These Unbelievable Photos Show Spooky Abandoned ’60s Resorts Then And Now

In his Abandoned Places photo series, photographer Pablo Iglesias Maurer does something fascinating. He collects postcards, matchbooks and other vintage ephemera depicting Borscht Belt hotels and resorts in the 1960s.

Then he recreates the images with new photos of the same places now long-abandoned, to show the difference 50 years makes. No man-made structure lasts forever, but time and nature march ever on. The images of these abandoned ’60s resorts then and now prove that.

Abandoned Resort Then And Now

Hi, I’m the Ghost of the Poconos. In the ’60s, I vacationed here with my family every year. Now I haunt the long-abandoned husks of various Catskills resorts, trying to recapture those idyllic days. I remember this patio well.

I drank a lot of gin-and-tonics under those umbrellas, let me tell you.

Abandoned Resort Then And Now

The first time I returned here, to see if there was an open bar for ghosts, I ran into a total weirdo dressed like a clown. Said his name was Pennywise. Haven’t been back to haunt that place since.

Abandoned Resort Then And Now

This building was added to Grossinger’s Catskill Resort Hotel in 1964. I remember when my family stayed there the year it opened.

Abandoned Resort Then And Now

As a ghost, I tried to go up and down in the elevator, but it was broken. Plus, elevators, like all tangible objects, just go straight through ghosts instead of lifting them up. But I’d forgotten about the rules of incorporeality.