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Bretton Woods Monetary Conference
July 1-22, 1944
(Click thumnails for larger image.)
The Bretton Woods International Monetary Conference, attended by 44 nations and 730 delegates, established: the World Bank, set up to provide long-term international funds especially to underdeveloped countries; the International Monetary Fund; the gold standard at $35 ounce; and tied the value of other countries' currencies to the US dollar. It is said that the Conference was more important than the Treaty of Versailles after WWI. Versailles ended WWI but crippled the German economy. The Bretton Woods Conference established the economic base which led to prosperity after WWII. The German economy was rebuilt, and Europe was stabilized for the first time in centuries. It was the first time the victor of a major war helped rebuild a defeated country.
Lord Maynard Keynes of the United Kingdom co-chaired the Conference with US Treasury Secretary Henry Morganthau, Jr. Keynes was considered the most important economist of the mid 20th Century. US President Fanklin D. Roosevelt (FDR) did not attend the Conference.
When the government decided to host the Monetary Conference here at Bretton Woods, they needed to bring in workers to overhaul The Hotel since it had sustained damage while it sat empty during the war. Roofs had collapsed from the weight of heavy snow, wallpaper was peeling off the walls and everything needed to be painted. The federal government sent 150 workers, new furniture and put hundreds of thousands of dollars into The Hotel - which they had only two months to "restore." Each worker was allocated 50 cans of white paint, and told that if "it didn't move," they should paint it white - and that is what they did! All of the beautiful mahogany doors were painted white, as were the brass light fixtures in the Great Hall and even some of the Tiffany windows.
Bretton Woods was selected to hold the Conference for several reasons, including: NH Senator Charles Toby was influential, and happened to be a good friend of Franklin D. Roosevelt; guests could sail into either Boston, MA, or Portsmouth, NH, and access Bretton Woods by rail; and, for the purpose of security, it was considered easy to seal off The Hotel, in its remote location in NH's White Mountains.
The Gold Room
Mount Washington Resort maintains the "Gold Room," where the final Articles of Agreement for the International Monetary Conference were signed in July, 1944. There is a commemorative plaque on the door. It is this room that played an important role in The Hotel becoming a part of the National Registry of Historic Places in 1978. The table was originally from Carolyn Stickney's private dining room. It has 10 legs and is made of rock maple, just like Carolyn's four poster bed (located in the Princess Suite, room 314). The 14 chairs are for the 14 power nations who took part in the formal signing of the Conference documents.
The light is a gasolier. To avoid any potential problems that may affect the signing of the documents, the electric light was converted to include gas in the event of a power outage. The gas portion is now disconnected. Everything in the room is original to 1944, excepting occasional exhibits.
Grand Ballroom
The Grand Ballroom was also very important during the International Monetary Conference. The delegates all met here to discuss and negotiate for three weeks, sitting at several long tables the length of the room. There were approximately 1000 people staying in The Hotel for the conference - people even slept in closets! Every available bed was taken in the local area, including the Crawford House, Maplewood and the Twin Mountain House. The Chinese delegation stayed as far away as Franconia, 22 miles away.
There were originally 234 rosette lights around the perimeter of the Grand Ballroom, one for each of the original Hotel guest rooms. There was also originally a 10x10 foot glass window behind the stage affording beautiful views of Crawford Notch. The window was eventually removed for safety reasons.
Today, the Grand Ballroom continues to be a grand site for large conferences and gala affairs, weddings, banquets, meetings and other functions. The Grand Ballroom was extensively updated in the spring of 2005; and in Winter 2008/09, Mount Washington Resort will be unveiling 20,000 square feet of additional meeting and event space when it opens the new Presidential Wing --- the first new construction on The Mount Washington Hotel in over 100 years!
