HISTORY
The first settler to have an impact on the Delaware Water Gap was Antoine Dutot, who arrived in 1793 with the sole purpose of founding a city. The region had been inhabited for thousands of years by the Lenni-Lenapes, also known as the Delaware Indians.
Dutot saw the Delaware Water Gap with its incredible natural beauty and knew this was the place to build his dream. He constructed more than a dozen wooden buildings and named the new town after himself – Dutotsburg. The town never became the resort he envisioned and eventually became the borough of Delaware Water Gap. Dutot was a visionary just a little ahead of his time.
The Water Gap offered spectacular vistas, a sparkling clean Delaware River, cool summer evenings with little humidity and a health giving atmosphere. The problem was limited access through the gorge. Good transportation was needed to attract visitors from New York and Philadelphia. It was not until 1846 that a road through the Gap was improved to the point where a passenger and mail stagecoach could travel. In addition, the Southern Division of the Delaware, Lackawanna and Western Railroad was officially opened in 1856 and a train leaving New York City could be at the Delaware Water Gap train station within 6 hours. Visitors began pouring into the region and the Delaware Water Gap became the second largest inland resort town in the United States after the Civil War ranking only behind Saratoga Springs, New York.
Many great resorts were built around the borough – business was booming. Wealthy families from New York and Philadelphia would spend their entire summer at the Gap to escape the insufferable summer heat of the cities while their husbands would commute back and forth to the city each week. Summer visitors returned to their favorite resort each year. By 1900 more than 500,000 people were traveling to the Water Gap and the Pocono region. Within the borough there were more than 20 hotels to stay at as well as many hotels outside the borough.
Huge and spectacular resorts were being built throughout the Water Gap with many resorts accommodating more than 300 guests. The resorts were grand in style and had the latest technology – like pure mountain spring drinking water, steam heat, electrical lights, long distance phone service and hydraulic elevators! Of course the resorts offered fantastic mountain views, cascading waterfalls, hundreds of acres of delight, pristine lakes, and of course, the beautiful Delaware River. Scenic guide books ranked the Delaware Water Gap as one of the top scenic marvels in the United States! Many of these spectacular resorts are no longer in existence and not a trace of information can be found about these classic resorts except maybe for an old photograph.
One of the earliest resorts built at the Delaware Water Gap was The Kittatinny, a resort hotel that opened in 1832. By the end of the Civil War the hotel could accommodate more than 250 guests and by the turn of the century over 500 guests. From its riverside veranda 180 feet above the Delaware, guests could command a beautiful view of the river and watch moonlit cruises aboard the steamboat Kittatinny. The resort burned in 1931. One of the few remaining remnants of the hotel is at a scenic overlook on Route 611 where a rock garden and water fountain once greeted thousands of guests that came to the hotel. The fountain is gone but the rock garden that surrounded the fountain still remains.
A notable neighbor of the Kittatinny Hotel was the Water Gap House, opened on June 20, 1872 above the Kittatinny on Mount Minsi, which could welcome 275 guests. President Teddy Roosevelt visited the Water Gap House on August 10, 1906. On Thursday November 11, 1915 the resort burned to the ground in one of the largest fires the county had ever seen. The owners vowed to rebuild but a new resort was never built and there is not a trace of the existing resort.
Other hotels at the Gap included The Delaware House, Bellevue House, Buckwood Inn, Castle Inn, The Glenwood just to name a few.
With the advent of the automobile and much better roads, vacation styles changed. The automobile gave greater freedom to visitors coming to the Poconos. Lake Wallenpaupack began drawing many vacationers to an expanding Pocono region.
Today interstate highway systems bring in visitors from every direction to the Poconos and the region continues to be a great destination for vacationers and second homes.
Lake Wallenpaupack
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