Penn Hills Resort
Penn Hills Resort was a honeymoon resort located in Analomink, Pennsylvania, in the Pocono Mountains that closed in 2009.
Founded as a tavern in 1944, Penn Hills expanded to over a hundred rooms.[1]
The 500-acre Penn Hills grew in the 1960s to include a ski resort and a golf course. Guest villas featured floor-to-ceiling carpeting, round beds, and heart-shaped bathtubs.[2] Distinctive, modernist streetlights from the 1964 World's Fair were installed, as well as an ice rink and a wedding bell shaped outdoor swimming pool.[3]
Billed as a "Paradise of Pocono Pleasure" and a place of "unbridled passion",[4] Penn Hills catered to young couples who enjoyed archery and tennis and danced at modestly lavish New Year's Eve parties where the motto was "No balloon goes unpopped."[5]
In 2009, Penn Hills co-founder Frances Paolillo died at the age of 102 and the resort closed less than two months later. Monroe County took over the property in lieu of back taxes.[1] Workers' final paychecks were never issued, and the resort owed the county over $1 million in back taxes.[6] Already in serious disrepair, flooding and copper thieves damaged the buildings further, and the resort was abandoned.[7]
By 2012, Monroe County has sold several small parcels of Penn Hills. However, most of the resort was unsold.[8]
In January 2016, a group of New York investors purchased what remained of Penn Hills for $400,000. As of May 2016, they were still determining how best to develop the property. [9][10]
References
- ^ a b Michael Sadowski, Venerable Pocono resort is deserted, Pocono Record, April 15, 2009
- ^ William Robbins, What's Doing In the Poconos, New York Times, April 12, 1981
- ^ Worlds Fair Community message board, 2011
- ^ Ethan Todras-Whitehill, Where Every Day Is New Year's Eve, New York Times, December 28, 2007
- ^ Marta Gouger, New Year's bash of a decade... or 4, Pocono Record, December 31, 2007
- ^ Beth Brelje, Honeymoon is ending at Penn Hills, Pocono Record, April 1, 2009
- ^ Beth Brelje, Attempted copper theft lands one in hospital, one in jail, Pocono Record, May 19, 2010
- ^ Michael Sadowski, Abandoned Analomink resort remains mostly unsold, Pocono Record, May 4, 2012
- ^ Kevin Kunzmann, Penn Hills acreage sold, Pocono Record, February 29, 2016
- ^ Kunzmann, Kevin (May 12, 2016). [penn-hills-new-owners-see-opportunity-where-others-see-blight "Penn Hills' new owners see opportunity where others see blight"]. Pocono Record. Retrieved 4 January 2017.
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