Mount Washington Hotel / Bretton Woods Monetary Conference

Standing to the east, the Mount Washington Hotel was completed in 1902 as one of the largest, most modern grand hotels in the White Mountains, one of the few built in a single campaign. Designed by New York architect Charles Alling Gifford (1861-1937), the hotel was financed by Concord, N.H. native Joseph Stickney (1840-1903), an industrialist who had purchased 10,000 acres here in 1881.

Served by as many as 57 trains a day, the Mount Washington Hotel became known as one of the most luxurious summer resorts in the United States. It was designated a National Historic Landmark in 1986. This site in the town of Carroll, named 'Bretton Woods' in 1903 to recall the original land grant of 1772, was chosen in July 1944 as the location of one of the most important meetings of the 20th century.

Convened by the allied nations before the end of WWII and attended by representatives of 44 countries, the Bretton Woods Conference established regulations for the international monetary system following the war. The conference created the International Monetary Fund and the future World Bank, and linked the exchange rate of world currencies to the value of gold.

In 1944 the United States government chose the Mount Washington Hotel as the side for a gathering of representatives of 44 countries. This was to be the famed Bretton Woods Monetary Conference. The conference established the World Bank, set the gold standard at $35 an ounce, and chose the American dollar as the backbone of international exchange.

The meeting provided the world with a badly needed post war currency stability.