanliness and serenity of the bright studio space the glass bead students occupy holds promise for those rundown buildings that adjoin it.

Ellie Cashman started as executive director of Sugar Maples at the age of 25 in 2003. When people ask her how someone so young could tackle overseeing such a massive venture, she jokes that they needed youth. “It takes a young person to do this job,” she laughs, “I’m 28 years old now, and I’ll probably be in my 40s by the time we finish construction on our 22 buildings.” Founded in 1997, The Catskill Mountain Foundation is a not-for-profit organization focused on arts, education and sustainable living. Progress on Sugar Maples since it was acquired by the foundation three years ago has been impressive. Five buildings have been gutted and renovated. In 2005, over 50 classes were offered in ceramics, fiber arts, jewelry, painting, drawing, glass bead making, Natural Agriculture farming, Taiko drumming and youth art programs.

Former resort staff housing has been converted into a spacious 2,500-square-foot fiber arts building.

RENOVATIONS TO DATE

A stately church houses a children’s studio and a painting studio. Two former staff quarters are now a spacious ceramics arts building and fiber arts building. One of the historic houses on the Sugar Maples property has been renovated for visiting faculty. Another houses the farm manager, who oversees the center’s 4.5-acre demonstration farm.

Talented faculty from the Catskill region and beyond have been attracted to teach. Craft classes run from Raku Art Tile making with Christine Merriman, to Trapunto Quilting with Betty Verhoeven, to a Rustic Wood Design workshop with Judd Weisberg.

It’s a welcome and successful rebirth for a property that had been a community eyesore. In 2002, The New York Times ran an article “When Summer Just Ain’t What it Used to Be,” that bemoaned the fall and disrepair of many old resorts in the Catskills. Several of the article’s photographs vividly display the decay of the Sugar Maples Resort.

A postcard of the pool house, perched on the edge of the woods, back in the resort’s glory days.

A TECHNICOLOR HISTORY

Paul Rosedale, a neighbor in the nearby town of Jewett, lent Cashman a collection of postcards from the Sugar Maples Resort he had collected in a thick, worn binder. Early black and white postcards stamped 1912 show the unpaved street of a sleepy hamlet called Big Hollow. In 1921, the same place suddenly sports the new moniker of Maplecrest. The next year, Gus Moseman sold Maplecrest’s general store, found a partner and opened a resort that straddled both sides of the hamlet’s main road.

At its peak, the Sugar Maples Resort could house 500 tourists and seat 525 for dinner in the large main dining hall. Postcards from the resort’s heyday in the ’60s and ’70s show a gleaming Technicolor getaway. Bikini-clad guests gather around ping-pong tables. Turquoise, russet and orange chairs ring the lobby. The faded postcards suggest a place where Baby and Johnny of the movie Dirty Dancing could have cut the rug in the outdoor amphitheater after a day by the pool.

Students in Lisajoy Sach’s Beginning Glass Bead Making class work on their projects.

The magic of the old resort holds promise for the future, as Sugar Maples once again is becoming a popular destination. Scholarships have allowed local children to attend art classes. Adult classes draw students from the Catskill region and beyond.

A COMMUNITY DISCOVERS A GATHERING PLACE

East Jewett resident Susan Beecher heads the ceramics program, and is delighted by the interaction she finds in her classes. “In the ceramics program, we’re beginning to build … a community out of students from the local towns, students with weekend homes and students from the Orthodox community all joining together to learn about clay. I have so often witnessed in my classes that serious study of art/craft provides not just an artistic experience, but, as a skill grows, a deeper satisfaction and peace within one-self. It is my belief that Sugar Maples will continue to evolve as a place where these experiences are fostered.”

Funding for the renovation of Sugar Maples, over $3 million to date, has come from a combination of federal, state, county and private money. Walking the overgrown property, Cashman points out improvements underway. Heat, air conditioning and winterized water and septic systems are planned for the former summer-only buildings. Slate is piled behind the church for new sidewalks along Big Hollow Road, and cedar poles are starting to frame a new rustic fence around the farm. A building for housing overnight students is almost completed. Wood framing is up for a new farm processing building.

An architectural rendering envisions the completed Sugar Maples campus. Artist: Rich Drao.

AN AMBITIOUS MASTER PLAN

The grand scale of the former resort makes grand dreams possible. With so much land and a myriad of buildings, a wish list of educational programs is envisioned. In addition to the fine arts and crafts classes offered today, the Sugar Maples master plan calls for performing arts rehearsal space, exhibition space, a library, fitness center, dining facility and a Natural Agriculture museum.

Ellie Cashman understands the magic of this place. “Here, at Sugar Maples,” she says, “I love even the rusty remnants of iron-work, the rampant weeds and the chipping paint, because it is all filled with the unmistakable potential for something truly wonderful. In this ‘in-between’ state everyone participating at this point is part of a buzz of collective energy that comes with such an ambitious renovation project.”

In the future, students will take classes in the campus envisioned by the tidy watercolor sketch of what Sugar Maples will look like when completely renovated. But, might they miss the thrill of witnessing a place now in a half-state of ruin? The laughter of family vacationers echoes amid the vacant buildings waiting to shrug off years of neglect. It’s an exciting chapter in the Sugar Maples history as this magical place regains its luster.

Loretta Fontaine, a jeweler, writer and photographer, can view the distant Catskill Mountains from her home city of Albany, N.Y.

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