(All images by DJ Philly GEE; exploring an abandoned vacation resort in the Catskills)
Derelict structures, crumbling rooms and stairways, swimming pools consumed by plant life: such is the scene at this abandoned vacation resort in the Catskills, a verdant region of Upstate New York, between NYC and Albany.
The Catskill Mountains have been a popular holiday spot for New Yorkers since before the American Civil War, a rural idyll easily accessible from the City.
The region has attracted numerous artists and musicians over the years, and the numerous resorts there helped launch the careers of stand-up comedians including Rodney Dangerfield, Jackie Mason and Don Rickles.
But despite the Catskills’ enduring popularity as a vacation spot for affluent New Yorkers, many resorts lie empty and forgotten amid increasing financial pressures that ultimately forced them to close their doors.
As the Daily Beast reported in 2014: “Phones on desks, linens on beds, catalog cards spilling out of the filing cabinets—all covered with a fine patina of dust. Neglected for years, and abandoned in seconds, it’s like a modern-day Pompeii in which the earth suddenly reclaimed its souls as they went about their daily business.”
“Walking through the haunting wreckage—thirsty swimming pools filled with garbage, and rows of hotel towers tagged by vandals—it’s almost impossible to believe that area was one of the most important vacation destinations in America for well over a century.”
Check out the Daily Beast website for a fascinating glimpse into the downfall of many of these once-popular holiday destinations. We’ll leave you with this haunting series of urbex photographs highlighting one of the many abandoned vacation resorts in the Catskills, an uninteresting modernist structure that may ironically have gained more appeal in its derelict afterlife.
(All images by DJ Philly GEE)
Related: 7 Eerie Abandoned Resorts and Holiday Destinations
