This Is the first book to fully explore the architecture, and the related economic, social, and cultural history, of the grand resort hotels of New Hampshire's scenic White Mountains. These beautiful buildings, situated in one of America's oldest and most heavily visited vacation locales, were the first structures in America designed exclusively for the tourist industry. This carefully researched, profusely illustrated volume identifies and explores some twenty-eight outstanding resort complexes, explaining their architectural details, their social histories, and the often surprising stories behind their lovely wooden facades.Bryant Tolles places the buildings in a broad national and historical context, explains the origins and development of this highly specialized industry, and discusses the symbiotic relationship between the hotels and the railroads. The concluding sections of the book offer an exhaustive bibliography, a comprehensive index, and appendices, plus listings of the major White Mountains hotels, past and present.Fully illustrated with over 200 black-and-white and twenty color photographs this is the first comprehensive treatment of these structures to be published in recent years. A visual delight and a vastly entertaining social document, it also presents scholarship and detective work of the first order.