The Forstmann Conference Center

began in 1959 when the Forstmann Castle was used to accommodate small groups of 22 guests or less. The dedication of the center, then known as Forstmann Conference and Vacation Center, occurred on October 10th of that year.

During the early 1960s, Pigeon Lodge (formerly the Forstmann Laundry Building) and Biscuit Lodge (once known as the Carriage House) were renovated as guest quarters, and the program continued to grow throughout the the 1960s and 1970s, following the winterization of more buildings on the Frost Valley YMCA campus. Pigeon Lodge also housed the dining hall which could seat 50 guests.

By 1980, a full-time conference director was hired to administrate the program. In 1980, misfortune struck the center when a fire burned down the Thomas Lodge Dining Hall on New Year's Eve, 1982, but by October of 1986 it re-opened in time for that fall's Montclair YMCA Indian Guide Weekend. The Forstmann Conference Center continued its growth through the late 1980's and early 1990's, which resulted in the construction of our newer Family Style and Super lodges. The center will continue its legacy of serving Frost Valley's growing population of family and conference group members in the decades to come.

The Straus Center history begins sometime around 1840, as centuries-old forest footpaths turned to logging roads, commercial sawmills opened for business in the Catskills. The East Branch of the Neversink River powered one of Ulster County 's first mill operations. But season after season of unregulated timber harvesting soon stripped the forest of high-grade trees. Loggers left, and the mills closed.

By the turn of the 20 th century, the old Neversink mill and a nearby guest house had been sold to a large and exclusive game club serving New York 's urban upper class. In a dispute over posting and club liquor rules, one member, Harrington Putnam, purchased the property outright. Joining a small group of wealthy landowners holding title to thousands of acres bordering the Catskill's choicest trout streams.

Putnam called his vacation hone, Red Lodge. A successful maritime lawyer and later a Brooklyn court judge, he made the Catskill trip as often as possible, hiking over Slide Mountain from the train station in Big Indian. Now and then, Putnam's outdoor interests took him even further a field.

On one expedition to the summit of Mt Fuji in Japan , he informed his hiking partner, Alexander Tison, a fellow jurist teaching at the University of Tokyo , of land for sale at the base of Slide, just north of Red Lodge. Tison bought the property and designed his estate, Grey Lodge, around a stunning Japanese garden, adding upswept roof corners and other Oriental flourishes to the sprawling, chestnut-sided main house.

Before long, more and more of New York 's well to do were exploring beyond the familiar belt of tourist hotels, following the Tisons and Putnams deeper into the Catskill heartland. Some built lavish estates where they hunted and fished with friends and business associates. But most of these affluent pioneers were, at some level, seeking balance in their lives and reaching back for roots in the land.

Roger W. Straus and his wife, Gladys Guggenheim, purchased the Putnam estate in 1936. Mr. Straus, chief executive of The American Smelting and Refining Company and co-founder of the National Conference of Christians and Jews, was a son of Oscar Straus who served as ambassador to Turkey in Theodore Roosevelt's administration. Mrs. Straus, the daughter of Daniel Guggenheim - millionaire head of a worldwide mining empire - established an independent reputation as a respected authority in nutrition, with two cookbooks and a state government post to her credit.

The Straus family, including three children - Oscar 2 nd , Roger Jr., and Florence - spent many pleasant vacation days at their new lodge. Plans to visit even more frequently were abruptly cancelled when Roger Sr. collapsed of a heart attack and died shortly after retirement in 1957.

Mrs. Straus offered the use of the building to close friends, the Harold Mansers. Mrs. Manser, according to local historians, was not only a frequent traveling companion to Mrs. Straus, but also a dedicated member of the first women's flyfishing club in America , founded in 1935 by Mrs. Frank Connell who owned property on the West Branch, just over Wildcat Mountain . It was, so the story goes, during one of Mrs. Manser's outings that her husband attempted to warm a can of beans on the stovetop. The can exploded, spraying the spotless kitchen with beans, and wound up enshrined (by Mrs. Manser) in a glass frame that still hangs at the foot of the main staircase.

Since the late 1950s, the Straus's closest neighbor "over the mountain" had been a YMCA summer camp, Frost Valley , which operated on land formerly owned by the Julius Forstmann family. When the camp incorporated as an independent YMCA in 1968 and went on to spearhead Wellness programming in Y camps nationwide, Mrs. Straus took a keen interest in Frost Valley 's unique - and now year-round - approach to youth work and education in the great outdoors.

In 1978, with her own health declining, Mrs. Straus decided to liquidate some of the family assets, including a New York apartment, a Greenwich , CT home, numerous art holdings, and Red Lodge. Favoring a plan submitted by the YMCA to develop the Catskill property into a residential wellness center, she offered the house and 1600 acres to Frost Valley . The total purchase price, less a generous personal contribution and additional support from the Guggenheim Foundation, was $225,000.

Outfitting the home for conference use required supplementary funding, thoughtful architecture, skilled craftsmanship, and to start things off, a very sharp chain saw! The building was literally cut in half, and the "mill end," from the central stairs over, removed. Renovations added eight modern bedrooms, a professional kitchen, a group-size dining facility, and meeting rooms below. A major grant from the John Ben Snow Memorial Trust in 1987 helped begin to restore the sawmill and pond.

The enclosed porch, living room, former gunroom, and three west wing bedrooms remain much as the Straus family enjoyed them years ago, complete with original antiques. Also remaining is the love and care lavished on this Catskill treasure through its long, distinguished history and many transformations.

Gladys G. Straus passed on in 1979, just a year after her last visit to the Catskills. Her eldest son, Oscar, carries on the family business tradition at Straus Minerals. Roger W. Straus, Jr. is president and chief executive of Farrar, Straus, & Giroux, publishers of quality books. Florence , who shared her mother's farewell visit to the newly dedicated Straus Center , is married to Max Hart of Hart, Shaffner, & Marx in Chicago .

Today, the Straus Center building remains the oldest building in the town of Denning . It is used year-round by the Frost Valley YMCA and had been designated as the primary facility for all Adult Education programming.