1923 – today
A Century on Golden Hill
How a 1923 boarding house became an Irish-American institution in the Catskills — and the family who has run it since 1961.
When was Gavin’s founded? The inn opened in 1923 as the Golden Hill House, founded by the Scutt family. Irish immigrant Mary Hartnett-Boyle bought it in the 1940s, and Nellie and Jim Gavin of County Mayo bought it in 1961, renaming it Gavin’s Golden Hill House. The third generation of Gavins runs it today.
- 1923
The Golden Hill House opens
The Scutt family opens the Golden Hill House, a boarding house on Golden Hill Road in the hills above East Durham — then a largely German-run resort area.
- 1929
Irish New Yorkers arrive
A photo of vacationers at the Golden Hill House survives from this year; Irish New Yorkers are already summering here.
- 1940s
Irish- and woman-owned
Mary Hartnett-Boyle, from Brosna, County Kerry, immigrates to New York City and buys the Golden Hill House — making it both Irish-owned and woman-owned. East Durham becomes “the Irish Alps.”
- 1960
Seventeen places to hear music
Roughly 40 Irish-run hotels and boarding houses operate around East Durham, and the village has “seventeen places to hear music, seven nights a week.”
- 1961
Gavin’s Golden Hill House
Nellie and Jim (James) Gavin — immigrants from County Mayo who met at a New York City dance, raised eight children in Yonkers and ran a pub there (Jim had driven a trolley car; Nellie had cooked for families on Cape Cod) — fall in love with East Durham on holiday and buy the Golden Hill House. It becomes Gavin’s Golden Hill House, and Nellie’s Irish breads and scones become the house signature.
- 1923–1970
The “Immigration Inn”
For countless working-class Irish immigrant families — tradespeople, bar and restaurant workers — Gavin’s is their very first vacation. Their children and grandchildren still come.
- 1977
The East Durham Irish Festival
Jack Gavin, Jim and Nellie’s son, who joined the business after Fordham, co-founds the East Durham Irish Festival on Memorial Day weekend with Tom McGoldrick and the East Durham Vacationland Association, and serves as its first Festival Director. The festival becomes the cornerstone of the town’s tourist economy; the Association later builds the Michael J. Quill Irish Cultural & Sports Centre.
- 1990s
Jack & Margaret
Jack and his wife Margaret, a Dublin native, take over and expand the inn. Gavin’s keeps live music alive as other East Durham resorts close.
- 2007–08
The first Guinness Fest
Gavin’s holds its first Guinness Fest on Columbus Day weekend — the 2027 edition is the 20th anniversary.
- 2012
The third generation
Brian and Bernadette (Gavin-Palmieri) take over, raising their four children on the property; the whole family works the inn.
- 2023
The centennial
One hundred years of the Golden Hill House.
- 2024–2026
Renovations & festivals
About 25% of the rooms are refreshed, 7+ new suites are added, the 2024 poolside suites get French doors, and the lobby and Tea Room are updated under new awnings. Live music every night all summer, Gavinstock each August, Kids Rule Week and the Northeast Tionól each October.
- 2027
A year of anniversaries
Jack Gavin is Grand Marshal of the East Durham St. Patrick’s Parade (March); the East Durham Irish Festival turns 50 (May); and the 20th Guinness Fest runs October 8–11.
“Gavin’s isn’t a luxury resort — and we don’t strive to be.”— the Gavin family
The Irish Alps
How East Durham became “more Irish than Ireland”
When the Golden Hill House opened, the hills above East Durham were largely a German resort area. Over the following decades working-class Irish New Yorkers — tradespeople, bar and restaurant workers and their families — discovered they could spend a week in the mountains among their own. Irish families bought the boarding houses, the music followed, and by 1960 the area had some 40 Irish-run hotels and “seventeen places to hear music, seven nights a week.”
Many of those resorts are gone now. Gavin’s is one of the places that kept the music playing — and with the East Durham Irish Festival, Catskills Irish Arts Week, the feis and the Michael J. Quill Centre, the Irish Alps are still very much alive.
An inn rooted in immigration
Somebody’s first vacation
Gavin’s is proud to be an “Immigration Inn.” From 1923 through 1970, countless guests enjoyed their very first vacation here — many of them working-class immigrants or families in the trades and hospitality industries. Over generations those families have grown into successful, highly educated Irish Americans, and Gavin’s has stayed true to its welcoming, home-away-from-home spirit. Their children and grandchildren still book the same weekends.
Then & now
The same porch, a new century
Continue with the family today, live music in the pub or the 2027 St. Patrick’s Parade.
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