This is the first book to fully explore the architecture, as well as the related economic, social, and cultural history, of the grand resort hotels of New Hampshire's scenic White Mountains. These beautiful buildings, situated in one of America's oldest and most heavily visited vacation and recreation locales, were the first structures in America designed exclusively for the tourist industry.

This carefully researched, profusely illustrated volume identifies and explores some thirty outstanding resort complexes, explaining their architectural details, their social histories, and the often surprising stories behind their lovely wooden facades.

The book also presents the dramatic evolution of building types, from the first rural highway inns of the Rosebrooks, Crawfords, and Fabyans in the 1820s to the initial railroad hostelries and the grand hotels of the 1850s, an era culminating in the great resort complexes at the end of the nineteenth century.