The Grand Hotel opened to the public in 1881 and was operated by the Ulster & Delaware Railroad. It straddled the county line between Ulster and Delaware counties and was located at the highest point on the Ulster & Delaware, "Highmount", now the site of the Belleayre Mountain ski resort and the eastern terminus of the Delaware and Ulster Rail Ride.

The New Grand, as it was called, took as its model the Oriental Hotel in Manhattan Beach, opened scarcely a year before in July, 1880. Over an eighth of a mile in length, the Grand Hotel was of Victorian design with a mansard roof and four towers. The Grand appealed to a high class of clientele and outlasted by more than three decades the railroad that built it. While other Catskill hotels had long ago deteriorated into ruins, the Grand maintained a high level of style and service right to its end in 1966.