The USA has an endless supply of hotels, from giant resorts with sprawling swimming pools and rooftop bars to quaint inns hidden in the countryside. But almost as arresting is its crop of abandoned venues – the bones of once-thriving lodgings left to the ravages of time. Read on to discover America's eeriest and most intriguing ghost resorts.
New York’s Catskill Mountains are an outdoor playground, laced with waterfalls and trails, and known for their swish resorts and accommodations. Once among their number was Grossinger’s Catskill Resort Hotel, which grew from a Victorian-style establishment in the 1900s to incorporate modernist rooms and facilities. The hotel had a glittering heyday in the 1950s, attracting showbiz elite like crooner Eddie Fisher and boxer Rocky Marciano. The resort is even said to have inspired 1980s cult movie and enduring classic Dirty Dancing.
Unfortunately, when owner Jennie Grossinger passed away in the early 1970s the resort’s popularity plummeted, and it was finally shuttered in 1986. For decades it was left to moulder, its swimming pool dry and graffitied and its golf clubhouse choked by greenery. Creaking remnants of the resort were swallowed by fire in 2022.
The King of Rock ’n’ Roll himself, Elvis Presley, made this Hawaii resort famous. Pictured here in 2006, it’s set in lush Wailua and was the setting for much of Presley’s 1961 movie Blue Hawaii – a hit that inspired many a ‘Hawaii-themed’ wedding at the venue. Other showbiz heavyweights like Rita Hayworth and Frank Sinatra also came through the resort's illustrious doors, enjoying its luxurious outdoor pool and suites fit for a King.
Hurricane Iniki tore through the property in 1992, ravaging it completely and causing it to permanently close its doors. Some two decades later, the hotel sustained yet more damage thanks to a devastating two-day fire. Now it sits abandoned, its pool filled with stagnant water and its rooms in ruins. It’s been acquired by developers, but various disputes and difficulties remain and some native Hawaiians are heavily against the development. A grassroots community group wants to turn the resort into a cultural and educational centre honouring Indigenous peoples.
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Another popular mountain escape, Pennsylvania’s Pocono Mountains gained popularity as a vacation spot as early as 1900. This particular resort opened as a tavern during the Second World War and reached its peak in the 1960s and 1970s, when its red-carpeted rooms proved particularly popular with honeymooners. A trickle of guests continued through the following decades, but the financially troubled hotel shuttered in 2009 after co-founder Frances Paolillo died aged 102.
The resort quickly fell into disrepair, the once-plush rooms damp, the red heart-shaped Jacuzzis faded and the two wedding bell-shaped pools in the grounds filled with yellow-green rainwater. Following its abandonment, it was even searched during a manhunt for murderer Eric Frein, who killed a state trooper in an attack on a police barracks in 2014 and was rumoured to be hiding in the hotel. Over the years, arson and planned demolitions have torn through most of the remaining buildings and little of the resort now remains.
This once fine inn – the pride and joy of the small town of Buck Hill Falls – could not survive the wrecking ball. It was opened in 1901 by a group of friends from Philadelphia, starting life as a small private hostelry before expanding rapidly with the help of the Olmsted brothers, sons of legendary landscape architect Frederick Law Olmsted. The hotel steadily gained all the amenities expected of a luxury retreat, including a lush golf course, tennis courts, a beautiful outdoor pool and hundreds of rooms.
But as the years wore on the resort could not keep up with increasingly modern competition, and visitor numbers dwindled. The inn was eventually forced to close, and by 2016 it had stood abandoned for some 25 years. The hulking, deserted shell was an arresting sight – but was in an almost irreparable state and would have taken vast sums to restore. With heavy hearts, the local community took the decision to demolish it.
The ruins of the Overlook Mountain House hotel are a haunting spectacle. The once luxurious hotel, hidden away in New York’s Catskill Mountains, was originally built in 1833 and was one of the region's crown jewels. However, while some guests enjoyed the hotel's remoteness others were put off by its location (it was not easily accessible by train), and a series of fires helped put the final nail in the hotel’s coffin.
Even after the fires, the hotel’s tenacious owner, Morris Newgold, attempted to rebuild it in sturdy concrete in 1923. But the new design was never finished after Newgold's funds dwindled, and the property was eventually boarded up and taken over by the state. Now the half-finished lodge stands a haunting ruin, with trees growing up in its hollow centre. The site is popular with hikers and photographers.
For decades abandoned buildings were scattered across Detroit like bones after the decline of the city's automotive industry led to a massive economic downturn, leaving many businesses and homes deserted. And although Motor City has enjoyed an architectural, cultural and financial revival in recent years, some abandoned reminders still remain. They include the once-opulent Art Deco Lee Plaza, a soaring apartment block that was meant to epitomise luxury living.
The building first opened in 1929, but the Great Depression quickly forced its original owner to sell and the 16-storey block was passed between proprietors through the following decades. Its luxury faded and it spent time as a senior citizens’ home, before eventually being boarded up for good in the 1990s. The complex stood abandoned and, left to the whims of nature, became a windowless husk with tattered, graffitied corridors and a decrepit ballroom. Now, however, plans are afoot to redevelop the Art Deco beauty.
Though its doors are long since shuttered, this funky motel at the edge of the Mojave National Preserve in southeast California remains a well-loved roadside attraction. Drivers pull off Interstate 15 to snap photos of the motel’s gloriously retro sign and dramatically curving a-frame roof.
The property originally opened in the 1950s, when the post-war automobile boom meant that the road-trip vacation – with the help of the roadside motel – was king. It’s thought that the property had around 43 rooms and thrived throughout the mid-century. However, by the 2000s, it had fallen into disrepair, and by 2009 its doors were closed for good.
New England’s Sunrise Resort had a very good run indeed. It was opened in 1916 by a taxi driver from Hartford under the name Ted Hilton's Hideaway and prospered for decades, remaining open for more than 90 years. The resort was an oasis for lovers of the outdoors, offering everything from tennis lessons to horse riding, while cosy cottages and swish resort-style accommodations were scattered across the site.
Eventually the resort ran its course and was closed in 2008, before being passed over to the care of the state. Unfortunately, the buildings weren’t repaired or reopened – some were demolished and the others were simply left to deteriorate. The remaining abandoned structures make for a stirring site, scattered around state parkland in East Haddam.
Salton Sea is a mysterious place. The saline lake once harboured an extremely popular resort, but when it started to dry up (possibly due to disrupted flows from the Colorado River) the concentration of salt and polluting chemicals skyrocketed, causing algal blooms and devastating fish and bird die-offs. As the lake’s toxicity increased, residents began to flood out and tourists stopped flooding in, meaning that a crop of deserted lodgings were left lurking in a fully-fledged ghost town.
Among the abandoned boltholes was the Palms Motel, its creaking sign and rubble-cluttered rooms a reminder of Salton Sea’s golden era. With its last guest long gone, the deserted motel is now frequented only by urban explorers and photographers.
This hulking building in Jacksonville actually began life as an apartment complex, before being transformed into a hotel in the 1940s. Its name changed repeatedly: it started life as the Three-Ten Hotel, became the Hotel Southland in 1947, switched to the Griner Hotel in 1949 and finally settled on the Ambassador in 1955. It was a staple of the city, with sweeping downtown views and a prime central location, and was eventually placed on the National Historic Register.
Sadly, despite its designation, the hotel declined through the 1980s and was closed permanently by the end of the millennium. For years the former hotel was simply left to crumble, an embarrassing husk standing right in the centre of the city. However, plans to give the building a facelift are now afoot: it's set to become a brand-new boutique hotel, complete with fitness centre and lounge.
The eerie Gold Rush ghost town of Bodie is one of eastern California's must-visit sights. It's a boneyard of creaking saloons, burnt-out cars and dusty, deserted pathways – and it has its very own abandoned hotel. The building that would become the Wheaton and Hollis Hotel started life in the 1880s as the United States Land Office.
The structure wore many hats in its time, also serving as the Power Company office, the Bodie Store and, finally, the Wheaton and Hollis Hotel. Hotel highlights include this intricate pool table, and classic saloon decor commonly associated with the Wild West. Bodie's story is that of many an American ghost town: when the gold in the area was depleted, miners and their families moved out, leaving Bodie – and its bars, homes and hotels – deserted.
The Baker Hotel, in the northeast of the Lone Star State, has had a tumultuous history. It was built in the Roaring Twenties, and by the 1930s was pulling in well-heeled clientele with its up-to-the-minute amenities and mod-cons (it boasted a state-of-the-art, Olympic-sized swimming pool filled with local mineral water, and eventually air con). Mineral Wells was gaining popularity as a spa destination so the plush lodgings should have been well set for success, but the decades that followed weren’t kind to the hotel.
As modern medicine advanced, fewer tourists descended on Mineral Wells – previously the region's healing waters had been commonly prescribed by doctors. The Baker Hotel was closed by the 1960s and left to rot in the 1970s, but may now be set to get a new lease of life. It’s currently undergoing extensive renovations and it’s thought that it could once again open as a sumptuous resort in the next few years.
Now discover the mournful stories behind America's abandoned castles