Ellenville: Cultural History, Theater, and Active Discoveries

Ellenville offers several ways to plan a trip featuring cultural history, theater, and outdoor activities. The Borscht Belt Museum is dedicated to the golden age of the Catskills resort era. Other options include a local history collection, theater in two distinct venues, and opportunities for hiking, sports, and flying. When planning your vacation, consider which focus interests you most: the offerings differ considerably in subject and format.

Cultural History in Its Many Forms

The Borscht Belt Museum combines its subject matter with a building constructed in 1928 for the Home National Bank. The building is designed in the Neo-Georgian style. A visit offers a chance to explore both the history of the resort era and the architectural history of the museum building. Those interested in the past of the Catskills will find a concrete starting point here for learning about the golden age of this era.

Other historical sites offer different points of interest. Terwilliger House is a late-19th-century Queen Anne Victorian home, built by George Deyo in 1895. The Hunt Memorial Building and its grounds are closely connected to the social history of the Village of Ellenville. The local history collection at the Ellenville Public Library & Museum includes artifacts from Ellenville Glass Works and stoneware from Ellenville Pottery. The house, local history, and collection pieces thus offer different topics for a culturally focused trip.

Theater and Art

Shadowland Stages produces a season of professional contemporary theater, including world premieres of plays and musicals. There are two distinct performance spaces: the MainStage, a restored Art Deco theater, and the Studio, a recently completed flexible black-box theater. If you are interested in the performing arts, both the productions and the different venue formats offer a distinct focus. The Shadowland Stages Academy also offers art classes for all ages. Performances and classes provide different ways to engage with the arts.

Hiking, Parks, and Flying

For outdoor activity, Berme Road Park is a starting point for hikes in Minnewaska and along the O&W Rail Trail. The park also has tennis, basketball, picnic facilities, softball, and a playground. This makes it possible to accommodate different interests: you can include sports, time outdoors, and a picnic break in your trip plans. The hiking options add another type of outing; no specific trail distances or walking times are indicated.

A very different kind of activity is offered at Ellenville Flight Park, a privately operated hang gliding and paragliding facility along the Shawangunk Mountain range. People aged 14 to 70 and older have learned to fly hang gliders and paragliders there under the supervision and instruction of a certified flight instructor.

Choose Ellenville as Your Vacation Destination

When choosing a vacation rental in Ellenville, consider which experiences you want to make the focus of your trip. For culture enthusiasts, the museum, local collection, historic buildings, and theater offer a range of topics. If you would rather focus your stay on outdoor activities, you can use the hiking options starting from Berme Road Park, the sports facilities there, or flying as points of reference. This lets you match your search for a vacation destination to your travel group’s interests without treating the different offerings as interchangeable.

More Local Pages

More local pages: Lake Katrine, Oliverea, Saugerties, Highland, Stone Ridge, Boiceville, New Paltz, Clintondale.

For the higher-level travel overview: Ulster.