(All that's left of Pococabana - photo: Chris Francz)
Posted Oct 28, 2008 at 12:01 AM
Q: What ever happened to the Pococabana Lodge? I worked there one summer during high school.
T.S.
Dewey, Ariz.
A: The Pococabana Lodge's main building, which had been the hub of the 28-acre resort in Smithfield Township, burned in April 1973, leaving only the out-buildings standing but operational.
After the fire, the owner of the summer resort had planned to rebuild, but he was unable to reclaim the clientele that the lodge had once served, and business went downhill.
In 1976, the Pococabana became the first motel in the area to show X-rated movies via closed-circuit television. Less than a year later, the movies were abandoned for one of the latest fads — the all-water diet.
The Pococabana name remained listed in telephone books through 1982.
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Note from Chris:
(When my family first moved to the Poconos in 1978 my mother drove me and my brother and sister around a lot to check out things. Pococabana, or what's left of it, looked as it does today. Though no one would call it a "fat farm" today, that's what my mom told me it was in 1978.)
Great pictures. I live in eastburg and just starting checking out the tracks myself!
ReplyDeleteI have so many memories of the Pococabana Lodge when it was in it's glory days. We stayed every summer for a few days or a week. They would round up the guests and put them in the shows, all the food, the misty cool mornings when you could barely see where you were but always burned off while you ate breakfast, warm summer days we spent by the pool and the big wooden diving board my brothers loved to jump from. There was horseback riding, before my time because I don't remember that. But I do remember the story about my father jumping onto a horse and saving a woman whose horse took off dragging her along the ground. There was a man named Jimmy Festa who was in charge of the entertainment and I recall he was quite a character, very feminine and flamboyant. Ping pong, dancing and tennis courts, cold Pocono nights, golf carts that took you down to the main building if you were staying in the upper buildings and the smell of skunk now and then if you walked near the woods. We usually took side trips to waterfalls and other sights. So many memories, so sad the place and the era is gone. We used to have home movies from our time there. I'm pretty sure if I went digging I'd find photos too.
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