An old postcard in our Ernest Bell Library.

Subject: Vegetarian Hotel, Woodridge, N. Y.

Publisher: A. S. Landis, Wurstboro, N. Y.

Type: Linen

Size: 3.5″ x 5.5″ (9 x 14 cm)

Date: Undated – circa 1920

Every item in our collection has the power to tell / reveal ‘stories’!

With this old postcard, it is ‘stories’ of people actively promoting vegetarianism in and around New York, from almost 100 years ago, through to the 1980s.

The late Fannie Schafer started the ‘Vegetarian Hotel’ in Woodridge,  New York, in the Sullivan County Catskill Mountains. This was pre-1920, but we don’t yet know the exact opening date.

The hotel thrived under her leadership, and later under the leadership of her son, Verbie ‘Verb’ Konviser.

Verb was born in 1928 & he was still living in the Woodbridge area last year. We hope that he is well & happy.

The hotel also catered for vegans.

It closed around 1985/6.

If you search in Google, you will find several stories, & even YouTube videos, of people fondly remembering Fannie and Verb, & remembering their relaxing stays at the ‘Vegetarian Hotel’

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New York Times mention – from 1985 – http://www.nytimes.com/1985/11/10/travel/q-and-a-137683.html

Question: I would like to spend a vacation at a vegetarian hotel or ranch in the country in the Northeast where guests can enjoy sports and dancing. Are there such places? – S. W., Brooklyn

Answer: There is only one hotel in the region that combines the usual vacation activities with vegetarian meals, according to Murray Mickenberg, treasurer of the Vegetarian Society of New York. It is the Vegetarian Hotel (Woodridge, N.Y. 12789; 914-434-4455) – but it is open only in summer.       

The 100-room hotel in the western Catskills has an M.C. and a band for dancing every night, boating and swimming in a mile-long lake, a pool, handball and shuffleboard. Other activities include hikes, lectures on health and nutrition and folk dancing. The hotel stands on 110 acres of grounds. Rates for next season – Memorial Day to mid-September – have not yet been set, but this year they ranged from $164 to $284 (depending on room and date) a person a week, including three meals a day, entertainment and sports facilities. The restaurant does not serve meat, fish or fowl. 

See more about Murray below – he was an active & enthusiastic ‘old school’ vegetarian.

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Verb sharing some memories in 2012 – from here – http://www.gunkjournal.com/2012/12/13/news/1212137.html

Remembering The Vegetarian Hotel With A Cookbook

……I was in Ellenville Monday and read Chris Rowley’s article on fruits and whole grains in schools for lunch. When I was going to school in the ’30s I would make the stove to keep warm and make some hot chocolate and a sandwich made of whole grain bread. We only had whole grain bread. The only time I saw white bread was when I went to visit my aunt in Brooklyn. Sometimes I would not eat breakfast as I was just not hungry. I would just make a sandwich of whole grain bread. Getting back to the article you wrote, it could have been written by my parents.

I am a lifelong resident of Woodridge and I have just written a vegetarian cookbook incorporating recipes from the Vegetarian Hotel, an establishment owned and operated by my family for more than seventy years.

My parents came to Sullivan County from Brooklyn, having emigrated from Russia several years earlier. They decided to leave Brooklyn after my mother’s place of business, the Triangle Shirtwaist Factory, burned to the ground, killing scores of immigrant women who toiled in that sweat shop. Fortunately my mother did not go to work that fateful day. She and my father ventured northwest and settled in Woodridge, NY. They purchased a small house without heat or running water on 5.5 acres of land that had a large garden and a milking cow. For them it was Eden.

As their land was not terribly conducive to gardening, they decided to explore the hospitality industry and began renting rooms and serving meals, creating a rooming house/hotel-type establishment. My mother was a wonderful cook and neither she, or my father, believed in killing animals for food and so the Vegetarian Hotel was born. By the 1940’s the hotel had blossomed — 100 modern hotel rooms on more than 100 acres of beautiful Catskill country and three sumptuous, healthful vegetarian meals daily. As I indicated, I have compiled a book of our recipes in a book entitled, “The Vegetarian Hotel Cookbook”. It is a wonderful tribute to my family, our lifestyle and our commitment to healthful living.

Verb Konviser
Woodridge

The ‘Triangle Shirtwaist Factory’ disaster – more below.

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The postcard in high resolution – click on it to see all.

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Murray Mickenberg remembered –

The Vegetarian World Forum No. 1 Vol. XI – SPRING 1957 p.28: THANKSGIVING DAY DINNER

The board of directors of The Vegetarian Society of New York Inc.(founded 1931).

Seated (left to right): Mrs. Lillian Epstein, Director of Children’s Activities; Mr. J. H. Blazej, President; Mrs. Meta Ferreira, Secretary; Mr. Jack Ferreira.

Standing (left to right): Mr. Charles Kroll, Educational Director; Mr. Jack Julius, Mrs. Augusta Kroll, Public Relations; Mr. Murray Mickenberg, past President; Mrs. Martha Winters, Mr. Henry Raphael, Treasurer; Mrs. Fannie Leavitt, and Mr. Jacob Fine.

Murray J. Mickenberg – October 17, 1906 – May 12, 1988 – Hollis, New York

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Fannie Schafer’s previous workplace – https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Triangle_Shirtwaist_Factory_fire

The Triangle Shirtwaist Factory fire in Manhattan, New York City on March 25, 1911 was the deadliest industrial disaster in the history of the city, and one of the deadliest in US history. The fire caused the deaths of 146 garment workers – 123 women and 23 men – who died from the fire, smoke inhalation, or falling or jumping to their deaths. Most of the victims were recent Jewish and Italian immigrant women aged 16 to 23; of the victims whose ages are known, the oldest victim was Providenza Panno at 43, and the youngest were 14-year-olds Kate Leone and “Sara” Rosaria Maltese.

The factory was located on the eighth, ninth and tenth floors of the Asch Building, at 23–29 Washington Place in the Greenwich Village neighborhood of Manhattan, now known as the Brown Building and part of New York University.

Because the owners had locked the doors to the stairwells and exits – a then-common practice to prevent workers from taking unauthorized breaks and to reduce theft – many of the workers could not escape and jumped from the high windows. The fire led to legislation requiring improved factory safety standards and helped spur the growth of the International Ladies’ Garment Workers’ Union (ILGWU), which fought for better working conditions for sweatshop workers.

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Our 3 Main Projects

The Henry Salt Archive is one of our, almost completed, projects.

The Humanitarian League is our Hong Kong registered charity.

The Ernest Bell Library was conceived in 1934. It is still strong & very active eighty years later –  its primary objectives are to: –

Collect all of Ernest Bell’s book & non-book works and make them easily accessible to everyone.

Collect the literature of vegetarianism and all the other humanitarian movements in which Ernest Bell was so deeply involved.

Assist students and scholars in their research.

Introduce all aspects of Ernest Bell’s life, including his writings, campaign work, influences and his circle of friends.

Undertake our own research into missing aspects of Ernest Bell’s life and work.

We already have more than 300 pieces of Ernest Bell’s own writings.

We are also actively building a collection of examples of promotional material, campaign material, fundraising & marketing activities etc. – related to: –

veg(etari)an products

veg(etari)an books & other publications

veg(etari)an organisations

veg(etari)an businesses

animal rights organisations

animal rights publications

humanitarian organisations

humanitarian publications

rambling clubs run by members of the above groups & related publications

the work of Richard St. Barbe Baker & the ‘Men of the Trees’ organization & its many sub-branches

There are currently more than 2,000 items in the Ernest Bell Library.

We will complete the cataloging of the collection as & when adequate funds are available.

It is long past time for the library to go online!

 “I have little doubt that the proposal for the establishment of an Ernest Bell Library, which would specialize in humanitarian and progressive literature, and so form a sort of center for students, will meet with a wide response.” 

Henry S. Salt – writing in September 1934

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