Harmony House Resort*
A badly deteriorated guest room at the Harmony House Resort.
Updated July 23, 2019 | By Matthew Christopher
The Harmony House Resort was built on land seized from Prussian barons during World War I and subsequently sold to a blouse-makers union in 1919. The union (whose members included survivors of the infamous Triangle Shirtwaist Company fire) found it difficult to manage the 655 acre resort and turn a profit, so they turned it over to the international union several years later. Union members could enjoy dancing, operas, lectures, and performances by popular and classical musicians or canoe and swim in the eighty acre lake. The resort was extremely progressive, not only in terms of labor issues but also women's rights and racial equality. A fire in 1936 destroyed Harmony House, and it was rebuilt only to burn again in 1969, resulting in the destruction of murals by celebrated artist Diego Rivera.
It was a low cost vacation destination that offered a weekly retreat with high class food and service for half of the going rate of other area resorts. It attracted famous visitors like Eleanor Roosevelt, Guy Lombardo, and Glenn Miller and periodically played a role in negotiating union contracts. Harmony House could host 1,200 visitors; as years passed Harmony House went from being a destination for singles to a resort geared towards entire families. In the 1970s overseas production began gutting the garment unions and younger visitors were less inclined to visit the sedate resort. In its final days Harmony House was losing a million dollars a year; Philadelphia garment manufacturers had dwindled from 300 to 30. Numbers were similar elsewhere and union membership had declined to well under half of what it had been during the peak years.
The resort was closed in 1989 and left to rot for a quarter century. The floors were terrible in many of the buildings and the grounds were overgrown. As I wandered through the buildings I wished I had been able to visit the resort during its heyday. It seemed like it would have been a tremendously fun place - Harmony House was the embodiment of the ideal that the American worker deserved a place to vacation in a beautiful environment while the onsite entertainment educated and enlightened them. It seems this party is one my generation and the ones to follow are destined to miss, as the working middle class clientele places like Harmony House were built for is vanishing into the pit of minimum wage service industry jobs that won't offer benefits, let alone vacations. Unions may be a bitter issue in present day politics, but offering community gathering spots like Harmony House to members seems like not only a reasonable goal but a noble one.
Please note that the true name of this location has not been disclosed to prevent theft, vandalism, and arson. Abandoned buildings are vulnerable and I do not want my work contributing to their decline.
Harmony House Resort is a chapter in my book, Abandoned America: Age of Consequences.
Buy a signed copy via this link or get it on Amazon using the link below to read more!
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