The Poconos Honeymoon Capital: Rise and Fall of a Resort Economy

In the nineteen fifties, a young couple from New York or Philadelphia on a limited budget had a few choices for a honeymoon. Miami was a long drive. Atlantic City had the ocean but lacked privacy. The Pocono Mountains of northeastern Pennsylvania, two hours from either city, had something else: resort hotels that catered specifically to newlyweds, offered privacy, offered amenity packages at a price that working-class families could afford, and advertised heavily in the newspapers where young couples were reading the engagement announcements.

By the nineteen sixties and seventies, the Poconos had become the honeymoon capital of the eastern United States. The resorts competed on novelty. Heart-shaped whirlpool bathtubs appeared in the early years of this era. Where exactly the first one was installed is a matter of some dispute in the public record: Cove Haven Resort in Lakeville is the most commonly cited originator, though other Pocono properties have made similar claims and the specific inventor and year are not firmly established in available sources. Champagne-glass jacuzzis, round beds, mirrored ceilings: each resort tried to out-kitsch the others.

The economy held through the seventies and into the eighties, then shifted. Airline deregulation made Florida and the Caribbean accessible for the same price as a Pocono weekend package. The resort infrastructure, built for a specific market that had changed its expectations, aged without the capital to modernize. Properties closed through the nineties and two thousands.

The landscape is still there. The Delaware Water Gap at the southern edge of the region is one of the most beautiful river-gap formations on the eastern seaboard, unchanged. The forests are intact. A few resorts still operate, some with the original amenities restored as retro appeal rather than genuine aspiration. The heart-shaped tubs are mostly gone. What replaced the honeymoon economy is ordinary Pocono tourism: hiking, skiing, casinos, and leaf season.