The Maplehurst Hotel

 The Maplehurst Hotel, Bethlehem, NH

Guest Room at the Maplehurst

In 1876, FL Kelly Builders & Son opened the Avenue House as a boarding house in Bethlehem.    It later became the Gramercy before being renamed The Maplehurst Hotel c.1910.  Like many large 19th century hotels in New Hampshire, The Maplehurst began with a core building that grew larger with multiple additions that provided more rooms guests and entertaining space.  The Maplehurst was unusual from other hotels in the region with its gambrel roof.  

Room Hallway

The main building of the hotel had many features common of the era including a large front porch that wrapped along the font facade of the building, a lobby with a cobblestone fireplace, communal dining room, and a network of small guest rooms off of tall ceilinged hallways.  While many of the rooms at the Maplehurst had a sink on their walls, they shared communal bathrooms.  Surviving outbuildings included a laundry building, maintenance building, and an early 20th century annex that provided a large room for dances and entertainment.  

Lobby Fireplace

In 1974, the hotel was converted into a tennis camp.  The building was used for dormitories and multiple tennis courts were constructed behind the building.  John F. Kennedy Jr. supposedly attending camp here.  The building was abandoned in 1988 and suffered from neglect, disrepair, and damaging water infiltration.  

In the summer of 2012, the Maplehurst Hotel was demolished by Spears Brothers Building Wrecking in Laconia, NH for a contracted cost of $347,010.00.  Before demolition commenced, lead paint was found on the building clapboards resulting in each clapboard being removed individually to be disposed of appropriately.  The Laundry Building, Maintenance Building, and Annex were razed before demolition on the main building began.  A new public library is planned for the location.  

Maplehurst Hotel Dining Room

Communal Bathroom at the Maplehurst