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Will Eisner did a great story about the time in NY when working and middle class NY'rs who lived in the city used to go up to the bungalows that became the resorts, in one of his graphic novels. It was a good first hand perspective about that time and what it was like for people who looked forward to escaping summers in the city every year.
Actually, the bungalows and resorts largely co-existed. Interestingly enough, many of the bungalow colonies are still open in some form.
But yes, Eisner's story was awesome.
That's true, they did, and it wasn't just the air travel industry that started killing them, it was also the emergence of the cruise industry, that sapped whatever older people used to go, but more importantly their clientele by the 70's had all moved to the suburbs themselves, and new country clubs with the same features of the resorts catered to them, so there was no need to escape from anything. All those factors combined led to the drop off in people going to the resorts, which by the 80's had become passé to their now affluent and suburban former guests.
And tv. All those borscht belt comedians came right into your living room, free.
Don't forget the rise of the casinos. None of those old people cared about seeing the sun ever again!
Other reasons for the demise are: 1. Air-Conditioning (less reason to escape to the mountains); 2. Jewish people assimilating more with non-jews; 3) Emergence of adult communities in Florida and the Northeast.
It looks like a serious, dramatized Dirty Dancing, without dancing. I'll check it out.
Too bad it's too late to do a similar piece on the twin resorts Mount Airy and Pocono Gardens Lodge.
Speak of the devil... I just ran this last week: http://dcist.com/2014/01/ab...
There's barely anything left of it! I took photos years ago but as time goes by it's just a shell of a nothing. Bummer!
Live right down the road from the RAR and pass by it every day on the way home from work. It's not long for this world. Fence up around it now and won't be long I suspect until it's torn down.
Another good piece, and predictably by an outside writer rather than one of Gothamist's own staff. Is it really that hard to find good writers in NYC?
It's an 1,100-word piece with 33 photos. Of course it's better than a quick-hit piece of click-bait.
So why can't Gothamist writers do longer pieces with depth, other than lack of ability and insight and the seemingly irresistible temptation to reach for low-hanging fruit with a few snarky sentences?
It's math.
Number of minutes taken to write an article / number of ad clicks
Why would they spend an hour on something getting 1000 views when they could spend 5 minutes on something getting 700 views?
Are you that guy in a meeting who restates what someone said an hour earlier like it's something brand-new?
Ahem, I believe that's you, according to the time-stamps on our respective comments.
My guess is a cost-versus-clicks formula, which probably includes "multiply by short attention spans" and "divide by ad revenue" calculations. Gothamist frequently solicits long-form pieces, but they don't get published often.
that's what i said. the pictures (although rarely the resort itself, because that would be too much work and research, but pictures always ALWAYS look cool!) have been covered a million times by a million people.
this piece is probably among the most disingenuous i've ever seen on gothamist.
Disingenuous? I drove 3 hours from DC to take the photos - I'm not going to act like I spent a month researching for this piece, but I did plenty of legwork. What do you mean "rarely the resort itself?" Most of the resort is gone - the two hotel buildings that remain are completely bombed out - not exactly the most compelling photos.
"Disingenuous" is what a lot of other outlets will do with my photos, which is pay a minimal fee for them, reprint them and paraphrase my piece, largely without credit.
apologies for your three-hour inconvenienced commute, but i found nothing unique in this 'article' that hadn't already been covered about 39,493 times before: the ceiling rusted fixtures; the rotted pool; the leftover furniture; the broken windows; the smashed electronics. all nostalgic, yes, but hardly any lore. and let us not forget the endless list of greats who played gigs there and other borscht belt places...
Let us not forget the list of greats Pablo mentioned by name in his piece, which was excellent, fascinating, and filled with both history and lore that you seem to have missed because you were too busy boring yourself to sleep.
It took you three hours to drive from DC to Liberty, NY? You must have broken the land speed record.
No need to defend on this. Time better spent ignoring.
Hey Pablo! Thanks - this was a great piece and I really enjoyed it! :)
Having been there once in the 70s and also The Concorde, I really enjoyed the beautifully sad photos as well as the well-written text.
Did you not read the essay accompanying it? And why can't we have a post about the resort? That's like saying there are millions of photographs of the Empire State Building so stop taking them.
I love going to the Caribbean and Disney and all those other places that cheap travel bring us, but the big family Catskill vacations we used to go on when we were kids will always hold a special place in my heart.
I've actually been in there. It's really weirdly easy to just crawl through an open window. It's so creepy because they've left it JUST like it was when it closed -- there are still little room service soaps on the floor. I'd recommend it for anyone driving by!
I'm surprised some expensive Williamsburg restaurant hasn't already "reclaimed" the faded blue ones to make a bar and tables. I bet they're driving up there as we type!
They're quite beautiful. I'm taking them to go with my light.
Marisa Scheinfeld also has some great photos from a series she did called "Leftover Borscht." http://www.marisascheinfeld...
First of all Jennie Grossinger didn't pass, she died.
Second, this piece lacks depth and really misses the genesis of those big resorts and bungalow colonies etc, which began not only because some Jews from the lower east side had a yen to buy land upstate (they were actually lured there by the false promise of arable land), but because living conditions on Manhattan's lower east side were so bad that people with diseases like tuberculosis went there for the fresh air.
It wasn't my intention to write a comprehensive history of Grossinger's. Many others have already done so. It was my intention to examine its current state and give my readers a brief re-cap of its history. I think I also mentioned that the Grossinger's originally intended to farm there (but the land was infertile) and also that the place was full of sanatoriums & TB patients?
I realize that, but one sentence would have done it.