Photographer Pablo Iglesias Maurer found idyllic promotional photos of now-abandoned resorts in the Poconos, painstakingly found the exact spot where the shot was taken, and matched them flawlessly a series of gifs. It started with a matchbook he found, shown above:
On the inside of the matchbook, some text: “Swim n’ Sun Indoor Swimming Pool at Penn Hills Lodge and Cottages. The Poconos’ Finest Modern Resort.”
He then sought to match up other locations and find out how they met their fate. The stories are all quite sad.
The Homowack Lodge now sits abandoned on the southern edge of the famed “Borscht Belt.” On its lower level, maybe the highlight of the place, a four-lane Brunswick bowling alley. It has seen better days. The resort closed in the mid-2000’s but lived on briefly, first as a Hasidic resort and lastly as the site of a summer camp—one which was forced to shut down after the NY Department of Environmental Conservation deemed it uninhabitable. (Photograph by Pablo Iglesias Maurer, postcard published by Bill Bard Associates)
• Abandoned States: Places In Idyllic 1960s Postcards Have Transformed Into Scenes Of Abandonment (DCist)