A Summer Kingdom in the Mountains

Built in the early 1880s by the Fleischmanns Yeast family, Spillian was part of a sprawling, audacious Catskills estate: eight summer “cottages” on 160 acres, each one built for a member of the Fleischmanns’ first American generation. Today, only Spillian still stands—on 33 acres of mountain forest.

The Fleischmanns were Eastern European Jewish immigrants who arrived in America by way of Austria, and built a national company with vision, grit, and yeast. When they came to the Catskills, they weren’t just looking for a rustic escape. They were staking a claim. In an era of heavy antisemitism, they were creating something extraordinary—an elegant mountain retreat that welcomed family and friends and helped birth what would become the Borscht Belt. By the 1930s, over 500 hotels stretched from Fleischmanns to neighboring Pine Hill, serving generations of Jewish immigrants and their families.

From a New York Times article in 1907 about the estate: “The grounds in this park are considered the finest in the Catskills and the residences are in keeping with the grounds.” They had elaborate gardens, carriage roads, a heated swimming pool, and a deer park – along with an over-the-top indoor riding arena styled after the Spanish Riding School, with murals on the walls and chandeliers. Roughing it, Gilded Age style…

Architecture Between Worlds

The house itself is a hybrid of Stick and Shingle Style architecture, perched between the intricate flourishes of the Victorian and the sturdy clarity of the American Arts and Crafts movement. Many of the walls are alive with unique oil frescos, free-hand painted on the pine walls.  We don’t know for certain who painted them. But conservators tell us there’s nothing quite like them anywhere. Our best guess? They were created by scenic artists from the Metropolitan Opera. The Fleischmann family were devoted supporters and close friends of Anton Seidl, the Met’s legendary conductor and artistic director. He often visited them here, reportedly splitting his time between playing pinochle and the piano – he was an acclaimed performer of Liszt – and eventually built a home of his own next door.

A family son-in-law, architect Theodore Stein, designed stage mechanisms for the Met’s famed revolving sets and worked closely with those artists. It seems a short leap from the stage to these walls. Stein, a young New York architect who married into the family, designed this house, and went on to design many of their company buildings. (Everyone had a job in this family!) He would later sell his practice to Emery Roth, whose firm shaped much of New York City’s iconic skyline.

A House of Many Lives

When we found Spillian, it had been empty for nearly 20 years. The walls were tired. The rooms were cluttered. But something unmistakable stirred beneath the dust. It was clear, even then, that the house was intact in a way few are—full of promise, of story, of invitation. It felt like a fairytale character, just waiting to be woken.

We weren’t the first to fall under its spell. Over the years, different people have stepped in to keep the house alive. One woman—herself dreaming of a meditation center—quietly did the thankless work of preservation: roofs, foundations, heating systems. After a long silence, she passed it into our hands. We’ve done what we can to honor that lineage of care.

It took me far too long to complete an application to get the estate listed on the National Register of Historic Places — I spent many hours down fascinating rabbit holes, partly because the Fleischmanns’ story was so compelling, and also because of the estate’s later history. For 18 years, rabbis who had escaped the Holocaust came here, nominally for summer camp, but truly to gather, to heal as an international community, and to imagine how to rebuild a future.

We’ve furnished the house in a mix of treasures — antiques from the area and from our travels, curiosities from our lives — with wonderful additions coming from people who have become part of the growing Spillian tribe. We haven’t frozen it in one era, instead reflecting the tradition of mountain house escapes where each generation brings pieces of themselves so it organically reflects everyone who’s been here.

When the House Found Its Voice Again

We purchased the property 13 years ago, after it sat empty for almost 20 years. We were so struck the first time we arrived by how unique it was, how surprisingly intact it was. I told Mark that my family should have had a house like this when I was a kid — it’s a fantasy place in the mountains, one that opens longing for memories we imagine.

Incidentally, I got my doctorate in mythology and psychology at the Summerland, CA estate built by one of the Fleischmann sons, Max Fleischmann, who spent his childhood summers here. I didn’t realize that it was the same family until after we’d purchased the property. Our friend John Boecker, an architect and regenerative systems designer, speaks of “essence to essence resonance”—the way a place and its people can speak to one another across time and intention. We get reminded of this with each step along our path, and with each guest who finds their way here.

The House That Sings

We believe it actually resonates. Quite literally. When we hosted our very first gathering here — a fundraiser for the MARK Project — my parents came. My dad had thought we were more than a little mad to take on this 8,000-square-foot house and its weary outbuildings, but that night, as more than a hundred people milled about on the porch and lawn, he sat with me in the library. Suddenly, he tapped my arm. “Listen,” he said. I asked, “To what?” He said again. “Listen — the house is singing.”

I think he was right. Sheathed in clear pine, the house sings like a violin or cello being played by a great musician —it opens up with the energy of the people here and the memories of everyone who has been here.

Come visit. Come revel. Come sing.

Stories Still to Come

If you’re curious to go deeper into the house, stay tuned—we’re opening the doors, one by one, to each of Spillian’s eight guest rooms. Every room holds a tale.

See you there!

 

 

 

Leigh Melander, PhD
Spllian Co-Founder/Partner