Whitefield, N.H. ? The hotel isn’t as formal as it once was there are no long gowns and tuxedos in sight.

But the reopening of the Mountain View House this summer represented a 50 percent jump from two to three in an all-but-extinct species in New Hampshire, the grand hotel. Next year, a rebuilt Wentworth by the Sea in New Castle will make it four.

Bill Petersen thinks he understands why, a century after their heyday, at least a few grand hotels are coming back.

“Folks are looking for a closer location to get away with some historic or cultural character to it. Grand hotels have a unique character and flavor,” says Petersen, dean of the School of Hospitality, Tourism and Culinary Management at Southern New Hampshire University in Manchester.

“They offer a renovated property with modern rooms in a historic tradition, the best of both worlds.”

The Mountain View closed in 1986 after 121 years. The Wentworth had shut its doors four years earlier, leaving only the Balsams hotel in Dixville Notch and the Mount Washington Hotel in Bretton Woods.

The Mountain View was the oldest of a once proud array of about 30 luxurious grand hotels in some of the state’s most picturesque settings.

They offered complete vacations golf, tennis, swimming, fine dining and lounges. Some had their own post offices, printing shops and newspapers, and all pampered their guests.

The Balsams even flew in fresh food, newspapers and flowers from New York three times a day.

“The whole history of these places is to be a world unto themselves,” says Steve Barba, president of the Balsams.

“You can live out your dreams for a few days.”

Guests came from New York, Boston and other cities on special trains. They included presidents, Hollywood stars, Winston Churchill, Babe Ruth and Harriet Beecher Stowe.

The Wentworth housed the Russian, Japanese and American delegations that negotiated the 1905 treaty that ended the Russo-Japanese War. In 1944, the Mount Washington was the site for the Bretton Woods Conference, which overhauled the world monetary system.

Barba called the hotels “a magical place” made special by the “very intimate personal relationship between owner and the hotel.” He used James and Margaret Smith, the long-time owners of the Wentworth, as examples.

Their own home was down the road from the hotel, and they called it “Margin of Error.” If they overbooked the hotel, they would take the people into their own home “and treat them royally,” Barba says.

The demise of the grand hotels began with the stock market crash of 1929 and the Great Depression. Then came the decline of the railroads and the rise of air travel, which made exotic places increasingly accessible and affordable. The rising cost of maintaining the large, aging buildings also taxed owners.

Many of the hotels were razed, others converted to condominiums or time-shares.

The Balsams and the Mount Washington went through tough times financially in the 1940s and ’50s and were sold, the Balsams after going through bankruptcy. Both managed to survive with the help of federal money and hard-working new owners.

The Mountain View House reopened as the Mountain View Grand on May 22 after a $20 million facelift. Kevin Craffey, who transformed the Mountain View House, attributes its allure to “the mystique of the building with all the modern sensibilities known to man today.”

Dress is mostly casual now, and there are televisions, computers and electric golf carts. But the majestic building and panoramic view of the mountains are as inspiring as ever.

Next year, the Wentworth will open for the first time since 1982, when it ended 108 years of stylish operation.

Joel Bedor is president of the partnership that owns and operates the Mount Washington, which celebrated its 100th anniversary July 28. The partnership converted the summer-only resort to year-round operation in 1998.

“I think people, investors, have seen what we have been able to do, and they’re trying to replicate it,” Bedor says.

“You can leave your car and never have to drive anywhere; everything is here,” Bedor said. “You can relax and forget about the rest of the world.”

Tony Aslanian of Ocean Properties, which owns the Wentworth, says the goal is to create “an environment that people have a one-of-a-kind experience.

“There has absolutely been a market for that.”