whose grandparents owned the Mo'.
Check it out, it's absolutely fascinating
My grandparents owned the St. Moritz Inn until it was razed by the government in preparation for the never completed Tox Island Dam. They bought it when my mother was in college.
Their names were Dominick (Nick) and Mary Musa. I lived there on and off through my childhood until we moved to Spokane, WA when I was 13. The inn had originally been a Dutch Reform church. The basement of the church became the bar and Grandpa built a restaurant on the side and a boarding house across the lawn, which is where my siblings and I stayed when we lived there.
My mom helped in the bar, and in summer in the snack bar that Grandma put together upstairs in the church proper for the teenagers from the camp. There were two camps nearby, one a Boy Scout camp and one designed for kids from the city. (I don't remember which was which... you all probably know better than me.) Our customers were a combination of locals (some quite colorful) and hunters and fishermen from the cities (New York and Newark.)
The brook across the street, the Flatbrook, was reported to be the best trout fishing stream in the East Coast. I remember quite fondly watching the big (to my young eyes) trucks stock the brook with trout by dumping them into the water from the little bridge that connected our road (The Old Mine Road) with the one that went up over the hill.
The building was beautiful with a lot of original hand hewn woodwork and we spent a lot of time looking for deer in the woods behind and around us. Sadly, as I say, none of the Inn still exists.
The picture you have listed here isn't of the Inn, it's of the Rosencrantz's house, the next place down from the Inn. I think the building across the raod from the building in this pic used to be the old gas station where we used to fill our bike tires. Interesting what you remember after all these years.The Inn no longer exists, it was torn down by the government.The Inn had two buildings, the bar and restaurant, and, across the lawn, the boarding house.
8 comments:
The power of the internet brings back the Mo. Thanks to Geoff for his memory and to his family for some great Italian food.
Thanks Geoff for the great memories of the Mo. We all loved going there. I mostly remember eating the pizza. Do you know why the St. Moritz was leveled by the government, but the Rosencranz house was not?
The Mo provided some taste of the outside world while we were at camp. I tasted a slim jim for the first time there. I never saw them in Brooklyn so I thought it was some exotic snack. The Mo was also a great excuse to sneak out of camp which was always exciting, when we were young. The history lesson on it was great, thanks
Not sure how to upload pictures, but I have one from (I think) the late fifties of the Inn, the restaurant and the boarding house if you'd all like to see it.
I'm not sure why some of the buildings got destroyed and some didn't. The Inn was even more tragic than that, actually - The government had given Grandma and Grandpa until the fall to vacate the place, so during August they decided to go visit Italy and see family for the first time in probably fifty years. I understand it was a magical trip. They had bought a house in Stillwater and moved all their personal stuff into that, but had planned on getting rid of all the fixture in the bar, restaurant and boarding house when they got back. Upon their return, they discovered that the Army Corp of Engineers had already leveled the entire property. They spent the rest of their lives fighting the government for compensation. Ah, well.
I went back in the late eighties and the wide driveway that angled up from the road was still there but no other indication that it had been anything. Made me very sad.
Geoff-
Thanks for the added insights to the area surrounding the camp.
I just took a quick ride down that way and wanted to let you know that they still stock Flatbrook with trout, the Rosencrans still do live in the house you saw on the site (isthe garage across the street), a little ways down from the Rosencrans there is a smallish house which appears to be abandoned and a little ways down from that is the old Walpak Volunteer Fire House No. 2.
I think I now know where the entrance to the St. Moritz was: there were curved stone walls flanking the entrance of the driveway and a plateau and clearing above that.
I have pictures of all the above and will get those to Randy next week to post.
Also, there are still lots of deer in the area, red fox, bats and an abundance of black bears. In 2003 NJ allowed the first bear hunt in 30 years but it hasn't been authorized since.
There are a couple of camps in Hardwick which is about 5 miles from where the St. Moritz was--Camp NoBe which is a boy scout camp and Camp Mason which is a YMCA camp.
For you and any of the alumni who are curious check out the "original" Friday The 13th movie which was shot in the town of Blairstown, Hope and Hardwick (Camp NoBe was the set for the camp in the movie Camp Crystal Lake)
The town of Blairstown looks exactly the same way, as does the diner only exception is that they took the "diner" sign down for reasons unknown.
Thanks again for sharing your stories with us.
Shelley
Geoff-
Forgot to mention if you have any more questions about the Flatbrookville area you can send me a note. You can access my e-mail address from the home page of the Pokono Ramona website.
Shelley
Shelly,
Yes, that is where the inn was. The last time I went there and saw those rock walls and the broad driveway between them leading to nothing, I almost cried.
A couple of houses past the Rosecrans' there was a house attached to a small general store that was run for a short time by a family called the Dickersons (I think). It closed fairly quickly, not a lot of people to support something like that, and Grandpa bought it and we lived there for a year or so. I remember it had bats. Fun. There was also a house at the very end of that mile or so row of houses right before the road bent around the hill again where we lived for a short while. I always remember that one because it had a wraparound porch that went on three sides of the house that we used to run around on, causing no end of headaches for my mother. I suspect both are now gone. I also vaguely remember the fire house.
During the early fifties (before I was born, when my parents were in Japan - Dad was in the Air Force) they got a telegram from Grandma saying "don't worry, we're okay." Of course, they instantly started worrying, they had no idea what had happened. It seems the Flatbrook and the Delaware had flooded. Because the Inn was on slightly higher ground it was mostly unscathed, and they used it as a base for row boats to rescue the neighbors.
Just a little more history of the area.
Hi Geoff- The Tocks Island Dam project was probably a result of the "flood" you refer to above.If you read some of the history of the dam project, it seems that in the mid 1950's a bad hurricane caused deaths and damage in the area. The dam project was proposed by the government after that.(and of course you know what happened after that.)
I love the picture of the Mo. It really brings back alot of memories.
Thanks, June Swerdlin
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