Formerly: Mount Washington Hotel
Bretton Woods, New Hampshire · Founded 1902 · Building: 1900–1902
A 1902 White Mountain grand hotel where 44 nations designed the postwar financial order at the Bretton Woods conference in July 1944.
The Omni Mount Washington Resort opened in 1902 as the Mount Washington Hotel, a 352-room Spanish Renaissance Revival grand hotel beneath New Hampshire's Presidential Range. In July 1944, 730 delegates from 44 nations met here for the Bretton Woods conference and agreed to the Articles establishing the International Monetary Fund and International Bank for Reconstruction and Development. The resort remains active today, though its operating history includes wartime closure or nonoperation documented in 1942–43 and a nearly three-month COVID-19 closure in 2020.
Construction began on Joseph Stickney's Mount Washington Hotel, designed by New York architect Charles Alling Gifford in Spanish Renaissance Revival style.
Source: National Park Service National Historic Landmark nomination for Mount Washington Hotel; New England, 'The Historic Mount Washington Hotel at Bretton Woods,' April 5, 2022.
The 352-room Mount Washington Hotel opened to the public after two years of construction. The National Park Service nomination gives August 1, while many secondary histories give July 28.
Source: National Park Service National Historic Landmark nomination for Mount Washington Hotel; New England, April 5, 2022.
Joseph Stickney died in December, roughly a year after the hotel opened. His widow, Carolyn Foster Stickney, then managed the hotel until her death in 1936.
Source: Historic Hotels of America, Omni Mount Washington Resort history; Stanley Turkel, 'Hotel History: Mount Washington Hotel (1902).'
Public hotel histories say the Mount Washington Hotel closed after World War II began, following Carolyn Stickney's nephew Foster Reynolds inheriting the property in 1936. Owner testimony separately identifies 1943 as the only summer season the hotel did not open because of wartime labor shortages. The precise closure chronology remains unresolved.
Source: New England, April 5, 2022; Buildings of New England, March 18, 2021; owner's sworn testimony in TTAB Cancellation No. 92050627.
The United Nations Monetary and Financial Conference met at the hotel with 730 delegates from 44 nations. The delegates agreed to the Articles of Agreement for the International Monetary Fund and International Bank for Reconstruction and Development after federal renovation of the property.
Source: World Bank Group Archives, Bretton Woods Monetary Conference exhibit; National Park Service National Historic Landmark nomination; New England, April 5, 2022.
The Mount Washington Hotel was listed on the National Register of Historic Places.
Source: Historic Hotels of America, Omni Mount Washington Resort history; Omni Mount Washington Resort property history.
The Mount Washington Hotel was designated a National Historic Landmark for its historic and architectural significance, including the 1944 Bretton Woods conference.
Source: Historic Hotels of America, Omni Mount Washington Resort history; New England, April 5, 2022.
After lenders failed, the FDIC auctioned the hotel. MWH Preservation Limited Partnership, associated with the Presby and Bedor families, bought the property for $3.15 million.
Source: NewEnglandSkiHistory.com, Bretton Woods history; Encyclopedia.com, Mount Washington Hotel history.
The hotel began year-round operation after decades as a seasonal May-to-October resort. Owner testimony identifies Thanksgiving 1999 as the year-round transition.
Source: Owner's sworn testimony in TTAB Cancellation No. 92050627; NewEnglandSkiHistory.com, Bretton Woods history.
Omni Hotels & Resorts began managing the Mount Washington Resort under lease.
Source: Historic Hotels of America, Omni Mount Washington Resort history; Visit White Mountains, May 28, 2026.
Omni Hotels & Resorts purchased the Bretton Woods Mountain Resort from CNL Lifestyle Properties, including the Mount Washington Hotel, Bretton Arms Inn, ski area, and surrounding acreage.
Source: Mount Washington Hotel historical summaries; New England, April 5, 2022.
Omni Mount Washington Resort reopened after a nearly three-month COVID-19 closure.
Source: New Hampshire Union Leader, 'Omni Mount Washington Resort re-opens Monday after three-month closure,' June 15, 2020.
Omni completed its Grand Reimagination renovation of the resort's historic wing while keeping the property open to guests.
Source: Visit White Mountains, May 28, 2026; Boston 25 News, September 25, 2026.
Every claim gets rated. A business's own website can never earn "documented."
The record contradicts unbroken operation. Public hotel histories say the hotel closed in 1942 after World War II began, while owner testimony identifies 1943 as the sole summer season it did not open because of labor shortages. The resort also closed for nearly three months during the COVID-19 pandemic before reopening June 15, 2020. The Mount Washington has an exceptionally long operating lineage, but not uninterrupted service since 1902.
The United Nations Monetary and Financial Conference met at the hotel from July 1 to 22, 1944, with 730 delegates from 44 nations. The delegates produced the Articles of Agreement for the International Monetary Fund and the International Bank for Reconstruction and Development. The institutions became legally operative after ratification in 1945, so the most precise wording is that their agreements were designed and adopted at Bretton Woods.
Hotel and destination histories associate the Gold Room with the Bretton Woods conference, but the official World Bank and National Park Service sources reviewed do not identify it as the specific signing room. The room is a plausible conference setting, but the exact signing-location claim requires contemporaneous conference minutes, photographs, floor plans, or archival documentation.
National Park Service and regional hotel histories identify Joseph Stickney as developer, Charles Alling Gifford as architect, the 1900–1902 construction period, and the Spanish Renaissance Revival design of the 352-room hotel.
The hotel has a documented haunted reputation centered on Carolyn Foster Stickney, later known as Princess Carolyn after marrying French nobleman Prince Jean Baptiste Marie de Faucigny Lucinge. The paranormal claim itself cannot be verified. Modern accounts describe reported sightings, voices, lights, footsteps, and Room 314 experiences, but none establish that a ghost exists.
Public histories consistently describe Stickney as a Pennsylvania coal broker or industrialist, not a coal baron. The $1.7 million construction figure is widely repeated, though competing accounts report $1.25 million. The profession and general scale of investment are credible; the exact total cost remains unresolved.
Ghost Hunters visited the Mount Washington Hotel in the 2008 episode 'Ghostly Conversation' and returned for 'The Princess and the EVP,' which aired May 9, 2012. The investigations and broadcasts are documented. Reported EVPs, thermal signatures, voices, apparitions, and other alleged paranormal findings are not independently corroborated.
That a crew visited and filmed is usually easy to verify. What they claim to have captured is a separate, and usually lower-rated, claim.
The visit and episode broadcast are documented. The team's reported EVP recordings, sounds, and other alleged findings are not independently corroborated and are rated unverifiable in the separate paranormal claim discussion.
The return visit and episode broadcast are documented. The show's reported thermal image, voices, scream, apparition, and related alleged findings are not independently corroborated and remain unverifiable.
Everything below has been reported by two or more independent sources — this is an informational record of what's said about this place, not a verified account of paranormal activity. Still Open America doesn't certify hauntings as real.
Guests and staff report an elegant woman in Victorian dress in Room 314, often identified in hotel lore as Carolyn Foster Stickney, later Princess Carolyn de Faucigny-Lucinge. Reported activity includes a woman sitting on the edge of a four-poster bed, brushing her hair, tapping on doors, and moving small objects. Room 314 is widely described as the hotel’s most requested haunted-room stay.
Carolyn Foster Stickney was a real person who was widowed in December 1903, married Prince Aymon de Faucigny-Lucinge in 1913, and died in November 1936. The reviewed evidence does not independently establish that Room 314 was her suite, that her original bed remains there, or that the reported activity occurred.
The Mount Washington Hotel opened on July 28, 1902.
The National Park Service nomination gives August 1, 1902, while many secondary histories give July 28. The exact opening day remains unresolved.
Source: National Park Service National Historic Landmark nomination for Mount Washington Hotel; regional hotel histories.
Joseph Stickney was a coal baron.
Historical sources describe Joseph Stickney as a Pennsylvania coal broker and industrialist. The stronger coal-baron title is not supported by the reviewed sources.
Source: National Park Service National Historic Landmark nomination for Mount Washington Hotel; New England, April 5, 2022.
The hotel sat shuttered for years before the 1944 Bretton Woods conference.
The precise wartime closure period is disputed. Public hotel histories say the hotel closed in 1942, while owner testimony says it did not open for the 1943 summer season because of labor shortages. The Boston syndicate bought the property in early 1944, after which the federal government renovated it for the conference.
Source: New England, April 5, 2022; Buildings of New England, March 18, 2021; owner's sworn testimony in TTAB Cancellation No. 92050627.
Omni took over the Mount Washington Hotel in 2015.
Omni began managing the resort in September 2009 and purchased it outright from CNL Lifestyle Properties in December 2015.
Source: Historic Hotels of America, Omni Mount Washington Resort history; New England, April 5, 2022.
The Gold Room is conclusively documented as the room where the Bretton Woods Articles were signed.
Hotel and destination materials associate the Gold Room with the Bretton Woods conference, but the official conference sources reviewed do not identify it as the specific signing room.
Source: Omni Mount Washington Resort conference history; Visit White Mountains, May 28, 2026; World Bank Group Archives, Bretton Woods Monetary Conference exhibit.
The Bretton Woods conference gave the Mount Washington Hotel a historical importance that reached far beyond White Mountain tourism. Federal preparation for the 1944 conference restored a property that had missed a wartime season, and the conference later helped secure National Historic Landmark designation. Subsequent owners continued to reinvest: the Presby and Bedor families bought the resort from FDIC possession in 1991, Omni began managing it in 2009 and purchased it in 2015, and the company completed a major Grand Reimagination renovation in 2026 without shutting the hotel to guests.
The Omni Mount Washington Resort opened in 1902 as the Mount Washington Hotel, a 352-room Spanish Renaissance Revival grand hotel built by Joseph Stickney and designed by Charles Alling Gifford. In July 1944 it hosted the Bretton Woods conference, where 730 delegates from 44 nations agreed to the Articles establishing the International Monetary Fund and International Bank for Reconstruction and Development. Omni began managing the resort in 2009 and bought it in 2015.
No. New Hampshire has older historic hotel lines, including the Inn at Hancock, which dates to 1789, and the Woodstock Inn & Resort, which dates to 1793. The Mount Washington's distinction is different: it is one of the last surviving White Mountain grand resort hotels and a National Historic Landmark because of its role in the 1944 Bretton Woods conference.
From July 1 to 22, 1944, 730 delegates from 44 nations met at the Mount Washington Hotel for the United Nations Monetary and Financial Conference. They agreed to the Articles of Agreement for the International Monetary Fund and the International Bank for Reconstruction and Development, later known as the World Bank. The Bretton Woods system also established a fixed-exchange-rate framework centered on the U.S. dollar and gold.
The earliest published paranormal-investigation source located in this review is the Ghost Hunters episode 'Ghostly Conversation,' which aired April 16, 2008. The episode was built around existing staff and guest reports connected to Carolyn Stickney, later known as Princess Carolyn, so the reputation predates 2008. Modern retellings say the legend began after her 1936 death, but no pre-2008 published source for that claim was found in this review.
Yes, but the precise wartime chronology is unresolved. Public hotel histories say it closed in 1942 after World War II began, while owner testimony identifies 1943 as the only summer season it did not open because of labor shortages. Either account contradicts the idea that the hotel operated continuously without interruption from 1902.
Ghost Hunters investigated the hotel in 2008 and 2012 and reported EVP recordings, sounds, thermal imagery, and other unexplained activity. The television episodes document what the team claimed to experience or record, but the alleged paranormal evidence has no independent corroboration and remains unverifiable.
310 Mount Washington Hotel Road, Bretton Woods, NH 03575
(603) 278-1000
Year-round resort. Non-guests may dine on site and walk designated grounds, but reserve restaurants in advance. Room 314, often called the Princess Room, is the hotel’s best-known haunted-room request.