06/12/2026
IN OUR MUSEUM –This summer, the Town of Chester Museum of Local History will feature an exhibit of Scaroon Manor photos and memorabilia, with accompanying explanatory text. Although the Town of Chester has had many fine hotels and other guest accommodations over the years, probably the most glamorous – and certainly the largest – was the Scaroon Manor resort on the west shore of Schroon Lake. In 1961, when the Chestertown-Pottersville Chamber of Commerce published a brochure that identified over 1,600 guest units available in the Town, Scaroon Manor alone accounted for well over a third of them (600).
Scaroon Manor was a complete resort, with a beautifully-landscaped estate of over 300 acres, plentiful recreational opportunities and lavish amenities and entertainments, including a golf course, clay tennis courts, sports fields, horseback riding, boating, a mile of shoreline, beauty salons, a dining room, a cocktail lounge, a dance floor with “top name orchestras” and even dance lessons. For most guests, the highlight was likely attending the shows presented by professional entertainers at the resort’s elegant outdoor amphitheater with a band shell and revolving stage. These shows and other entertainments feature prominently in the plot line of the 1958 movie Marjorie Morningstar, which was filmed at Scaroon Manor with famous actors Gene Kelly, Natalie Wood, Ed Wynn, Claire Trevor, Martin Milner and Carolyn Jones.
The owners of Scaroon Manor generously allowed local organizations (such as the Pottersville Fire Department) to use their facilities for fundraisers and other charitable purposes during non-peak periods of the year. However, naturally enough, the beautiful setting and many amenities of Scaroon Manor were largely reserved for the non-resident paying customers of the resort. This seemed about to change in the 1960s after shifting tastes in vacations and rising costs caused Scaroon Manor to close. Plans were made for a governmental unit to acquire the resort and throw open its facilities for the enjoyment of all the people of the State, including local residents. When the State finally bought the property in 1967, it announced a blueprint to create a public park with (as the New York Times then reported) “nearly the same facilities as the original Scaroon Manor estate offered,” including a golf course, athletic fields and a refurbished amphitheater. But the promise of a park for the North Country was not fulfilled. Instead, the resort facilities were either removed, demolished or allowed to decay. The beautifully-landscaped grounds reverted to a state of nature. Finally, in 2011, the State reopened the site as a seasonal campground and swimming area in which visitors can explore the evocative ruins of a once-grand resort.
You can learn much more at the current exhibit at the Museum, which attempts to capture the magic of Scaroon Manor and tell its full story, from its early days to its sad ending. The museum is open on Wednesdays (10-2) and most Saturdays (9-1), Town of Chester Municipal Center, 6307 State Route 9, Chestertown, New York 12817.
