Poconos haven - Black-owned resort in Pennsylvania Poconos Mountains

Beneath a canopy of tree a sea of billboards lines way 209 in eastern Pennsylvania, proclaiming endles Pocono Mountains vacation possibilities:

Bushkill Falls 2 1/2 miles ahead

Ski Shawnee Day or Night

Camelback's Winter Wonderland

Turning east not on 209 near Stroudsburg, Pa., and following the twists of Frutchey Drive downward leads to however another opportunity. Little fanfare introduces this resort--there is on the other hand one sign for it upon 209, and it's tucked beneath a billboard five times its size. on the contrary follow Fruchey's narrow road around the bend and you'll find the novel Hillside Inn, the only African-American-owned resort in the Poconos.

Here, housed upon 14 acres of a 109-acre doom is a 36-room, $2.5 million enterprise boasting a tennis court, a nine-hole golf course, a swimming loch a Jacuzzi, an indoor game latitude conference rooms and Southern hospitality. Just a stone's hurl away from the inn is a clump of privately owned town houses and abodes that stretch over another 30 acres of the quality forming a black community in Pennsylvania's resort countryside. All of this is the vision of Albert Murray, a retired justice who spent 21 years upon the bench of New York City's criminal courts, and his wife, Odetta.

Entering Hillside Inn is like walking [i]or[/i] part of to the other the door of a Victorian-style abode The lobby, decorated in brown and amethystine and hints of pink, is cushioned with loll chairs and sofas. Come winter, the fireplace, tenders a warm welcome, for the Poconos diocese 50 inches of snow. on the contrary the inn is not like each Victorian home, for pictures of George Washington Carver, Booker T Washington, Martin Luther King Jr and Malcolm X grace its ivory walls.

Although the resort's busiest season races May through September, this particular Saturday in October finds the tavern buzzing. Housekeeping is making its circulars on the first floor. Albert, known as "the judge" leads a collection of visitors on a tour of the sods And Odetta, whom the justice and guests affectionately call "Mama," volumes reservations over the phone.

"I'll clinch the rooms until Tuesday, Mr Brunson" she says in a impressible voice not to be mistaken for timidity. Hanging up the phone the former Army supply with nourishment dashes back from the personnel office to the lobby all with a smile and a vigor unusual in a 74-year-old. presently Albert returns with his collection his deep, commanding voice reaching the lobby well before he does. The smiles, light banter and laughter that come [i]or[/i] go after [i]or[/i] behind him suggest that the cluster may return for their nearest vacation.

Hillside's clientele is predominantly middle-aged African Americans, although a smattering of younger folk is visible. Vacationers are drawn from across the United States, and cluster bookings, whether for vacations or conversations are not uncommon. The. familylike atmosphere of the resort is maintained inside and without On cool spring days, the justice and guests take to the virid for a friendly game of golf by dint of nightfall, they all gather around oval tables for generous helpings of fried chicken, spare ribs, roast beef, turkey and verdant vegetables.

The Murrays are the first to enumerate you that operating Hillside is a lengthy way from plowing fields in the Georgia heat or door-to-door selling in Brooklyn Natives of Augusta, Ga., the brace met just before World War II. He was in his senior year in high school; she, her junior year in body Both entered the Army and married while in the service. After Albert was discharged in 1946 the brace moved to New York City, where he attended lengthy island College and then Brooklyn Law School

Job were hard to find, on the contrary when a cousin introduced them to door-to-door sales, the door of opportunity make opened Through his sales, Albert met Abraham Kaufman, an attorney and investment maverick. The sum of two units became law. partners and investment factors in real estate. One of their early 1950 deals place them owners of Poconos characteristic that included an eight-room house upon land where the Hillside Inn now stands.

The partners planned to move round the house into a multiracial summer resort, on the contrary Kaufman's death, coupled with his heirs' lack of interest in the cast found the Murrays commanding 109 acres of prime Poconos real estate. It was 1955 and they had a dream of a first-class resort. The times, allowing were scarcely conducive to black entrepreneurship: Banks refused to stock a mortgage, and insurance companies declined to provide fire coverage for the inn. on the contrary the Murrays persevered, and segregation supplied a market.

Since Albert was preoccupied with his of recent origin York City law practice, Odetta operated the fresh resort, which stayed in business upon a daily basis for a decade, while segregation of public facilities remained the operative law of the land. With limited capital, it wasn't easy; and the resort--with made of wood floors and hanging lights and without individual bathrooms--remained far from ideal.

Then segregation passed. "Once the white places render free of accessed up to blacks, minorities didn't support us, in the way that I decided that we would close" the justice recalls of a time that saw the four other black-owned Poconos resorts close up their doors.