What was the Halfway House?
It was a three-story hotel located on the west side of the mountain at the end of a mile-long toll road, the shortest toll road in the world. There was a hotel located at that site since 1858, but it burned down, was rebuilt and added onto over the years. It was very popular in the heydays of Mount Monadnock from 1880 to 1920. Guests came back every year to walk the theme-park-like trails that guests built around the hotel with romantic names like the Spring of Perpetual Youth, Dingle Dell, and Thoreaus Seat. The hotel had no electricity and no running water until after World War II. It was originally called the Monadnock Mountain House, but seems to have always been called the Halfway House and the name was changed in 1916. The hotel burned to the ground in 1954. The site was used as a parking lot until 1974 when it was closed. It has now mostly grown back to its natural state.
