This 72-year-old retreat 'feels like another home' for Ukrainian Americans

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An iconic Carpathian-style roof and stone chimney peek out of the woods in the heart of Soyuzivka’s campus. Andrea Wenglowskyj hide caption

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Andrea Wenglowskyj

About two and a half hours northwest of New York City is Kerhonkson, N.Y., a small hamlet with less than 2,000 people in the Shawangunk Mountains. Woodsy streets lead to the Soyuzivka Ukrainian Heritage Center, a former resort for Ukrainian Americans. Nearby, streets have names like Franko, named after Ivan Franko, a famous Ukrainian poet, and Lisova, which is Ukrainian for “forest.” The entrance to the center is flanked by two giant yellow tryzubs, the Ukrainian trident that is known as a nationalist symbol and often worn as a necklace charm or inked as tattoos.

Busts of Ukrainian historical figures gaze upon park preserves with marked trails, a beautiful outdoor wooden chapel and tennis courts. The image of a Hutsul, an ethnographic group from the Carpathian Mountains, blowing a big horn called a trembita, shows up in a sculpture and within signage. If I wasn’t sure that I was in the right place, cars plastered with Ukrainian flag bumper stickers and a vanity license plate that reads “HOPAK,” Ukraine’s famous folk dance, sealed the deal.

Uzhorod, a building named after the Ukrainian city that sits near the country's borders with Slovakia and Hungary, displays symbolic sunflowers next to locating signage for the heritage center. Andrea Wenglowskyj hide caption

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Many tattoos are visible in the hot weather, such as this volleyball player’s Ukrainian coat of arms, the tryzub, featuring cossack swords and a sleeve of Ukrainian embroidery. Andrea Wenglowskyj hide caption

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A big ballroom that is nestled under the giant deck made for late night dancing under the stars. The buildings are modeled after the architecture of the Carpathian Mountains, showcasing wood carvings by artist Cherniovsky and named after major Ukrainian cities. Though the accommodations lean more rustic, folks always come back.

“The pool isn’t heated and not everything is super modern, so it has a European feel. It’s cool when I see pictures of my grandparents [with] my parents when they were teenagers… on that balcony. It's exactly the same. It’s part of the charm,” shared Kalyna Yurchuk, a 20-year-old from West Haven, Conn.

Guests look out from a newly renovated deck out toward the mountains and friends and family enjoying the pool. Andrea Wenglowskyj hide caption

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The main ballroom that overlooks the pool boasts crystal chandeliers and a painted backdrop of the Carpathian Mountains. Andrea Wenglowskyj hide caption

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The main house was dark and eerily quiet when I entered. A phone number was left on the front desk to contact with questions, stacks of The Ukrainian Weekly were left for the taking next to the overlooked library, and tacos and Italian night were on the dinner menu. Those who visit Soyuzivka just know where to go and what to do.

Stacks of the UNA’s newspaper, The Ukrainian Weekly, or Svoboda in Ukrainian, sit for the taking in the Main House next to Soyuzivka’s event calendars. Andrea Wenglowskyj hide caption

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This isn’t your baba’s Soyuzivka

Labor Day weekend is the last event of the summer, boasting live bands and plenty of partying. A few hundred Ukrainians from New Jersey, Philadelphia, Chicago and New York socialized at the tiki bar to live acoustic covers of songs by Jack Johnson and Sublime. In between swimming and the competitive volleyball tournament, pockets of friends relaxed while Ukrainian pop music drifted from open balconies during a picture-perfect weekend.

Victoria Sysak and Roman Onyshkevych, both from Washington, D.C., and Mykola Shevchik, from New Haven, Conn., are friends from Ukrainian scouting and ritually attend Soyuzivka's Labor Day weekend festivities. Andrea Wenglowskyj hide caption

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The Spartanky volleyball tournament is a focal activity for Labor Day weekend, with teams competing from morning till dusk. Andrea Wenglowskyj hide caption

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My late father spoke about being a teenage waiter at Soyuzivka during the summers in the late ’50s. He’d come up from Miami to work for room and board with many other Ukrainian immigrants driven out by World War II. Back then, thousands of guests would have to camp out in their cars. The old-timers lament these days of wall-to-wall crowds. Today, the only Ukrainian food being served was varenyky, a potato dumpling, alongside smash burgers and seared ahi tuna at the snack bar.

“We started coming here as teenagers for Labor Day weekend, and it’s just a tradition,” says Mark Temnycky, 32, who’s from New Jersey. “Over the years, [crowds] have dwindled. Because our parents were all immigrants from Ukraine, this was a natural place to congregate. And now, with our generation, people are in college … and everything is competing with Labor Day weekend. But this feels like another home.”

All ages dance to the Canadian Ukrainian band Klooch under the lights in the balmy summer night air. Andrea Wenglowskyj hide caption

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When night fell, the smell of fried food, alcohol and trees mingled with the sounds of crickets and the Canadian rock band, Klooch, warming up for the zabava, or “dance party.” Women teetered on the hilly pavement in heels while many men sported their finest embroidered shirts. Dancing continued into the wee hours, with a promise of a raucous after-party.

A group of young men in embroidered shirts enjoy a drink while waiting for the dance floor to fill up. Andrea Wenglowskyj hide caption

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A young couple embraces while their friends take selfies and pictures on the deck underneath the stars. Andrea Wenglowskyj hide caption

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From sanitarium to heritage center

The Ukrainian National Association (UNA) is a civic organization in North America that purchased the estate in 1952. Mary Dushnyck writes of the retreat in the group’s 1969 almanac, “Ukrainian children can now spend their vacations in a Ukrainian atmosphere at our bit of Ukraine in the Catskill Mountains of New York — at ‘Soyuzivka,’ the UNA's pride and joy. Mothers can send their children to the boys' and girls' camps, to the Cultural Courses, to compete in sports events or for a vacation. Here an opportunity is given young people to meet others from all over the United States and Canada, culminating in lasting friendships and marriages. Many a mother believes ‘there is no place like Soyuzivka.’ ”

The pool is a popular hangout on sunny days and the place to cool off and debrief after playing volleyball. Andrea Wenglowskyj hide caption

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A look inside the ornate, gilded church tucked away in the woods where visitors can attend an outdoor Ukrainian Catholic Mass. Andrea Wenglowskyj hide caption

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From 1905 to 1942, the property was owned by John Foord, a Scottish-born civic leader and the editor-in-chief of The New York Times from 1876-1883. According to research by the former UNA treasurer and chief financial officer Roma Lisovich, Foord’s “sanitarium offered treatment for depression, ‘neurasthenia’ (a popular nervousness condition of the 1900s), alcoholism and post-op recuperation.” The Foord family’s connections made this place popular among New York’s literary world, and its patients included O. Henry, E.B. White and even former President Theodore Roosevelt’s sister, Corinne.

Suzi-Q, its well-known nickname, was also a place for a love connection. “In 1984, we organized Club Suzi-Q … for young professionals, most of whom were single,” said Anisa Mycak, a senior citizen from Florida. “In the early years, we had a hundred people. We went rafting down the Delaware [River], we went hiking at Mohonk, we went to The Culinary Institute of America, things like that. And out of those hundreds of people who came for over 40 years, we only had seven marriages but many wonderful friendships. This summer … 20 old friends still showed up … as always, like homing pigeons.”

Volleyball spectators enjoy the action below while the surrounding mountains provide the perfect backdrop, reminding Soyuzivka’s founders of their beloved Carpathian Mountains. Andrea Wenglowskyj hide caption

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While most of the crowds are eating dinner and getting ready for the night’s festivities, security guards enjoy the quiet sunset while one final volleyball match concludes. Andrea Wenglowskyj hide caption

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Annual events like the Roma Pryma Bohachevsky Ukrainian dance camps, a borscht cook-off, holiday parties and private weddings keep Soyuzivka relevant. The smaller but vibrant crowd gives hope that the American-born generation will continue to value the soyuz, or “union,” of this cultural enclave.