During quarantine, one resort took on a historic renovation

NEW LOOK | BRETTON WOODS, N.H.

OMNI MOUNT WASHINGTON RESORT

Quarantine Transformation

Historic resort spent lockdown revamping and expanding

By Linda Laban W

HEN THE COUNTRY WENT into lockdown last year due to the COVID-19 pandemic, the Omni Mount Washington Resort went into renovation mode, reconfiguring the main dining room, adding a new wing and building a lodge and gondola, all welcome additions to one of the few remaining Victorian-era resorts in the White Mountains.

Surrounded by 800,000 acres of White Mountain National Forest, the Bretton Woods, N.H., resort has a storied history — first opening its doors in the summer of 1902, with a white Italianate exterior and interior halls of Gilded Age splendor. It was a pinnacle of achievement for its owner, Joseph Stickney, a Concord, N.H., native,

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who made his fortune in the Pennsylvania coal and railroad industries.

The hotel hosted a 1944 conference where 44 countries signed the Bretton Woods agreement, creating the International Monetary Fund and the World Bank. The document was signed in the hotel’s Gold Room, near the grand ballroom.

In its early days, in addition to world leaders, the hotel drew wealthy city dwellers exchanging urban summer heat and smog for cool breezes, clean air and spectacular views.

The resort has remained in demand today for families and for destination weddings. To modernize meal time, the hotel reconfigured the main dining room, keeping its original elaborate moldings, which were painstakingly re-etched, while adding a white marble-topped 18-foot square bar in the middle of the room. Banquettes surround the bar, and dining tables fan out along the windows on one side. On the other, sitting areas with settees and a newly installed fireplace create a cozy atmosphere.

The hotel’s continued popularity demanded the expansion of its Presidential Wing, adding 69 guest rooms and suites decorated with gray tartan wallpaper accent walls, private balconies and bathrooms with soaking tubs and separate showers.

On the wing’s rooftop is the Jewell Terrace, an outdoor deck facing Mount Washington (the Northeast’s highest peak) which includes a small Astroturf patch for lawn games and lounge space as well as the Observatory Bar.

The resort also added the 16,000-square-foot Rosebrook Lodge, a dining and event space perched above Bretton Woods. The three-tiered building with curved lines and walls of windows looks out onto the Presidential Mountains and Mount Washington. A 12-minute ride on the Bretton Woods Skyway gondola delivers visitors to the lodge to dine or just admire the view.

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