Although virtually no one is aware of it today, for many years the summer of 1952 in Sullivan County was well known for a number of things, including the introduction of a short-lived concept known as “Catskill Mountain time.”

The innovation, which involved setting clocks ahead an additional hour—or two, or three— on top of the one hour advance of Daylight Saving Time turned out to be much talked about but little implemented. The Ambassador Hotel in Fallsburg was one of the few resorts to buy into the idea, and hotel owner Hyman Merl told the Liberty Register newspaper in May that they had tried the innovation for a time the previous summer, and had found that guests generally approved, so they would be doing it again.

Despite the popular notion that the idea was universally embraced by other major hotels, the Register reported that it could find no others that were giving it a try during the 1952 season. Such an imaginative campaign was apparently not necessary to attract guests, however, because another thing the summer of 1952 was known for in Sullivan County was its coining of the term “the perfect summer.”

While local history aficionados today sometimes talk about the “heyday” of the Sullivan County resort industry as occurring in the 1960s or even the early 1970s, it takes only a cursory examination of the evidence to see that it was at least a decade before. And in terms of occupancy percentage for both hotels and bungalows, the summer of 1952, was “the perfect summer.”

“Summer Bungalow Season in County Found to be ‘Greatest in History’” a headline in the September 18, 1952 edition of the Liberty Register newspaper announced. “Rentals Were 100 Per Cent, Secretary of Organization Says.” “The bungalow industry in Sullivan County, believed to be the largest in New York State, enjoyed the greatest season in its history, Harry Siegel of Mountaindale, executive secretary of the Bungalow and Rooming House Association of Sullivan County, said today,” the article began. “Rentals were 100 per cent, a general increase of six per cent over last year, Mr. Siegel said, with almost 22 per cent of the vacationists emanating from points outside of New York, such as Philadelphia and Boston.” 

The article also referenced an earlier announcement by the Sullivan County Hotel Association and the New York State Department of Commerce that indicated hotel occupancy in the county for the summer of 1952 was up between 25 and 30 per cent over the summer before. 

Siegel told the Register that there were 50,000 units available for rent in the county between bungalows and rooming houses, and that the recent surge in demand made it obvious that between 1,500 and 2,000 more units were needed. Siegel said he expected that between 1,000 and 1,500 new units would be added before the 1953 season began, and that “plans are also being made for construction of at least 45 new swimming pools, in addition to 80 new pools built for the 1952 season.” 

One week before the bungalow association’s report, Morris Abraham, executive secretary of the Sullivan County Hotel Association, had heralded similar news about the larger resorts’ 1952 season, announcing that the county’s hotels had not a single room to spare for the six weeks that traditionally constituted the height of the summer season. 

“For six weeks during July and August, Mr. Abraham said, the county’s 534 resort hotels—the largest concentration of such hotels in the world—with 34,000 rooms, operated at 100 per cent capacity,” the Register reported on September 11, 1952. “He estimated the number of visitors at 1,000,000, although he said vacation stays were shorter than usual by 40 percent.” 

The Register said bank deposits in the county and telephone activity also supported the contention that the 1952 season was historically busy. 

True to Siegel’s prediction, new growth was evident after the 1952 resort season ended, and in its May 10, 1953 edition, the New York Times reported that accommodations in Sullivan County for the upcoming season included 538 hotels, 50,000 bungalows, and 1,000 rooming houses. 

The Times reported that hotel rates in the county in 1953 “averaged $65 a week, American plan. Some of the smaller places operate on a $40 basis, while others—only one or two—have a tariff schedule that runs up to $165.” The article, by reporter Bernard Kalb, also noted that there were about 2,000 bungalow colonies in the county, averaging about 25 bungalows each, and that the average rooming house in the county contained about 25 rooms. The bungalows, Kalb reported “are renting for anywhere between $300 and $850 for the season, and an average-priced apartment in a rooming house is going for $175 to $250.”  

Advanced bookings for the 1953 season were running about 20 percent ahead of the year before, according to the article, but apparently that summer was not as busy as 1952, because when the end of the season rolled around there was no ballyhooed announcement from either of the Associations about any new records being broken. 

Nor was there any announcement about “Catskill Mountain time” being widely adopted, and the once ballyhooed concept was quickly forgotten.