An upscale hotel may be in the works for New Hampshire’s Mount Washington. The owners of a historic cog railway on Mount Washington want to build a hotel a mile from its summit as a callback to hotels that used to dot the mountain in the 1800s and to make room for rising numbers of summer tourists traveling to the area—currently at 300,000 guests annually.
A 35-room hotel is being considered for the mountain. If built, the property will be open from late April through November, and the Mount Washington Railway Company is aiming to open such a property by July 3, 2019 to commemorate the 150th anniversary of the company. The owners want the property to consist of 25,000 square feet of space, and ideally it will include shelter for a train to pass through during poor weather.
“It would be much more upscale than what people are offered up there currently, and would be more in keeping with what was available at the turn of the century,” Wayne Presby, president of the Mount Washington Railway Company, said in a statement.
Current offerings on Mount Washington include the Appalachian Mountain Club hut and the Mount Washington Observatory, but both are small establishments offering bunk beds and cafeteria-style eating. The Mount Washington Railway Company previously operated a 91-room hotel known as the Summit House at the mountain’s peak. Built in 1873, the establishment burned down in 1908 and was replaced with a smaller building that was again replaced after the state purchased it in 1964, knocking it down and installing a visitor’s center in 1980.