Some places cling onto the emotions of the people who passed there. Some remnant of ourselves is left behind, and others can sometimes sense their misery. Places with fond memories give us comforting feelings of home and safety. But places with a darker history can give us an overwhelming feeling of dread as we step into them. This is how I would describe the feeling of setting foot onto the 143 acres of land once called the Sunrise Hill Resort. The air is heavy and far too quiet, an oppressive gloom hangs in the air, and the ground is sour from the emotion absorbed here.
Ted Hilton, a former taxi cab driver in New York City, founded the Sunrise Hill Resort in the early 1920's. He had created a family friendly environment and an affordable vacation spot. For decades the resort was popular and thrived from the draw of lakeside cabins, a swimming pool, tennis courts, basketball, shuffleboard, outdoor games, and hiking. But by the 1950's with the rise of technology and more extravagant vacations becoming affordable to the working class, the resort saw a decline in popularity. With fewer and fewer people visiting the resort, the cabins became shabby and dilapidated, the pool was rarely cleaned, and the entire property was said to have a musty smell like rotting wood.
The owner's mental health declined and he was known to frequently make comments about suicide, but none of his friends or family took the comments seriously. That is, until May 4th, 1957 when a maintenance worker found the body of Ted Hilton in the small parking garage at the resort between four trucks that were all running. Hilton had left his home at roughly 5:30 a.m. that morning and had driven to the resort, parking in the garage with three other vehicles before starting the ignition in each of them. With the doors sealed and the four vehicles running, the carbon monoxide fumes built up. When Ted Hilton was found the next morning, he was pronounced dead at the scene.
That depression and desolation he felt remains, as though seeped into the very soil he had built his life upon. Those sensitive to residual energy and emotions should steer clear of the property, since it can leave one with a heavy feeling similar to what Ted Hilton was probably feeling before taking his life.
The property itself still has a few buildings standing. The tennis courts are still surrounded by a rusty metal fence, the basketball and shuffleboard courts are overgrown with plant life but still present, but the lakeside cabins were demolished after being left in ruin at the mercy of the elements.
I personally wouldn't recommend visiting, since I was deeply affected by the negative energy of the sour grounds. But for anyone who does decide to visit, guard yourself well against the dark cloud hanging over the property. The Sunrise Hill Resort will soon be reclaimed by nature, and with it hopefully the memory of the dark history of the resort will too rot away into the soil that bore it.
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