Collection: Vacation at King's Farm, Surprise, NY | ArchivesSpace Public Interface

Scope and Contents

Item is a photographic album of images taken by the Great Aunt of Linda M. Cox while the former was on a vacation at the King Farm in the hamlet of Surprise, New York in 1921. the sixteen-page album contains an average of three snapshots per page showing the family of this individual out and about on the grounds of the King Farm and on a swimming excursion to High Falls just west of Catskill. Each photo has a corresponding caption in white ink on the scrapbook sheet to which the photo is applied. Of note are some interesting informal photographs showing agricultural implements in use on the farm and some scenery shots of the King farm itself.

Dates

1921

Biographical / Historical

In the late nineteenth and early twentieth century it was an exceedinly common practice for farming families in Greene County to convert and let rooms in their homes to vacationers for extra income. Some estimates place the number of such small scale boarding houses in Greene County at over 900 at the peak of this trend around 1910. This industry relied on a seasonal influx of long term [one to two week] boarders who would often come annually to the same farm to escape the heat in metropolitan areas during the summer months. The farms offered their metropolitan clientele the chance to connect with a more rustic lifestyle while offering home cooked meals, beautiful scenery, and excursions to celebrated nearby points of interest all within a relatively short train or dayboat ride from Albany and New York City.