Grossinger’s Resort In New York’s Catskills: The Now-Ruined Inspiration For Dirty Dancing
Wikimedia CommonsThe 1987 film Dirty Dancing was inspired by Eleanor Bergstein’s vacations at the once-thriving Grossinger’s Resort.
Grossinger’s Resort was once a shining gem of New York’s Catskills region, particularly in the “Borscht Belt” that attracted many Jewish vacationers.
It didn’t start out that way, though. It began as nothing more than a modest farmhouse, founded in the early 20th century by Polish immigrants Asher Selig Grossinger and his wife, Malka Grumet Grossinger. Their daughter, Jennie, ended up serving as the hostess of what was essentially a bed and breakfast, once known as Longbrook House.
Eventually, the Grossinger family sold Longbrook House and purchased a larger property, giving it the name Grossinger’s Terrace Hill House.
Jennie soon became the manager of the larger hotel, and she eventually transformed it into a 1,200-acre resort, boasting a golf course, indoor and outdoor pools, a ski slope, a massive dining room, and lavish showrooms.
Come the 1950s, Grossinger’s Resort was a sprawling luxury destination in the Catskills that bore little similarity to its modest origins.
The rapid expansion paid off. Soon enough, Grossinger’s Resort was the talk of the town, hosting celebrities, comedians, and even First Lady Eleanor Roosevelt. It was a place where couples honeymooned, families reunited, and the Jewish American middle class celebrated their postwar prosperity.
Most famously, Grossinger’s Resort helped inspire the 1987 film Dirty Dancing, as writer Eleanor Bergstein drew from her experiences vacationing at the hotel when she was younger while creating the screenplay.
Wikimedia CommonsGrossinger’s Resort in 1977, before it shut its doors for good.
But by the time Bergstein was penning her screenplay in the 1980s, Grossinger’s Resort was well past its heyday. “There was almost no vestige of the way things were,” she said. “All I could do was re-create it in my 13-year-old imagination.” Dirty Dancing was partly a nostalgic tribute to the version of Grossinger’s Resort that she remembered, a place that no longer existed.
Multiple factors led to Grossinger’s decline over the years. For starters, increasingly affordable air travel made distant destinations more accessible, reducing the appeal of driving to the Catskills for a vacation.
Additionally, increased cultural assimilation meant younger Jewish Americans felt less connected to the identity that made the Borscht Belt resorts feel like special gathering places. Changing vacation preferences often favored beach resorts over mountain retreats. The resort’s aging facilities required modernization that ownership struggled to finance. The death of Jennie Grossinger in 1972 also helped seal the hotel’s fate.
Lionsgate Home EntertainmentJennifer Grey and Patrick Swayze in the iconic movie Dirty Dancing.
Grossinger’s closed in 1986 after multiple failed attempts at revival. The property changed hands a number of times, with developers announcing ambitious redevelopment plans that never seemed to materialize.
Without regular maintenance, the abandoned hotel deteriorated rapidly. Nature reclaimed the grounds — vegetation grew through buildings, roofs collapsed, pools filled with debris, and the structures became ruins.
Then, in 2022, CBS News reported that a fire at Grossinger’s Resort had burned down one of its iconic buildings. The cause of the fire was unknown. At that point, Grossinger’s Resort hadn’t been open in decades.
Most recently, in July 2025, it was announced that PPG Development, in partnership with investor Andrew Spodek, bought the ruined property and surrounding land, and they hope to successfully redevelop it.
Only time will tell if that happens.
