Catskills

Resident Ego Castle

I built for Me a castle where my ego could reside Rooms filled with useless treasures which were my joy and pride Its steps led to confusion and massive doors kept out the light The walls closed in around me, and left me hostage to the night Mile Marker Zero -- Rooms (2008) Dundas Castle, or Craig-e-Clare, (often incorrectly referred to as Ravenloft Castle) is an isolated, uninhabited castle in Roscoe, NY abandoned in 1921. Originally a resort for the ultra-wealthy railroad tycoons, in 1915 it fell into the hands of the Dundas family (best known for their founding role…

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Ghost of the Blues

After a few pretty hopeless busts in a row, and still on edge from the end of the Tamarack, we gave up before dark and started looking for a campsite. Sure enough, right off exit 98 was a little resort we MISSED entirely! Of course we'd give it a chance when it's just sitting here. As is typical in these parts, the front door was wide open, inviting us in. The perfection of this place was astounding. It looked like it could have just closed last week, in places! After seeing a few rooms like these, we decided not to…

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Cold Borscht

I'm near the point where this becomes an addiction. It's finals of my senior year, and the only thing on my mind is getting back to the Catskills. Nate doesn't even want to wait the week (the misery of entrepreneurship and self employment has some silver lining, it seems), but I finally convince him to wait until after my last exam to go back. So we spent the week planning and plotting, and finding every abandoned resort that might be worth a visit. The first one we explored, the Tamarack, has a typical story of intrigue and shady dealings for…

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Hot Borscht

Grossinger's resort on a horrendously hot April afternoon. Open from the turn of the century to 1986, Grossinger's was one of the three crown jewels of the Catskill resort area, known in its time as the Borscht Belt or Jewish Alps for the predominant nationality of its vacationers. These resorts were the reason the now-desolate route 17 expressway was built from New York to Binghamton, which once packed with bumper-to-bumper traffic every summer weekend. Now the resort towns sit boarded-up and depopulated, and those resorts that haven't burned down yet remain abandoned and open to the elements. 25 years can…

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1977 House

Got lost on the way into Grossingers and found this thing. We're not sure exactly whose house it was, but it seems to have been either a VIP family at the resort who had their own summer home, or a caretaker of some sort, as it's well within the resort fence. Whatever the cause, these people left very abruptly, almost as if expecting to return next summer, not bothering to move out. The style and decor looks about like the late 70s... the resort closed in 1986, which may be when the residents finally left. The things people leave behind...…

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