Scribner’s Catskill Lodge

Scribner’s has been welcoming people to this mountainside since 1966, when an artist owner created a playful motor lodge at the base of Hunter Mountain. Half a century later, the property was completely reworked and reopened in 2016, becoming part of a new generation of Catskills hotels drawing New Yorkers back north. Post Company — then known as Studio Tack — treated the original architecture as something worth working with rather than disguising. The lodge’s distinctive black exterior remains unapologetically modern, while the former vehicle entrance has become a vast two-storey communal space. Even the old brick road where cars once unloaded now runs through the interior. The motel wasn’t erased. It simply grew up.

A Lodge Without the Log-Cabin Clichés

Inside, Scribner’s offers a contemporary interpretation of mountain living. Dark maple floors, white-painted timber, vintage rugs, custom furniture and muted greys replace the predictable combination of knotty pine and rustic decoration. The scale of the original building becomes part of the experience. A cavernous lobby opens towards the mountains, while smaller clusters of sofas, leather chairs, bookshelves, games and a pool table create more intimate places within it. A central fireplace surrounded by circular seating turns the room into the social heart of the lodge. The guestrooms follow the same approach. High vaulted ceilings, large windows, terracotta bathroom tiles and built-in furniture provide the architectural framework; fireplaces, lofted sleeping areas and private decks appear in selected rooms.

The Rounds

A ten-minute walk uphill brings a very different expression of Scribner’s. The Rounds are 11 circular cabins designed as private retreats within the landscape, each surrounded by mountain views. Their geometry shapes the interiors: curved sofas follow the walls, cast-iron wood-burning stoves anchor the living spaces and reading corners encourage considerably less ambitious pursuits than hiking. Above each bed, a circular oculus frames the sky for stargazing. Outside, private decks add Japanese-style soaking tubs and seasonal outdoor showers. The cabins feel more architectural than rustic — an unusually refined interpretation of the Catskills cabin without sacrificing the elemental pleasure of fire, water, forest and sky.

Four Seasons on the Mountain

Scribner’s understands that a mountain hotel needs to work when there isn’t snow on the ground. In summer, its swimming pool looks across 270 degrees of Catskill landscape, while hiking, fishing, cycling and swimming in nearby rivers turn the surrounding mountains into the main amenity. A custom sauna created with Harbor Saunas brings another way of experiencing the landscape, accommodating up to 12 people while maintaining views towards the mountains. Then winter changes everything. Hunter Mountain is less than a mile away, fireplaces take over from the pool, and Scribner’s own ice rink brings a little sleepaway-camp nostalgia back to the former motor lodge. Skiing, snowboarding and snowshoeing are followed by precisely what a mountain hotel should provide: somewhere warm to return to.

Prospect and the View

Prospect Restaurant and Bar occupies one of the lodge’s most dramatic spaces, with floor-to-ceiling windows turning the Catskills into the backdrop for dinner. Black-stained timber, cast-iron stoves and a large circular bar give the dining room its contemporary lodge character. The kitchen draws heavily on local producers and the hotel’s own garden, where raised beds supply vegetables, herbs, fruits and flowers. Outside, a broad cedar deck and fire pit extend the restaurant into the landscape during warmer months. Food matters here, but so does where you eat it. Mountains remain visible through the glass, cocktails migrate towards the fire and dinner becomes another way of experiencing the setting.

The Catskills, Then and Now

The Catskills have reinvented themselves more than once. Grand summer resorts gave way to motor lodges; some disappeared entirely; others have returned as design-conscious retreats for another generation escaping New York City. Scribner’s makes those layers part of its identity. The 1966 roadside architecture remains legible, Post Company’s intervention brings it firmly into the present, and The Rounds introduce a new architectural chapter without pretending to be traditional cabins. That makes Scribner’s more interesting than a nostalgic mountain lodge. It is the Catskills in architectural form: reinvented again, but still fundamentally about getting out of the city and looking at the mountains.