Front Desk Keys

You should pirate the place and do your own hotel!
I wonder how much people would pay to stay in an authentic abandoned hotel?

You can check out anytime you like...
but you can't ever leave!
Muwah-ha-ha-ha-ha-haaa!!!

I took one of the keys as a Souvenier,(I hope I spelled that right), I feel this place will all ve gone in a few more years. The "Borscht belt" is a hobby of mine, So I wanted a relic of The Pines

Sadly I still have several of these keys lurking about in my house. Who took these pics and for what reason? Mott, whoever you are, these are some great shots. Thanks for them.

The closest anything in this set comes to being creepy... the rest is just melancholic (but cool as hell).

Was there a room 666?

Did ya'll have sex while ya'll were there? If not why not?
That would have been cooler than a log of shit off the pool that was frozen........you know, no power, no hot water...just a couple of bent up candles, a musky old bed overlooking the lake and.......wham bam thank you Mam!!!!

It's a shame I dont live nearby... as a locksmith I could get him into every room in the complex very easily. If you ever know any places near tampa florida, let me know I'll let you in where ever if you give some credit! :-p

Id pay to stay in there for a night, a night in a long abandoned hotel sounds like a real cool adventure and an excuse to steal some hotel souveniers without getting them charged to my credit card like all hotels today do if you steal a towel, etc.

......

Please don't steal from these places, the remants of what's been left behind helps make them what there are.

People will take what they want and do not care

S

Why not take things from abandoned hotels that are eventually just gonna get torn down anyway.

Well, I guess that would fall under the category of a "conscience" question, 'specially since it technically belongs to someone else at this point.

It would be like someone coming into your home if you left it w/o any reason and taking what they want. I agree with Lynne

Skye

Face it, eventually the hotel will be torn down sooner or later, so why not grab a phone, a set of keys, a light fixture, or even that heart shaped tub that will all just get smashed and scooped up into a dumpster. Therefore what does it matter if someone takes them. If the "owners" cared about any of this stuff, they wouldnt just leave it there in a decaying building like that.

Hmm... Put it all on Ebay! L-O-L!

Id buy stuff from the pines if someone put it on e-bay.

Someone should go in and snag some stuff from there and put it on E-bay, Id buy it. I wish I had time to go myself, according to my Cadillac's GPS system, its about 3 hours away from me.

haha no room 666.i think they cut off right before that.trust me i checked :)

I just ran an eBay search and there are a lot of Pines items on there. Cadillac GPS system? Anyone who wanted to find the Pines could run a Google search without using a GPS system. You sound like my dad every time he uses his Escalade's OnStar to get directions to a place that's around the corner. haha

When I ran a pines seach on ebay, all I found were postcards. Hey GPS systems are fun to use, you dont have to stop for directions, pull over to read a map, just listen for the voice commands. I dont have an escalade though, I have a 20 yr old Sedan Deville

so which room did you two hop into??

I work for a demolition Co in N.J. and if we were to knock down the pines everything will go to the landfill. What i am trying to say is call the tax office in fallsburg and find out who owns the land now. Call up the owners and ask them if you can take some items. I;m sure they would not mind

I dont know where this is located but would love to go through it and photograph it. Yes I would take some items for myself, but would never sell them. Its just so sad when you see what is left behind and it will be thrown out.

I believe in preserving the past.

What the owners should do is have a $20 per carload sale- take all you can fit in your car for $20, bring tools, and the owners would make a fortune and collectors would leave happy with many new items for their collections

That's a great idea. I wonder how difficult it would be to find out who the current owners are. Sometimes it's harder than it looks to contact the owners of property that is no longer in use. I guess the only concern they would have is liability if anyone got hurt when they were removing the items they wanted, but I don't know how that works.

Not sure how the laws differ by state. Here in NE, if someone is injured while trespassing on your land, you are liable, even though they are breaking the law. Of course, if you "accidentally" shoot them while out hunting, well, that's a different story! :D

Lynne -- here in the State of Maryland, if you are looking for the owners of a certain property, you can contact the Department of Tax and Assessments by the internet, plug in the address of the property, and they provide you with the owner's name and mailing address.

If you zoom this picture in, it looks like the set of keys in slot 642 say 666 on them.

Speaking of 666, I'm posting my comments on: 06-06-06---ugh.

"Why not take stuff? After all, it's only going to get torn down and thrown out someday..."

By that same logic anyone could come into YOUR house and take YOUR shit. After all, it's just going to get torn down and tossed out eventually anyway, right?

Stealing is stealing, people, and don't try to justify your actions with twisted logic.

Its the truth, not twisted logic, abandoned buildings get torn down. So therefore taking items from them is not wrong

Except that you're wrong -- Motts has visited several places that are in fact getting renovated and/or restored. Yes, in most of these cases the abandoned places are destroyed, but in some they are saved... thus your initial premise is faulty.

Stealing is wrong, no matter what.

I do not believe that stealing things from abandoned buildings is wrong. If you try to get the stuff as while they are renovating, some dumb security guard or worker on a power trip with nothing better to do tells you to get out of the dumpster because "Its just not allowed" or "Because you'll get hurt and sue us"

looks like something right out of silent hill 2!

I believe in taking souvenirs. And for everyone who thinks stealing is wrong, what are your views on trespassing?! You have to trespass before you can take anything (even a picture).

If I ever make it to The Pines, I'll be sure to take something and something for you too, JLP. :)

The owners of The Pines owe more than 1.8 million dollars in taxes. I think taking a doorknob is no big deal.

Homeless person's dream

Thanks Nauseous, see im not the only one who thinks that everything in this hotel is an item that no one could possibly miss and even if, woud anyone god honestly care? More than likely the place is going to be torn down or redeveloped and it would all be thrown into a guarded dumpster since theyd be afraid of someone suing them if they got in there and got a little paper cut

just went into a box of crap and dug out my old staff room key (circa 1982) with the same green key tag shown in the photo.

hey guys... in refrence to who owns this it is a company out of the city mainly heisuitc jewish. they are in big trouble with the state and owe about 5 million in taxes on the property and will not answer any questons about the property... but dont steal from the pines

I certainly would NOT take the key to room 237.

why not, a hobo live in there

I realize how tempting it is to take things from abandoned property but if everyone took something it would make the pictures a lot less interesting.

I agree with Melissa, I think that is the argument here...Sure, these buildings will be torn down and probably a lot of things will be put into the dumpster...but in the meantime it makes a place a lot less interesting the more things that are taken...because it ruins the "just like everyone up and left feeling..." that we all so enjoy here...And also great photographs for people like Motts to Take...
I have struggled with this dilemma myself, when I have explored abandoned buildings...especially since I am an artist...and I often see things that I would love to use in my projects...I lean to the side of not taking things...but often when I come back...the thing that I didn't take was taken or otherwise destroyed by someone else...
But there certainly is a difference between taking things "just for the hell of it..." As many people do and brag about it...(as some sort of macho power trip) and taking something for to reuse...or salvage...although I don't condone either...I don't think that there is any cut and dried answer here...(and there often isn't)
I think the question is: Would we like to continue to be able to explore these places and see them for what they were and are, or would we rather take things in the idea of recycling, or senseless destruction, ego building???
...
Often, I find that people take or break things just to brag to their friends to say that they did it...not that i am saying anyone here is doing that, but I got some pretty heated emails when I commented on some videos of people blowing up Byberry with sticks of dynamite...and some kid throwing slate roof tiles off of Danvers...somehow I came out to be wrong for voicing my opinion, and they didn't understand why I would question them on their right to destroy old buildings...
Needless to say, I was very angry, because many of these buildings are being torn down, vandalized, or are increasingly hard to get into...At least those angry people live on the East Coast and can visit those places anytime they liked...and maybe took them for granted...while I am on the opposite of the country...and have to suffice with seeing pictures of what is now gone...
I wish that I was born a generation before, because then I would have had the privelege of visiting Danvers, Byberry, or other places that I really wanted to, and now I never will...
It makes me sad really...

my questions been answed thanks

Fishsunderwear: It does look like the key says 666! Any comments, Motts?

the key in the 642 spot looks like its reads "666"!!!

Perhaps it is a moot point , but hotel and motel and boatel keys are notorious for walking away yet you never hear about it.
Doesn't seem to make any difference.




There ARE some things I did NOT take from businesses I worked at that closed down twenty years ago and I am still kicking myself for it today.



you can't take it with you

This picture give me that same recurring feeling of here today....gone tomorrow. Great shot.

JLP, congratulations on your mastery of situational ethics. Boo.

[muffled chortles of silently shaking giggles]

ah boo yourself

i think this picture is incredible, u dont see many buildings with as much orginal furniture (and keys) still in the place they were left the day the building shut down

Okay, just since everyone is fussing over the Rm. 666 key - the shelf above it is 630, the 666 key is in the 642 box - a difference of 12 , so there are 12 boxes between rows; the 666 key should have been put directly two rows down.

i want the key to the freakin heart tub honeymoon sweet ... LMAO! ( ... just the key tho, not the room)

Yeah the Key for room 631 is no longer in that slot, Its currently on my key chain as a token of remembrance of the trip there. I figured since it was an Abandoned Hotel it wouldnt be missed

i know this sounds really lame, but i collect random keys and constantly wonder what they were used to open.

i would have taken them all. (:

why would they leave all of the keys behind?

yeah i didnt see any keys back in june 08 when we went up

I beleve that the pines should be refurbished
and re opend as a hotel. besides the place
looks beautyful decaying or not.

Zach:

I am with you on that..if a part of the Pines could be preserved and another area could be opened again for guests and reunions it would be so great! We could save a small piece of what is so important to so many of us that stayed at Pines all those years ago! The memories will always live!

Freaking bizarre that even the keys are still there.

did you take the keys?

I had a collection of those keys from all the times I stayed there for our state convention. We all soon learned that some keys fit several rooms or if you stayed in the rooms in the hallway to the

oops-damn laptop-anyway i was saying, if you were staying in the rooms in the hallway to the Regency section a good hip-check would open any door. They weren't solid doors anyway-louvered like closet doors!

For what it's worth throwing my 2 cents into the souvenir debate, I once "salvaged" bits from an old, delapitated and very historic building here in Memphis (a brick from the garden and a large paint chip that were laying on the ground) when I sneaked in to photograph. It turned out the owners had never saved anything like these things and they ended up being the only articles of such left. I have preserved them with care and love and respect, saddened by the apathy for the incredible history this particular place held. When my daughter's older she'll have them and can do what she sees fit with them. Hopefully, she will get out of them what I and others do... the occasional moment of appreciation rememberance and curiosity. Not apathy or profit.

Well at least those who took the keys from this place have something to testify its existence to future people,since it doesnt seem like whomever tore it down bothered to salvage anything from it