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In its heyday, during the
1940s and 1950s, Moodus was called the "Catskills of
Connecticut." During the summer season, people visiting the
dozens of Moodus-area resorts quadrupled East Haddam's population to about
20,000 people. The resorts, boarding houses
and camps of Moodus primarily attracted people from New York, New Jersey, Massachusetts and other parts of Connecticut.
Many of the resorts evolved
from farms in the late 1800s and early 1900s, when farm families took in first visiting
relatives and friends, and then strangers. All were attracted to the beautiful countryside of
the Moodus area.
During its peak as a
destination town, there were more than 30 resorts in Moodus. They
generally specialized in one of three
different groups of vacationers: Jewish, Christian and Hungarian.
Following is a list of Moodus and East
Haddam resorts known to have operated through the years. Italicized listings
indicate that the resort is still open for business, although sometimes in
a radically different form than its original purpose. The list was compiled with the help of longtime
Moodus resident Joe Pear.
Click on the below links for
photographs of the old resorts.
Banner Lodge (Being
rebuilt as Banner Country Club))
Grand View Hotel (recently sold, no visible
activity))
Holiday House
Mountain House
Orchard Mansion (now My Father's House)
Stein's
Stucco Cottages
Weiner's Hotel
Zavodnick's
Emma Budka's
Julia Budka's
Demeter's
Kalat's
Kalista-Brozak's
Rest Farm
Scadia's
Shanaghan's
Turek's
Breslow's
Leiber's Mansion
Anton and Frances Wolf's Boarding House (later Leiber's
Mansion)
Charles Wolf's (now Wolf's Den Campground)
Cave Hill Camp
(now Cave Hill Resort)
Donnellan's Riveredge
Echo Farm
Hill Top View (now 4-H Camp)
Klar Crest Resort
River Edge
Ted HIlton's, (Previously Elm Camp,
then sold to Frank Davis, now Sunrise Resort)
The Auster House (Falls Rd.)
Camp Sokol (East Haddam)
Camp Wopowog (East Hampton)
Samuel's (Hadlyme)
Shadybrook Hotel (Plains Rd.)
Willow Manor (Rtes 149 & 151)
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