North Conway's Hotel Randall

The Venerable Inn of a Bygone Era

The story of the Randall House is a story of perseverance. It is the story of a man, Henry Harrison (Harry) Randall, who continued to pursue his love of the resort business and rebuild his popular establishment despite two crushing losses due to fires.

(Photo courtesy of Steve Morrill)

The third Hotel Randall built on the same site is still a familiar landmark in North Conway although few would be able to locate it by that name. Taken over in the late 1930s by the Manufacturers Trust Company of New York, the inn was renamed the Eastern Slope Inn by a local boy who had made good in the world of finance, Harvey Dow Gibson, president of the Manufacturers Trust Company.

Though recognized far and wide as Gibson's establishment and remembered for its heyday in the '40s and the '50s when the Eastern Slope Inn was the place to be seen when skiing or just vacationing in the mountains, the commanding Greek Revival style inn owes its class and its grandeur to Harry Randall and his sons who thought bigger and better each time they lost everything to a fire. In the end, this proved to be to their own detriment.

The first proprietor of the succession of Hotel Randalls was one James Thompson Randall, an enterprising gentleman with great foresight. He anticipated the strong rise in popularity of the White Mountains in general and the Conways in particular as a vacation setting for the growing middle class and the wealthy city dwellers. In 1864 he gave up his general store in the southern section of town and bought a boarding house from Melvin Seavey. It was immediately opened as a small hotel, the first Randall House.

Also catering to the increasing numbers of tourists, James Randall ran a livery stable and operated a stage through Crawford Notch as the railroad had not been constructed in those days. According to Katherine M. Odell Randall, a daughter-in-law who wrote a memoir of Henry Harrison Randall, "Guests were met at Center Harbor, a two-day trip by horse and team. Groceries all had to be hauled from Portland the same way, taking seven days."

It was not long after this, May 7, 1870, that Henry Harrison was born, in a trunk, so to speak -- starting his life in the hotel that became his life's work. The first hotel was remodeled and enlarged several times while under the ownership of James Randall and Harry Randall grew up taking care of the inn and the guests. One of his earliest jobs was meeting the incoming guests at the train with the inn's two-seater buckboard, bringing them to the hotel where he served as bellboy. During their stay, he often took them on scenic jaunts to Echo Lake, Cathedral Ledge, or Diana's Baths. Harry acquired more and more jobs at the inn as he grew older and assumed ownership of it when his father died in 1898.

Many of the same sights and activities of the Mt. Washington Valley were enjoyed then as they are today, but they were enjoyed in a different way. Guests often came with steamer trunks and stayed for an entire season. The mountains were considered a much healthier place for the wife and kids, and the man of the family commuted on weekends from the polluted cities. Hotels advertised the fresh air and pure water of their environs.

The rocking chairs on the obligatory verandas were put to good use each day as the women spent a great deal of time rocking, and knitting and crocheting as well as gossiping. Children were left to play as children do today, on the beaches of the rivers and lakes in the area, watched carefully by nurses and nannies. Tennis and croquet were played on the lawns, and baseball games were a frequent diversion. "The baseball games were very exciting," wrote Ruth B.D. Home in her book Conway Through the Years and Whither. "Each hotel had its own baseball nine to compete in closely contested games. Many of the players were men of college nines: Harvard, Dartmouth, or others. The whole Dartmouth nine, it was said, was entertained by one hotel, the Intervale House."

Not all the guests' time was spent in rocking chairs. Excursions to various sights now considered nearby were all day trips. Among the favorites was a trip to Washington Boulder, a huge rock the size of a house resting on a knoll in a unique way; another was to hike to the natural stone cathedral for which Cathedral Ledge was named. Since that time Washington Boulder has been lessened by the quarryman -- the foundation of the Conway Public Library was built in 1900 with granite from that boulder. Access to the natural cathedral where open air weddings once took place has been blocked by dynamiters who obstructed the shady path before the land was purchased by the state.

Parades, parties, and balls were always ongoing throughout the summer season. One always dressed for dinner and people dined every evening on linen tablecloths with glowing candelabras overhead. Life was more formal, but also slower, giving it an aura of easygoing grandeur.

Disaster strikes... In the height of this era, Harry Randall and his family suffered a terrible loss. The enlarged Randall House -- Harry had "modernized" it after the death of his father -- burned to the ground on November 19, 1902.

Undaunted by this disaster, Harry immediately began to rebuild and the second Randall establishment on the same site, the "New" Hotel Randall, opened its doors on July 6, 1903. Touted as a "modern" establishment in an early brochure, the Hotel Randall also made some far reaching claims for its location: "Six hundred feet above sea level, and with a light, porous soil, North Conway offers a resort with perfect sanitary and healthful conditions. The air is always very dry, having no fogs and none of the dampness peculiar to most mountain regions. Hay fever is absolutely an unknown malady. [Author's italics]. The heat of a summer's day is forgotten in the cool, soothing breezes of the evening."

Built in the popular Dutch Colonial style with a mansard roof, the second Hotel Randall grew quickly. In 1916, an addition brought the room total to 50, 33 of which had private baths. Their brochure described the facilities as follows: "The rooms are all fitted up with the latest conveniences, such as telephones, electric bells, electric lights, steam heat etc. They are large, airy, and comfortable in every respect." The hotel became renown for the table it spread. All of the milk and vegetables, and much of the meat served to the guests was supplied by two farms connected with the hotel.

Expansion continued in 1917 with the purchase of the Sunset Pavillion, a very popular summer hotel located between the present day hotel and the current Mt. Washington Valley Theatre Company building. It was a beautiful hotel, perfectly suited to the summer clientele -- "A veranda twelve feet wide and three hundred feet long surrounded the hotel," described Ruth Horne. Its music hall, now the theatre, was the site of many a dance and party.

The Hotel Randall was a year 'round resort hotel and although North Conway was better known as a summer vacation area, it was rapidly gaining in popularity as a winter resort. Sledding and toboggan riding behind the Hotel Randall were popular pastimes, as was a snowshoeing trek out into the woods to enjoy a "coffee break" -- coffee and hot doughnuts served around a blazing fire. Skating, sled dog racing, and the beginnings of modern-day skiing were also attracting larger numbers of winter vacationers to the area, and the Randall House with its luxury appointments and central location was among the most fashionable places to stay.

The hotel's growing popularity prompted yet another expansion in 1921. An entire wing was added, bringing the capacity of the Hotel Randall to 150 guests. The economy was strong and the Randall and other established hotels were prospering when disaster once again struck the Randall family. On November 20, 1925, almost 23 years to the day of the first fire, the second Randall establishment burned to the ground in less than three hours. It was a blow to the local economy as well as to the Randalls.

  Almost literally rising from the ashes, construction on the third Hotel Randall began less than a month after the devastating fire. Described in the July 1, 1926, Reporter as, "Undaunted by the previous disasters, and by the high cost of construction, which has prevented the rebuilding of every hotel in the White Mountains that has burned in the past 15 years, with the exception of the Eagle Mountain House and Gray's Inn in Jackson." Harry put yet another fire behind him, but not without some second thoughts.

At the time of the second fire, Harry and his two sons, Carl and Philip, who had joined him in the business, were considering expanding their business to the resort industry that was growing in the southern states. Philip was actually in North Carolina on the day of the fire. According to Bob Randall, Harry's grandson, strong consideration was given to the idea of leaving North Conway and abandoning the idea of rebuilding and buying another establishment in North Carolina.

Rebuilt yet again... Not one to give up without a fight, Harry went "ahead with reckless courage and erected the most up-to-date and modern, if not the finest hotel in New Hampshire, a distinct credit to town, country and state" as described in The Reporter when the new hotel opened for the season in 1926.

The Randalls' interest in a southern establishment might have been the inspiration for the hotel's classic Greek Revival facade, called "Southern Colonial" in the 1926 Reporter. Already twice snakebit, Harry specified that this hotel be as fireproof as possible. It had "fire stops in every wall, cement floors in kitchen and basement, boilers outside the building, wiring in BX cable, and a sprinkler system throughout."

The description in the 1926 Reporter of the newly opened Hotel Randall brings to mind an era when life passed at a different pace: "As one enters the building from any one of the three French doors, one steps into the spacious lobby studded with handsome columns. The hardwood floor is broken up with large art squares, grouped with tables, Windsor chairs, and lamps of perfect taste. The white ivory walls are dotted with soft Colonial lamps. Across the lobby, the 21-foot desk greets the eye, and the beautiful Colonial staircase leads invitingly upstairs. Beside the staircase, a latest-design Otis elevator affords another means of ascending. On the north side, a fireplace will furnish warmth and cheer on dull, cold days. On each side of the lobby stretches broad corridors, leading on the left to the billiard and pool room, men's writing room, hairdressing parlor and shops, while on the right to the ladies' writing room, music and ball room, and five chambers."

The Hotel Randall was undoubtedly the finest hotel in the area and if things had continued as they were, the Randalls might still be greeting guests at the door. Unfortunately, just three short years after the grand opening of the new Hotel Randall with a gala ball hosted by the New England Hotel Association featuring the Copley Plaza Orchestra from Boston, the stock market crashed and with it came the Depression.

It brought hard times for everyone, but for Harry Randall it was even more of a disaster than the two fires he endured. No longer were summer-long vacations affordable. All but the extremely rich were having trouble making ends meet, and long trips to the country, specifically stays in luxury hotels, were one of the first things omitted from the majority of budgets. It isn't that people stopped coming to the White Mountains, but they changed their mode of vacations. First cabins, then motels sprung up, and camping gained in popularity. The era of the grand hotel started to fade just as Harry Randall created his dream hotel.

He struggled along, but soon was forced to mortgage the place so heavily that he was in essence, managing it for the banks. Harvey Gibson, the wealthy financier always interested in contributing to the well-being of his birthplace, bought the hotel in 1937 and proceeded to make it into the nominal headquarters for his scheme to make North Conway the skiing capital of the east. It marked the end of one era and the beginning of the next.

Harry Randall lived to see many of the changes that came to his hotel. On his 90th birthday, the Eastern Slope Inn was renamed the Hotel Randall for a day and he and his family were feted by the owners. Harry spent his last years in the real estate business, becoming even more involved with the affairs of the town and exerting his influence at every opportunity to preserve the beauty of the area.

Never losing his instinct for hospitality, Harry Randall's attention after his retirement focused on the North Conway Congregational Church where he recreated his role at the Hotel Randall, serving as host every Sunday. As his daughter-in-law fondly recalled, "... (he) will be remembered by many whom he greeted so graciously every Sunday."

EDITOR'S NOTE: When the iconic Eastern Slope Inn went up for sale in 1980, Joe Berry, then general manager of ESI Associates, saw an opportunity to restore the resort and purchased it in March 1980. It is currently owned and run by the Berry Companies and is celebrating it's 100th anniversary in 2026.