Abandoned Honeymoon Resort Photos Offer Eerie Look Into Bygone Era

Love found its home in the Poconos, a green expanse of hills and valleys in northeastern Pennsylvania during the mid-twentieth century. Hoteliers opened getaways in those mountains first in the 1920s, but by the early 1960s, as American attitudes toward sexuality loosened, a new kind of resort––the honeymoon resort––began to proliferate in the Poconos. br These hotels, heralded as a getaway for newlyweds, became famous for their heart-shaped beds and jacuzzis. But by the early 2000s, many of them were deserted as consumers chose cruises and low-cost international travel over honeymoon kitsch. As part of his “Autopsy of America” series, photographer Seph Lawless documented the current state of these resorts, which stand abandoned across the Poconos.