To this day, people still ask us about Sunrise Resort. So here is a special tribute video to the very first place we ever got to explore. New Subscribers are always appreciated!
Archive for the ‘Cabin’ Category
A Peaceful Feeling — Abandoned in the Center of Town
Posted: May 13, 2015 by Hidden Wonders Photography in #postaday, Abandoned, Abandoned Cabin, Abandoned Connecticut, abandoned home, abandoned new england, Abandoned USA, Abandoned Wonders, Birds, Broken, Cabin, Closed, Connecticut, darkness, Destruction, empty, Exploration, exploring the abandoned, Forgotten, forgotten beauty, forgotten home, Ghosts, Haunting, Hebron, Hiking, History, Homeless, House, Information, left behind, lost, Marlborough, Mystery, nature, new england, nightmares, overgrown, photography, research, Ruins, Safety First, Searching, Stories, time, Uncategorized, Urban Decay, Urban Exploration, Urban Exploring, Urbex, writingTags: #postaday, abandoned, abandoned buildings, Abandoned Connecticut, Abandoned Home, Abandoned House, Abandoned New England, abandoned wonders, be prepared, broken, Columbia, Community, Connecticut, CT, CVS, CVS Pharmacy, decay, exploration, exploring, Farming, Farms, Forests, forgotten, Graffiti, Graffitti, Hartford County, Hebron, hiking, keep out, left behind, Letting Go, Marlborough, Nature, No Trespassing, Overgrown, Peace, photography, Route 66, urban exploration, urbex, urbex photography, vandalism
A Peaceful Feeling
Abandoned in the Center of Town
Written by: Sean L.
Photographs by: Amanda H.
In a small town in Connecticut, an empty house is slowly devoured by the forests that surround it. Windows and doors have been busted open. An old barn slowly decays in the front yard. The once firm driveway is now nothing more than a gravel path. Wild vines and briars steadily grow like gnarling teeth across the outer walls. All of this stands in plain sight of the town of Hebron, Connecticut. A house slowly dies in plain sight here. The rest of the town just goes on about their business. They pay no attention to it. Cars go by. People get their groceries. Businesses rise and fall. But not a second glance is given to this place that someone, not too long ago, called home. We’ve explored many abandoned houses in the past, but none of them have been literally smack dab in the center of town. They’ve often been in some desolate country road or lost in the woods. But this place stands alone, crying out for help. But nobody answers.
The town of Hebron, Connecticut, was founded in the year 1704. It is one of the older towns in the area. It was officially incorporated into Hartford County in 1708. About a century later, parts of Hebron officially became a part of the newly established township of Marlborough, my home town. Throughout its history, Hebron was well known for being a strong farming community. Much of its rolling countryside was home to countless family farms and homesteads. Though the town has changed significantly over the years, many farms can still be found in the town. Along Route 66, several large chicken and dairy farms can be seen alongside the busy road just over the Columbia border. Unfortunately, just a few miles down the road, one former home lies empty and abandoned. Much like the other abandoned homes we have visited over the years, we were not able to find much of any information about this old house. From what we have gathered, it has been abandoned for at no more than eight years.
Though this abandoned house lays smack dab in the center of town, someone clearly doesn’t want anyone visiting it. NO TRESPASSING and KEEP OUT signs are posted along the property. Oddly enough, the closest neighbor to the old abandoned house is actually the resident CVS Pharmacy. Dozens of patrons visit the pharmacy every day, with little knowledge of what lies amongst the underbrush. The house is rather hard to get to. Nasty briars and thick vegetation surround the house, making it very difficult to reach or even see for that matter. With no one left to stand in her way, Mother Nature is slowly reclaiming this former home. The upper attic of the house is now home to plenty of birds and probably some bats too. We could see plenty of nests from the outside. The exteriors of the house are in very poor shape. A television antenna has fallen off the roof, but never made it to the ground as it has become entangled in the vines growing along the gutters.
The front door of the house was wide open. Inside, it was quiet as a tomb. The front door entered right into the kitchen, which had been completely gutted. A few items of liter lay strew about. The old stove was curiously still there and in good shape. We actually found very little evidence of vandalism in the house. There was a couple graffiti designs tagged in one of the rooms, but that was about it. The rest of the house was empty. There were several large dark rooms, but pretty much everything had been cleared out. We were unable to find any entrance to the upstairs, and the house did not appear to have a basement. We did find a haunting clue as to who might have been the final occupant of the house: an old cane still stood in what appeared to be the family room. A yellowing copy of the Lord’s Prayer was still tacked to the wall. And judging from the modifications to the house’s bathroom, an elderly person once dwelled here. Perhaps their spirit still haunted these dark hallways.
They say that there is a peaceful feeling in letting go. It is that moment, when you just can’t hold on anymore, that you find a relative peace. Perhaps it is the fact that the pain is gone. Perhaps it is in the realization that you don’t have to fight anymore. Personally, I believe it is the moment when you are finally ready to move on. And sadly enough, the town of Hebron, much like the family of whoever once lived here, seems to have moved on. This old house has been lost, leaving it to be slowly engulfed by the surrounding forest. But there is a peaceful feeling amongst all of this. While the old house slowly disappears, the town continues grow and flourish. What was once a home to man, now have become the home to nature. And we can only hope that over time this old house, much like its former residents, can finally rest in peace.
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The Cabin in the Woods — Exploring the Abandoned Case Cabin
Posted: April 1, 2015 by Hidden Wonders Photography in #postaday, Abandoned, Abandoned Attractions, Abandoned Cabin, Abandoned Connecticut, abandoned home, abandoned new england, Abandoned Resort, Abandoned USA, Abandoned Wonders, Bolton, Broken, Cabin, Closed, Connecticut, darkness, Death, Destruction, Exploration, exploring the abandoned, Forgotten, forgotten beauty, forgotten home, Ghosts, Graveyard, Haunting, Hiking, History, Homeless, House, Information, left behind, lost, Manchester, Manchester CT, Movies, Mystery, nature, new england, nightmares, overgrown, photography, Public Parks, research, Ruins, Safety First, Searching, State Parks, Stories, time, Uncategorized, Urban Decay, Urban Exploration, Urban Exploring, Urbex, writingTags: #postaday, 1960's, abandoned, abandoned buildings, abandoned cabin, Abandoned Connecticut, Abandoned Home, Abandoned House, Abandoned New England, Abandoned USA, abandoned wonders, Akeelah and the Bee, Animal, be prepared, boarded up, Bolton, broken, cabin, Cabin in the Woods, Case Cabin, Case Mountain, Case Mountain Recreation Area, Case Pond, Central Connecticut, Connecticut, CT, darkness, decay, exploration, exploring, forgotten, hiking, hiking trails, Joey Lauren Adams, Keke Palmer, Log Cabin, Manchester, Nature, New England, photography, Recreation, State Park, urban exploration, urbex, urbex photography, vandalism, Walking Trails
The Cabin in the Woods
Exploring the Abandoned Case Cabin
Written By: Sean L.
Photographs By: Amanda H.
Off the beaten path, where the land meets the water, there is a place that time has forgotten. It was once the place where families grew and where childhoods were enjoyed. Deep in the heart of Manchester, Connecticut, it is the home of memory and the sanctuary of the lost. This former kingdom of joy sits at its final resting place along the banks of Case pond, nearly lost amongst the thick forests surrounding it. People walk by this place every day like clockwork, but only a few take notice of it and even fewer can really appreciate it. This is Case Cabin, the former summer home of the wealthy and renowned Case family. Though it has remained abandoned for many years, the cabin still stands, a shell still clinging to the memories of the past. The sounds of life have long since been silenced, but somehow, this place still speaks from beyond the grave. There is a presence here, the lost memories of the past still haunting the long empty halls of this former summer home.
In 1862, two brothers of the well-known Case family purchased two acres around the beautiful Case Reservoir in Manchester, Connecticut, and this is where they built their summer home. The Case family were successful industrialists from the area who owned and operated multiple factories and processing plants. The exquisite log cabin was first built in 1917 using sturdy chestnut wood from the neighboring forests. Throughout the early twentieth century, this place was the vacation paradise of the wealthy Case family. Many parties were 
celebrated here during the roaring twenties, and the family commonly lived here during the summertime. But much like the summer beauty, the prestige of this wondrous place eventually waned. The prestige of the family slowly came to end, and the summer home was eventually left behind. The Case family remained a powerful and successful family until the 1960’s, when their company was bought out. Over the last few years, their former land has been steadily acquired by the town of Manchester as part of an initiative to create more open and recreational space for town residents.
Case Mountain Recreation Area is a large town park located in Manchester, CT, just over the border of Bolton/Glastonbury. It is commonly used today by locals and visitors from all over the state for walking, hiking, and kayaking. The focal point of this park is Case Pond. It is a small body of water with several little streams flowing into it. Along one side of the pond are a series of large houses. Most of them have little boat houses or docks along the banks of the pond. On the other side, is Case Mountain Recreation Area. This area was made possible due to land donations and conservation from the town of Manchester and from several families in the area. The town of Manchester purchased several acres for the recreation area a few years ago. Included in that purchase, was the former Case family summer home. Most recently, the cabin was the setting of an independent horror film entitled Animal. The film starred Joey Lauren Adams (Mallrats) and Keke Palmer (Akeelah and the Bee).
We visited the park on a beautiful fall day in 2014. A short drive from our home, we parked at the Birch Mountain entrance to the Case Pond Recreation Area. Though it is located right next to the busy Route 384, the park is relatively quiet and peaceful. On either sides of the trail, there are wealthy neighborhoods. The park is also rather heavily frequented. We ran into quite a few fellow hikers and a few mountain bikers. Case Cabin is across a stone bridge on the quieter side of the park, sitting silently along the bountiful banks of the pond. The house has a very rustic feel to it. It is like a very large old log cabin. All of the windows have either been boarded up, or strangely covered with cardboard. All of the doors into the house have been heavily padlocked. What made the house so curious to us is that while the house is slowly decaying, it appears to have been virtually untouched by the outside world. It is the first abandoned place that we have visited to have no litter on the ground or graffiti on the walls.
The windows have been boarded up, but it looks like they have been there for years. The house has been left to rot, but people seem to have left it alone. It was puzzling, to say the least. Though a chain link fence protects the house, there are several weak spots which make it look easy to get around. We do not condone or recommend this though. The deck in the back is incredibly unstable. It is in a very bad state of disrepair, with loose or even missing floorboards. It also has a strong tilt to it. Next to the cabin, lies a strange green house. The windows have all been boarded up quite sturdily. Broken glass is all around it, which means that it has been a victim of vandalism in the past. We are not sure what this house is. It is considerably smaller than the cabin, and looks to be much newer. It is also in a very bad state of disrepair. However, much like the cabin, there are several openings that are used by birds and squirrels to nest inside.
The cabin also appears to be very protected, outfitted with a very up to date and top of the line security system. Motion sensors and anti-burglary alarm systems are positioned all along the outer walls of the cabin. These sensors send signals to their base of operations, most likely the local police station, and then the alarm systems are triggered. Clearly, someone does not want this place to be disturbed. It has been deemed a landmark, and though the town continues to put up measures to protect it, they clearly have no plans to restore this former summer home. Over the years, windows have been boarded up, doors have been locked, and fences have been put up rather than restoring or demolishing the old building. Instead, it simply sits in silence, waiting for its final judgement day to come. Though it was once a place of light and joy, it is now nothing more than a cabin in the woods.
Cape Cod’s Psycho – The Abandoned Bates Motel
Posted: March 10, 2015 by Hidden Wonders Photography in #postaday, Abandoned, Abandoned Attractions, Abandoned Business, Abandoned Cabin, Abandoned Cape Cod, abandoned home, Abandoned Massachusetts, abandoned new england, Abandoned Resort, Abandoned USA, Abandoned Wonders, Bates Motel, Beaches, Bird Watching, Birds, Broken, Cabin, Cape Cod, Children, Closed, commercial, darkness, Death, Destruction, empty, Exploration, exploring the abandoned, for sale, Forgotten, forgotten beauty, forgotten home, Ghosts, Graveyard, Haunting, Hiking, History, Homeless, House, Information, left behind, lost, Love, Massachusetts, Movies, Mystery, nature, new england, Ocean, Ocean View, overgrown, photography, research, Ruins, Safety First, Searching, seaside, Stories, time, Truro, Uncategorized, Urban Decay, Urban Exploration, Urban Exploring, Urbex, writingTags: #postaday, A&E, abandoned, abandoned buildings, abandoned business, abandoned cabin, Abandoned Cape Cod, Abandoned Hotel, Abandoned House, Abandoned Massachusetts, Abandoned Motel, Abandoned New England, abandoned wonders, Alfred Hitchcock, Atlantic Ocean, Bates Motel, be prepared, beauty, boarded up, broken, Cape Cod, darkness, decay, exploration, exploring, forgotten, Haunted, haunting, Hidden Wonders, hiking, Historical Landmark, history, left behind, Massachusetts, Motel, Nature, New England, Ocean, Ocean View, photography, Psycho, Truro MA, urban exploration, urbex, urbex photography, Vacation, writing
Cape Cod’s Psycho
The Abandoned Bates Motel
Written by: Wilk
Photographs by: Lassie
Cape Cod is a place of wonder and enjoyment for people all over New England. During the summertime, this place becomes the most popular hot spot for tourism in the entire region. Beach goers frolic in the rolling ocean waves. Families vacation in old school cottages. Tourists from around the globe get a taste of what New England life is all about. There’s fishing, sailing, whale watching tours, and even colonial history in Cape Cod. It is truly the crown jewel in the state of Massachusetts. But nestled deep in this vacation destination is a place saltier than the ocean air. It is the subject of many legends, and shares the name with one of the most feared places in Hollywood movie lore: The Bates Motel. Between the luxurious hotels and extravagant summer homes lies a place that would make even Psycho creator and horror master Alfred Hitchcock himself uneasy.
To this day, we have found very little information at all on the Bates Motel. We cannot even be positive if that is its real name. It does in fact bear a striking resemblance to the fabled motel of the film Psycho and its contemporary series Bates Motel. From what we have gathered, the motel has been abandoned for at least twenty years, it has been the sight of many alleged hauntings, and it is smack dab in the middle of a very rich neighborhood. What we can tell you is that Bates Motel is located in the small town of Truro, Massachusetts. It is the second to last town on the furthest corner of Cape Cod, just slightly south of the beloved and lively Provincetown. It located right of Route 6A. Once called Old King’s Highway, this stretch of highway runs across the entire length of Cape Cod.
We made our pilgrimage to the abandoned Bates Motel on a hot summer day in early June. The school years were just coming to an end, so Cape Cod was just starting to wake up from its off-season slumber. It was far from being a ghost town, but it was nowhere near as busy or as crowded as it gets during the later summer months. The trip down 6A was about an hour from our hotel, which was in the heart of the Cape. The trip up was rather nice, as 6A is a beautiful road to travel on. The traffic was light, the sun was out, and there is always something to see while driving around Cape Cod. The closer you get to the edge of the Cape, the narrower the land becomes. So by the time we got to Truro, there was ocean on either side.
Finding the abandoned Bates Motel wasn’t too difficult. It is located quite literally right off of Route 6A. It is along a road heavily populated with beach houses, summer homes, small cottages, and big hotels. You get an excellent view of the ocean from this neighborhood. If you look closely, you can even see the bustling town of Provincetown from the road. Just a short stretch down through this rich vacation neighborhood, we found the abandoned motel. Though its ghastly state of disrepair sticks out like a sore thumb amongst these summer palaces, it somehow blends in with the buildings and the sand around it. It is almost as if the abandoned Bates Motel is still trying to fit in with these vacation homes that it once resembled, even though it has been many years since any guests passed through its doors.
The motel itself is truly a sight to see. Though all around it are busy and popular resorts, it is completely silent in front of the Bates Motel. The only sounds to be heard are the pesky seagulls soaring overheard and the steady lapping of the ocean up against the shores of Truro. The paintjob of the building seemed to once be a shade of white or yellow, it now has a strong brown tint to it. There are about twelve rooms total across the motel. Every window has been boarded up. Every door to every room has a sturdy padlock on it, guarding the former motel from any unwanted guests. There are NO TRESPASSING, NO PARKING, and KEEP OUT signs posted all over the grounds. Clearly, someone out there does not want the Bates Motel to have any visitors. And for good reason.
Not only is the building and the grounds in a harsh state of disrepair, there is a very strong and uneasy sense about this place. This once happy and fun filled place is now a place out of a nightmare. Strange and unsettling graffiti can be spotted along some of the walls and doors. Tall beach grass grows all along the sides of the building. The pavement of the parking lot is cracked and broken. Yet from the back of the motel, you can still get an excellent beachfront view of the ocean. It is strange to see this place the way that it is now, especially with the flourishing community surrounding it. Three small derelict cottages sit next to the motel, just as decrepit and abandoned. It is unclear whether they were a part of Bates Motel or were simply left behind for having the unfortunate bad luck of being neighbors with this dark place.
What makes Bates Motel so baffling and unsettling is its location. It is located beachside in a very busy and beautiful summer destination, yet it remains in a state of very poor disrepair. This property could be sold for millions if it was purchased by the right person and turned into a functioning hotel. It allegedly is for sale. Yet mysteriously, it remains abandoned. One rumor that we heard about the legendary motel is that the property became caught up in some sort of family legal battle, and eventually closed. Never to reopen. Though it bears a striking resemblance to Norman Bates and his beloved mother’s establishment from the films and television show, the connection between the cultural icon and the abandoned motel has yet to be made. It may not have any connection with the movie legend, but the real Bates Motel is definitely just as creepy.
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Sunset on Sunrise — Remembering Sunrise Resort Part III
Posted: February 11, 2015 by Hidden Wonders Photography in #postaday, Abandoned, Abandoned Business, Abandoned Cabin, Abandoned Connecticut, abandoned home, abandoned new england, Abandoned Resort, Abandoned USA, Abandoned Wonders, Beaches, Broken, Cabin, Children, Closed, Connecticut, darkness, Death, Destruction, East Haddam Connecticut, empty, Exploration, exploring the abandoned, Forgotten, forgotten beauty, forgotten home, Ghosts, Graveyard, Haunting, Hiking, History, House, Information, left behind, lost, Love, Mystery, nature, new england, nightmares, overgrown, photography, Public Parks, research, Ruins, Safety First, Searching, State Parks, Stories, Sunrise Resort, time, Uncategorized, Urban Decay, Urban Exploration, Urban Exploring, Urbex, writingTags: #postaday, 2013, 2014, abandoned, abandoned buildings, abandoned cabin, Abandoned Connecticut, Abandoned New England, Abandoned Resort, abandoned wonders, Art, be prepared, beauty, Connecticut, CT, darkness, decay, Demolished, dreamworld, East Haddam, exploration, exploring, Fishing, forgotten, hiking, left behind, natural beauty, Nature, Overgrown, Part III, photography, Reclaimed, Remember, State Park, Summer, Sunrise, Sunrise Resort, Sunset, The Grey, urban exploration, urbex, urbex photography, Walking, writing
Sunset on Sunrise
Remembering Sunrise Resort – Part III
“Once more into the fray. Into the last great fight I shall ever know.
Live and die on this day. Live and die on this day.”
–The Grey (2011)
This will be our final installment on the now fabled Sunrise Resort. We have covered our discovery of the resort in the first issue, followed by our investigation of the resort in our second. This final issue will cover our final visit to the grounds, after they had been demolished by the State of Connecticut. We hope that you have learned a thing or two about this place, and why it is important to us. It may be long gone, but it will live forever in the photos that we have taken and the stories that we tell about it. Sunrise Resort was loved by the people of Connecticut for many years. Following her demise, she was left abandoned for over half a decade. Finally, she was demolished by her owners leaving nothing but the memories and the tattered remains of what once was.
Spanning over 140 acres, Sunrise Resort was sold to the State of Connecticut for 2 million dollars after going out of business in 2008. When the state failed to act on reusing/redeveloping the resort, the grounds’ 82 buildings slowly fell into disrepair and became derelict. Though they sat empty and decaying for many years, one state lawmaker was determined to do something about it. Connecticut State Representative Melissa Ziobron, a former employee of Sunrise Resort, was the driving force behind the demolition. For many months, her proposition toiled in the state’s offices. Finally, in the summer of 2013, the demolition was approved. Over the next few months, every last deteriorating building was destroyed. The site has since been rechristened as Sunrise State Park. It was not until over a year afterwards that we decided to return to the site, to see what was left to see.
Since we had first discovered the resort in 2012, we watched it closely. We followed Representative Ziobron’s campaign to have the resort demolished. We had even written a script for an apocalyptic short film to be filmed there in the spring of 2013. Plans for this however fell through following the devastation of several nasty snow storms during the winter, which made the grounds completely impassable. Shortly after that, the grounds were designated off limits to visitors as the state prepared for the demolition of the resort, which would last throughout the summer of 2013. It was later reopened during the fall of that year. In the summer of 2014, we finally decided to make our return to the grounds. Almost exactly two years after we first discovered this abandoned wasteland on a hot summer day, we returned to see what had become of Sunrise Resort.
At the time we visited the grounds, there was still no visible sign designating the space as Sunrise State Park. We parked our car in the same place that we had parked the last time we had visited the resort, though there is no longer a guard shack to stop cars from pulling up closer. The few buildings at the front of the resort are actually still standing. These buildings are still used by the State of Connecticut for storage. They are heavily padlocked and protected against any intruders, and they still remained as remarkably untouched as we had last seen them two years prior. A few of the buildings have their windows boarded up, some with plywood and others with just cardboard. Though they are looking quite old, they are clearly not abandoned and are the only structures still standing on the grounds.
We continued down the road further into the resort, though there was no dog following us this time. The large parking lot where school buses used to load and unload visitors is still there, though now it is all dirt and chipped asphalt. From the parking lot, you can see the spot where the old office building and pool used to be. The pool has been completely filled in, and a deep layer of wood chips has been placed on top of it. The office building has been demolished, leaving only a checkered cement foundation that looks like a human chessboard. Farther down the path, we came to where the rows of cabins once stood. Much like the pool, there are just layers of wood chips covering the spots where the structures once stood. Though it had been a long time since we had been here, you can always tell where an old building once stood by the wood chips.
There really wasn’t much to see. Down by the river, everything had been cleared out. Even the old pine tree that stood in front of the dining hall had been removed. The only thing left to distinguish what once was, was the old chimney, still partially standing at the back of the lot. The only other real thing of note here were the sports fields. A few chain link fences had been left up around the baseball diamond, though it is long since overgrown. The tennis courts are still here too, just in very poor shape. We even found the old bocce ball and basketball courts, lost in the weeds where the old children’s center once stood. If you had never seen this place the way it used to be, it would be hard to imagine that is was once a fun filled resort. But with our daylight dying, we decided it was time to call it a day. We bid farewell to Sunrise State Park, as the sun began to set.
We all have different feelings when we see the sunset. Some of us see the end of the day. Others see the dawning of a new tomorrow. But in a strange way, we can all agree on one thing about them: they can be indescribably beautiful. Not just to the eye, but to the heart. Because a sunset always gives way to sunrise, the dawning of a new day and the chance for a new beginning. That is what we hope that this place has. The sun may have set on Sunrise Resort, but there is glimmer of hope here. Though the resort is long gone, the grounds are still enjoyed. Hikers, fishermen, and dog walkers now heavily frequent the area. The large abandoned buildings have given way to recreational space. The painful sorrow of seeing this doomed summer dream world has passed. And in a place where darkness once ruled, there is finally sunlight for Sunrise.
Abandon All Hope — Remembering Sunrise Resort Part II
Posted: February 2, 2015 by Hidden Wonders Photography in #postaday, Abandoned, Abandoned Baseball Field, Abandoned Business, Abandoned Cabin, Abandoned Connecticut, abandoned home, abandoned new england, Abandoned Resort, Abandoned USA, Abandoned Wonders, Beaches, Broken, Cabin, Children, Closed, Connecticut, darkness, Death, Destruction, East Haddam Connecticut, empty, Exploration, exploring the abandoned, fantasy, fire, for sale, Forgotten, forgotten beauty, forgotten home, Ghosts, Graveyard, Haunting, Hiking, History, Homeless, House, Information, left behind, lost, Love, Movies, Mystery, nature, new england, nightmares, overgrown, photography, Public Parks, research, Ruins, Safety First, Searching, State Parks, Stories, Sunrise Resort, time, Uncategorized, Urban Decay, Urban Exploration, Urban Exploring, Urbex, writingTags: #postaday, 1970, abandoned, abandoned buildings, abandoned cabin, Abandoned Connecticut, Abandoned Home, Abandoned Motel, Abandoned New England, Abandoned Resort, Abandoned USA, abandoned wonders, be prepared, broken, camp, Chernobyl, Connecticut, CT, darkness, decay, East Haddam, exploration, exploring, Fishing, forgotten, hiking, hiking trails, left behind, Nature, Pripyiat, State Parks, Sunrise, Sunrise Resort, urban exploration, urbex
Abandon All Hope
Remembering Sunrise Resort – Part: II
Written by: Sean L.
Photographs by: Amanda H.
“Abandon all hope, ye who enter here.” Much like the city of Pripyiat, the home to the workers and families of the Chernobyl tragedy, Sunrise Resort was literally abandoned overnight. However, it was not because of a nuclear disaster. Sunrise Resort, which had stood for decades, had become a thing of the past. Over the years, attendance to the once popular vacation destination steadily declined. When it finally went under, the owners were able to sell the land to the state of Connecticut, who hoped to use the grounds as a camp for the disabled. Unfortunately, this never happened. Over the years, Sunrise Resort stood empty and alone, nothing more than a sad afterthought. Because the land had been purchased by the state, it was designated a state park. This created a massive legal loophole, making this large abandoned resort completely legal to visit.
Our return to Sunrise Resort came just two days after our initial discovery. We arrived early in the morning, intent of covering every inch of the property. Luckily, the sun was out and the weather was fair. We drove directly up to the resort this time, rather than walking in. The gates from the guard shack at the front were still closed, so we parked there. At the very front of the property, two large older buildings stand. They have large padlocks on them, and are used by the state for storage. They are the only buildings on the property to still be in use and that have been untouched by vandals. Beside them stand the old dining hall. Windows have been smashed, furniture has been removed, and the old fireplace is now full of trash. A road connects the entire camp together. A large stray dog accompanied us as we began our descent into the wasteland.
Our first stop was the main office. I first walked down these steps was I was in the sixth grade. I was on a class wide picnic, and this place was full of people having fun. I did not return until I was twenty one years old. There weren’t any more people, and the fun times were long gone. The glass doors to the office were smashed, littering the ground with large chunks of broken glass. Inside the office, papers and all kinds of debris coat the floor. We found several first aid kits that had been torn apart, though curiously only the syringes were missing. There were also gaping holes in the walls, with all of the buildings copper wirings torn out by scavengers. This was a common trait throughout the resort, as we found almost every building suffered this fate. On the wall, in red crayon, was written: “No God. No Joy.”
Beside the main office stood the old pool. The last time I saw this pool, it was full of water and happy children enjoying the vacation. Now, it lies empty. The water and swimmers are long gone, with the pool now only holding nothing but graffiti and debris. This ranged from tree branches, garbage bags, and even a roller chair. The pool had a window on the deep end, where people could watch swimmers from. We moved on into the pool house to reach this window. Lockers had been ripped open. Walls had been trashed. Even a few bathing suits had been left behind. We then reached the room with the window looking into the pool. A large colorful octopus was painted on the wall.
Moving past the pool, we found the cabins. Sunrise Resort offered all kinds of camping, and cabin camping was very popular. Most of these cabins still stood untouched. The clean sheets were still waiting for the next guests, neatly folded atop the beds. The bathrooms were all still fully stocked. Notes indicating checkout time were still there. Past the cabins, we explored “The Frog.” This was the restaurant of the resort. The tables were all neatly stacked up in one corner. A bible lay abandoned on the ground. An old tabletop Christmas tree had been knocked over. The run down television set had been smashed. Several vending machines still stood against the back wall, though there was nothing left inside of them. Packets of mustard and ketchup were still sitting in their dispensaries, though they had long since gone bad. We continued down the road, leading us to the banks of the Moodus River.
Along the river stood a series of cabins. They were each three stories high, and completely ransacked. In one of these cabins, the room at the top floor had been converted into a makeshift sex den with a heavily used mattress and condom wrappers galore. Beside these cabins was the now empty boat house and the dining hall that we had originally seen the other day. After a short lunch in the old gazeebo, we explored this large building. Carpet was ripped up, windows were smashed, and walls were demolished. Against the very back wall stood a fireplace with a sturdy chimney. A few fire logs were still inside. The kitchen was completely dark, but most of the equipment had been gutted. Several empty pavilions stood outside. Rather than taking the rickety staircase we had seen last time, we continued up a different path back into the heart of the resort.
We passed several more sets of cabins until we came up the children’s area of the resort. It was complete with a small building, where kid’s artwork still hung from the walls. An old overgrown wooden playground stood beside it. A small in-ground pool was at the front of the area, though its water was now stagnant green. An old push car had been unceremoniously dumped into it. A miniature golf course was there as well, though now completely overgrown. At the farthest side of the resort stood the apartments. Two large buildings full of apartments were there: one high-rise and one low-rise. They were totally ransacked by vandals, though a small family of raccoons guarded the basement. Finally, there was the spa. Workout equipment and machines were still there, abandoned overnight just like everything else here.
With our daylight dying, we decided it was time to head home. We began to head back to the car, bidding farewell to the abandoned Sunrise Resort. Though we didn’t know it at the time, this would be our last goodbye. Stay tuned for Part III next week.
Stay tuned for Remembering Sunrise Resort Part III coming next week!!
The End of the Road – Remembering Sunrise Resort: Part I
Posted: January 27, 2015 by Hidden Wonders Photography in #postaday, Abandoned, Abandoned Attractions, Abandoned Baseball Field, Abandoned Business, Abandoned Cabin, Abandoned Connecticut, Abandoned Fairgrounds, abandoned home, abandoned new england, Abandoned Resort, Abandoned Stores, Abandoned USA, Abandoned Wonders, Beaches, Birds, Broken, Cabin, Children, Closed, commercial, Connecticut, darkness, Death, Destruction, East Haddam Connecticut, empty, Exploration, exploring the abandoned, for sale, Forgotten, forgotten beauty, forgotten home, Ghosts, Graveyard, Haunting, Hiking, History, House, Information, left behind, lost, Movies, Mystery, nature, new england, nightmares, overgrown, photography, Public Parks, research, Ruins, Safety First, Searching, State Parks, Stories, Sunrise Resort, time, Uncategorized, Urban Decay, Urban Exploration, Urban Exploring, Urbex, writingTags: #postaday, abandoned, Abandoned Barn, abandoned buildings, abandoned business, abandoned cabin, abandoned camp, Abandoned Connecticut, Abandoned Home, Abandoned New England, Abandoned Places, Abandoned Resort, Abandoned Sunrise Resort, Abandoned USA, abandoned wonders, be prepared, cabin, camp, Chernobyl, Connecticut, CT, darkness, decay, destroyed, disrepair, East Haddam, exploration, exploring, forgotten, Graffiti, hiking, left behind, Machimoodus State Park, Moodus River, Nature, photography, Remember, State Park, Sunrise Resort, urban exploration, urbex, urbex photography, writing
The End of the Road
Remembering Sunrise Resort – Part I
Written by: Sean
Photographs by: Amanda
You always remember your first. Whether it be love, sex, friendship, you always remember the first. Because the first will always be special, whether you like it or not. We’ve been doing this for about three years now, and I still remember our first. It was kind of an accident; we just happened to stumble upon one of the greatest abandoned sites in Connecticut while hiking in the woods. It was more than just an abandoned building; it was a small community that had been completely deserted overnight. This is the place that started our journey as urban explorers. What follows is part one of a three part series that will fully cover our three visits to the legendary Sunrise Resort in East Haddam, Connecticut. Part one will cover the discovery of the resort. Part two will cover our investigation. And part three will cover our return to the site after its demolition.
The only way to really tell this story is to start at the beginning. I mean the real beginning. Sunrise Resort was established in the 1930’s by Ted Hilton, a Hartford Taxi Driver. Over its 92 years the resort became Frank Davis Resort then what we know it as now, Sunrise Resort. In its heyday, the resort was known for theme weeks, meals, parties, music, and its excellent family atmosphere. It provided services such as maid service, childcare for those parents who wanted a break, boating/sailing, horseback riding, and children’s programs. They even allowed you to bring along the family pet! The resort provided many forms of housing may it be rustic cottages, motel rooms, apartments, or resort lodging. Sunrise had it all. Just as a fun fact, both Amanda and myself visited the resort while we children. Both of our schools scheduled our end of the year summer picnics here. Unfortunately, we did not take any photos while there.
Over the years Sunrise’s old fashion look and feel began to lose customer’s interest and it slowly began to wither. Near its end customers were found to complain of it being “out-of-date,” musty, and unclean. Sadly, in 2008 Sunrise was closed and sold to the CT Government. At first the government had plans of making it into a newer, updated Campgroup or into a camp for the disabled. This never happened. The Connecticut Government put things off and forgot about Sunrise until it became too late; nothing was left to save. Since then it fell into ruins. It had been vandalized (windows smashed, copper piping ripped out of the walls, items stolen, memories shattered) and nature has moved in to reclaim it. This once beautiful resort was now a ghost town resembling Chernobyl. Everything is left the same as it was as if its happy, smiling patrons simply vanished.
It was a hot summer day in 2012. We were just hanging out. The days of summertime were slowly drawing to close, and we would soon be returning to college. The beach was no fun anymore. We had hiked all of our local parks. And we didn’t have the money to go to the movies. We decided to do something different. It was actually the website damnedct.com that got us into this. We had occasionally surfed that site, looking at all of their cool articles. But most of them were out of date. First, we looked into checking out the Little People’s Village. But further research revealed that this site has been so horribly vandalized, there is nothing left to see. We then thought of checking out Holy Land USA, hearing that it was quite easy to get in. Further research into this revealed that a young girl had tragically been murdered there very recently, and the place was near impenetrable.
With our day slowly ending, we ended up deciding to check out Machimoodus State Park in East Haddam. There were rumors of strange, unearthly noises here so we decided to check it out. We even brought along our Japanese Chin named Tojo. The state park was nice, though we didn’t hear any weird noises. There was an old barn still standing towards the center of the park, but nothing too interesting. That is until we took a dark trail leading into the woods. The farther we got down this trail, the weirder things got. First we found a shoe sitting on an old stump. This shoe had been there so long, moss had completely coated it. We also found a crushed up loud speaker in the dirt. Further down the trail, we found a rusty storage trailer, completely full of old cots. It was completely silent. Then, we saw it.
At the end of the trail, seated comfortably alongside the banks of the Moodus River, we found an abandoned summer camp. The old dining hall stood before us. It was three floors, with a porch out front. The windows were all shattered, and its outer paint was rapidly fading. The old kitchen equipment had been left out back to rot in the sun. A rickety gazeebo stood out in front of it. Beside that was a tall withered pine tree, slowly dying in the summer heat. Several empty pavilions guarded the river bank. Two yellow chairs were seated in the water, still standing. The long grass all around grew wild and free. A couple of small storage sheds stood closer to the edge of the forest, though the steps leading into them were slowly collapsing. A very old and unsafe looking staircase stood leading up the hill, though we dare not follow it. What was this place?
Unknown to us at the time, this was the abandoned Sunrise Resort. Since we had our dog in tow and had no idea where we were, we decided to leave…after snapping a few pictures of course. This place wasn’t safe for Tojo to be walking around, and we were completely in the dark on what this strange place was or if we were allowed to be there. As we made the trek through the forest and back to the car, we decided to do some research on what we had just found: what is was, who lived there, why it was abandoned. But more importantly, we vowed to return. Stay tuned for Part II next week.
Far from Home — Exploring the Abandoned Skinner House
Posted: December 29, 2014 by Hidden Wonders Photography in #postaday, Abandoned, Abandoned Attractions, Abandoned Cabin, Abandoned Connecticut, abandoned home, abandoned new england, Abandoned USA, Abandoned Wonders, Automobiles, Bird Watching, Birds, Bolton, Broken, Cabin, Closed, commercial, Connecticut, darkness, Death, Destruction, empty, Exploration, exploring the abandoned, fire, for sale, Forgotten, forgotten beauty, forgotten home, Ghosts, Graveyard, Haunting, Hiking, History, Homeless, House, Information, left behind, lost, Love, Manchester, Manchester CT, Mercury, Movies, Mystery, nature, new england, nightmares, overgrown, photography, research, Ruins, Safety First, Searching, Stories, Uncategorized, Urban Decay, Urban Exploration, Urban Exploring, Urbex, writingTags: #postaday, abandoned, Abandoned Automobiles, Abandoned Barn, abandoned buildings, abandoned cabin, Abandoned Car, Abandoned Connecticut, Abandoned Home, Abandoned House, Abandoned New England, Abandoned Places, Abandoned USA, abandoned wonders, Andover, be prepared, beauty, Bolton, cars, cave in, collapse, Connecticut, CT, danger, darkness, decay, decrepit, empty, exploration, exploring, Far from Home, forest, forgotten, hiking, home, home sweet home, left behind, Mercury, mystery, Mystery House, Nature, photography, red, Skinner House, urban exploration, urbex, urbex photography, Wildlife
Far from Home
Exploring the Abandoned Skinner House
By Sean and Amanda
There’s a knock at the door, but nobody answers. The sounds echo through the house’s empty rooms. There’s a hole in the roof that will never be fixed. Birds and wildlife come and go through it as they please. The old shed collapsed years ago. It lies in ruin beside the decaying barn. An old car sits in the driveway. The tires have been flattened over time. Wild vines have started to take it over. Blocked in behind it sits an old truck. Its original color and model name have become unrecognizable. If these old walls could talk, I don’t think they would talk at all. I think they would scream. They would scream because they have seen too much, and they’ve had to go through it all alone. They would cry out in pain and anguish, because whoever once called this place home clearly left a long time ago. This is the Skinner House.
Down a back country road in a forgotten part of a little town lies an old house. Who lived there? How long has it been abandoned? Why was this house left to rot? We don’t know. And in fact, nobody around here seems to. The neighbors of this place were either no help or could not be reached for comment. What we can tell you about the Skinner House is that it has clearly been empty for many years. To be perfectly clear, we can neither confirm nor deny that it is in fact called the Skinner House. It has earned this nickname due to the fact that it sits right on the corner of Shoddy Mill Road and the windy Skinner Road in Bolton, Connecticut. It is barely a mile from the border of rural Andover, Connecticut and a stone’s throw from the heavily trafficked Route 6A.
I drive past the Skinner House almost every day on my way to and from work. It took me awhile to even notice that it was in fact abandoned. No offense to the people that live in these rural towns, but most seem to have at least one house that is not very taken care of. But after weeks of driving past this old house in the early mornings and late afternoons, I began to notice things. I never saw a single person come or go from it. There was never a light on inside of it. The two broken down cars in the driveway never moved. Every single day passing by it, the house seemed to be sitting there frozen in time. Nothing ever seemed to change. Using our standard methods of preparing for an investigation, (see The 5 Rules), I found absolutely no information on the house. It had simply been forgotten.
So during a chilly winter day in December, we decided to go have a look around. The Skinner House isn’t too difficult to find. It is nestled at the crossroads of a nice little neighborhood and a backcountry road. As stated earlier, it is almost right on top of the border between the towns of Bolton and Andover. It stands right next to a small bridge covering an even smaller stream. Just in case there actually was someone living there, we didn’t just pull up the driveway. There is a little spot beside the bridge that we could easily pull up to. The Skinner House is actually a good sized building, with at least two floors. There is also a large barn standing beside the street. The remnants of what looked like a shed or even a smaller barn lay next to that. Behind the house is just wild trees and wilderness.
Not only did we find not a single sign of life, but we also didn’t find a single NO TRESPASSING sign. There was nothing here. In the woods behind the house, there were plenty of signs warning off any potential hunters or fishermen. But no such signs were posted on the property itself. After a quick look around and a knock on the old door, it became perfectly clear to us that this wasteland was indeed abandoned. Inside of the house, there was nothing but trash left behind. And in fact, the caved in roof and the old floor boards are so unstable that we did not even go inside. To do so would be incredibly dangerous. We also found evidence of some sort of large animal, or animals, taking up residence inside the old house. Even though there are no KEEP OUT signs, it is best to do so.
What we found most interesting about the abandoned Skinner House were the cars that had been left behind. They sit alone in the driveway, with brush and foliage all over them. In the front is an old red Mercury sedan. Its tires are flat, but it could still be in salvageable shape. Blocked in behind it is an old truck. This thing was so old and beat up, we couldn’t even tell what Make or Model it was. It is now just a rusty hunk of metal. Remarkably, we didn’t find much of any vandalism on the property. None of the windows on the house have been smashed, there was no liter on the grounds, and we didn’t find any graffiti. Inside the house may be a different story though. The barn is in just as poor shape as the house. Paint is slowly chipping and the wood frame is rapidly decaying. On a lighter note, we did find a family of rabbits now occupies the old barn.
The Skinner House is by far one of our more unique investigations. Not only did we not find any information at all about this place, but it seems like it has been relatively left alone in its state of decay. Not a single FOR SALE, NO TRESPASSING, or KEEP OUT sign can be found on the property. With the cars still in the driveway, it seems like people just got up and left one day. Nature now rules this place. The wild now lives where humans once did. Though the house still stands, it is far from a home. We are still left to wonder why the Skinner House was abandoned. And what happened to the people that lived there.
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Out of Business – The Abandoned Buildings of Route 85
Posted: December 22, 2014 by Hidden Wonders Photography in #postaday, Abandoned, Abandoned Attractions, Abandoned Business, Abandoned Connecticut, abandoned home, abandoned new england, Abandoned Stores, Abandoned USA, Abandoned Wonders, Automobiles, Birds, Bolton, Broken, Cabin, Camp Connecticut, car dealership, Closed, commercial, Connecticut, darkness, Death, Destruction, empty, Exploration, exploring the abandoned, fire, for sale, Forgotten, forgotten beauty, forgotten home, Ghosts, Graveyard, Haunting, Hebron, Hiking, History, Homeless, Information, left behind, lost, Marlborough, Movies, Mystery, nature, new england, nightmares, overgrown, photography, Public Parks, research, route 85, Ruins, Safety First, Searching, State Parks, Stories, time, Uncategorized, Urban Decay, Urban Exploration, Urban Exploring, Urbex, writingTags: #postaday, abandoned, abandoned buildings, abandoned business, Abandoned Connecticut, abandoned factory, Abandoned Garage, Abandoned New England, Abandoned Places, Abandoned Shop, Abandoned USA, abandoned wonders, Airline Trail, be prepared, business, cars, Colchester, Connecticut, CT, danger, darkness, decay, exploration, exploring, factory, forgotten, Hebron, hiking, left behind, mechanic, mechanic shop, Nature, out of bussiness, Overgrown, photography, Places to Explore, Route 66, route 85, trucks, urban exploration, urbex, urbex photography, vandalism, writing
Out of Business
The Abandoned Buildings of Route 85
By: Sean and Amanda
Growing up in the Hebron area, I had driven down and along Route 85 for as long as I can remember. It is a stretch of road that we would always take to get from Hebron to Colchester or vice versa. It could be busy, at times. But other times it felt like any other road, running between a few sleepy little Connecticut towns a lot of people have never heard of. But this road is more than meets the eye. Much like most towns in the world, the communities along Route 85 have not gone unscathed from economic downturn. Over the years, we have seen several well-known and beloved businesses fall under hard times. Owners of these establishments closed up shop, and the buildings themselves were left at the mercy of the elements. On a cold November day, we decided to pay a visit to a few of these forgotten places.
Commonly used as a route for commuters and travelers between the cities of Hartford and New London, Route 85 is a state highway. Though we have often traveled it on our adventures to get to and from Hebron or Colchester, it actually runs from the northern town of Bolton all the way south to the city of New London. Originally established during the nineteenth century, Route 85 has been a commonly used highway in the state of Connecticut. It has had an assortment of different names over the last hundred or so years, but was officially christened Route 85 during 1932. Though it is kind of a small town road, Route 85 has junctions to major highways including I-95, I-384, and US-44. We were on our way to visit three abandoned buildings located along the more rural part of the route between Hebron and Colchester.
On our trip to Route 85, we parked at the local lot for the Airline Trail State Park. Arguably the biggest and most popular walking site in Connecticut, the trail runs all over the state. We have used it several times during our investigations. Ironically, it was a formerly abandoned railway track that was acquired by the state and turned into hiking trails. The three buildings that we were investigating that day were all within a short walk from each other. They included a former mechanic’s garage, an abandoned antique warehouse, and the beloved Route 85 Lumber yard. Believe it or not, the fabled and familiar site of Camp Connecticut was merely a few miles from us. See our write up on the legendary site here. Since it was a weekend, there was heavy traffic both on the trail and Route 85 itself.
The first place that we visited was the abandoned garage. Directly across from the Airline Trail State Park parking lot, this building was the oldest of the three and in the greatest state of disrepair. The roof had completely caved in over half of the building, and the entire back wall had been demolished on the other half. Most of the windows had been smashed and there was quite a bit of liter. It was only one floor. There was a section that appeared to be the office and then three garage bays. Though there was no recognizable sign left to distinguish the name of this former business, we did find a few old racing team signs on the ground. Lots of old tires, broken glass, and even an old sink were strewn about outside of the garage. Inside, we found quite a bit of evidence that some sort of large animal, more than likely a pack of stray dogs, has been living inside.
The second place that we visited was a quick walk down the road. It was formerly used as a warehouse antique business. A place that my parents used to shop at, it had only been abandoned for the last fifteen years or so. Since the building was made of brick, it was in relatively good shape aside from the forest of vines and vegetation growing around its sides. Though the one of the side doors was completely missing, most of the windows were still intact. Inside, the warehouse was in remarkably good shape. It was four floors and a basement, each floor has a solid metal staircase leading up to the next. A fire escape was also on the fourth floor. We also found what appeared to be evidence of people still living inside. Even though Hebron is not known for its homeless population, we found a few makeshift beds and a still functioning sink. This was not surprising due to the good condition of the inside, but it was only the second time we have ever found people to still be living in an abandoned place. For this reason, we did not stay very long
Our third and final stop for our investigation was Route 85 Lumber. One of the longest running and most memorable small businesses in the town of Hebron, Route 85 Lumber were known to employ a lot of students from the nearby high school and donate materials for local Eagle Scout projects. It sadly went out of business in 2009. Though it is heavily protected, it now sits empty along Route 85. The office is guarded by security cameras and the doors are all heavily locked up. The lumber yard itself is surrounded by a very tall chain link fence with barbed wire around the top, keeping out any unwanted visitors. Though there was not much to see here, we did see a “For Sale” sign out front with a “Sold” sign placed below it. This was potentially good news for this former small business, as it may become the first abandoned place we have visited to come back.
It is good to see that there is hope for one of these sites. We would like to see it make a comeback. The other two, however, may simply be too far gone. They now serve a different purpose; homes to strays and squatters. Though they were once flourishing businesses, many see them now as nothing more than big eyesores. These three sites now sit alone, silently watching the busy traffic of Route 85 pass them by.
Case Cabin
Posted: November 11, 2014 by Hidden Wonders Photography in Abandoned, Abandoned Cabin, Abandoned Wonders, Cabin, Forgotten, forgotten home, Hiking, lost, ManchesterTags: #postaday, abandoned buildings, abandoned cabin, abandoned wonders, cabin, Case Cabin, exploration, exploring, forgotten, hiking, Manchester, mystery, river
We stumbled upon this while hiking in the woods the other day….
Abandoned Wonders 