A constructing at the Grossinger’s Catskill Resort Hotel, which inspired the 1987 film “Dirty Dancing,” was knocked down because of a massive fire on Tuesday night, officers mentioned.
The hotel, positioned in the Catskill mountains in Liberty, New York, is positioned about 90 minutes from New York City. It closed in 1986 on account of monetary difficulties.
After receiving a number of calls, the Liberty Fire Department responded to the resort’s location to discover a 3 1/2 story constructing on fire, in accordance with a post on their Facebook account.
“Firefighters were additionally hampered due to the property being overgrown and concrete barriers on the roadway which prevented apparatus being able to quickly turn around,” Liberty Fire Chief Mark Johnstone mentioned.
It took the division “several hours to bring the fire under control.”
“At the request of Town of Liberty Code Enforcement, an excavator was brought into the scene to knock down the structure once the fire was out,” Johnstone mentioned. “The cause of the Fire is currently under investigation by the NYSP and Sullivan County Bureau of Fire.”
The Catskills hotel was as soon as a prominent getaway spot for many Jewish families in the Catskills space often called the “Borscht Belt” throughout the post-World War II period and thru the Nineteen Seventies, in accordance with Today. It additionally hosted plenty of celebrities in the Nineteen Fifties, from boxing champion Rocky Marciano to actor Debbie Reynolds.
“Dirty Dancing” Screenwriter Eleanor Bergstein has mentioned in a number of interviews that she went to Grossinger’s whereas rising up. However, the precise scenes have been filmed at places in North Carolina and Virginia, not at Grossinger’s.
Scott Stump contributed.