Homowack Lodge, Part 1 Abandoned Borscht Belt Resort -

Between the 1920’s and 1960’s the Catskills was the premiere summer destination for Jewish New Yorkers, earning the area the colloquialism The Borscht Belt. Before the dawn of commercial air travel, the sprawling resorts of The Borscht Belt offered activities and a lot of fun in the sun. Though some resorts have had new life beyond the 1960’s, the very elements that had made the resorts such a draw, their enormity and range of recreational functions, became unsustainable in the face of changing times.

Though many of the complexes are now demolished, the Homowack Lodge is not. In fact, it has apparently earned Historical Landmark status as The Old Homowack Lodge–though I am not sure what that means for its care and maintenance. On my visit, after significant rain, the buildings were a cacophony of echoing drips and in-room waterfalls, unnervingly loud as I kept misperceiving them. The black mold that had attributed its closing from by the Health Department in 2009 when parts of the complex were utilized as Machne Bnos Square, a Hasidim girls camp, is now rampant.

Reading this article from 2009, I realized why the space remains currently wide open for exploring and seemingly unpatrolled by local law enforcement. The tea is that area residents are not happy with the land owner’s wishes to create a new Hasidic village within their rural community. So vandals and explorers are reaping the benefit of the riff; the property is an exquisite mess as it sits neglected. Walking about the decay, the idea of easy development–especially considering the scope of the plan (building, in essence, a new city)–seems a pipe dream. Most of these buildings will need to be demolished. Visiting on my way up north from Brooklyn and then again (to find the bowling alley) on the way back south, I noticed the destruction of just a few measly days! Pieces of furniture were upended and large debris clearly thrashed about. To follow, the current state of things. I’m sure when you go, it’ll look even more disheveled. And I bet it won’t look like a new city…