The Greeley family built Waterville’s first hotel, Greeley’s Mountain House, which was located in what are now private woods across the golf fairway.  The 1860 opening attracted close to 1,000 people, forming a two-mile procession of carriages and horses coming into town.  The hotel accommodated 150 guests who would reach Waterville with a day-long wagon or stagecoach ride from Plymouth.

Nathaniel Greeley settled on the eastern hillside of the valley, now known as Greeley Hill.  He first saw that property in 1830 when it was only possible to get into the valley by oxcart.  He built a cabin, then left and returned in 1831 to settle in the cabin with his new wife.  He acquired surrounding property as farming families left and oversaw the creation of bridle paths and hiking trails.  By 1860, a bridle path was open to the summit of Mt. Osceola and, by linking his trails, he created the first interconnected system of hiking trails in the U.S.

There was also a separate “bowling saloon” housing two bowling alleys when he and his two sons opened the hotel in 1860.  The hotel burned just before re-opening in 1861. The Greeleys had built a house on the valley floor in the 1840s, and from 1861 until Nathaniel and son Merrill Greeley finished a second hotel in 1868, they housed guests in that home.

Waterville Valley Historical Society
wvhistorybuffs@gmail.com

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