In 1871 the Bucher & Durrer Company, domiciled in Kerns, bought Alp Tritt on Mount Bürgenberg. The company named its new hotel venture Bürgenstock. The Hotel Kurhaus, later called the Grand Hotel, opened on 23 June 1873. A small hydroelectric power plant on the Engelberger Aa river was built in Buochs in 1886/7 to power the Bürgenstock funicular railway and the Stanserhorn aerial cableway. The railway commenced operations in 1888, as did the hotel's own water supply. That same year saw the opening of the Park Hotel. The Bürgenstock Chapel dates from 1897. The Palace Hotel opened in 1904, and a number of villas emerged east of it between 1900 and 1905. The Hammetschwand Lift was inaugurated in 1905.