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02.22.2011 -- Pines Hotel infomercial online for the first time
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If you were a Pines Hotel alum from the 1980s, it's very possible that you're in this 4-minute infomercial for the Pines! Now available online for the first time, this video was one of a series that was rescued from the abandoned hotel years ago. The VHS tapes that were recovered sat idle in a box for years and were recently uncovered. I hope you enjoy.
Pines Hotel 4-minute infomercial ca. 1980s from AllAbandoned.com on Vimeo.
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01.01.2010 -- Still alive - happy new year!
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We're still around, although the Pines hotel might not be much longer. With each passing year, the Pines decays more and more. Scrappers, vandals, arsonists, and rogue urban explorers trying to steal chaneliers have left the Pines in its worst condition ever. Frankly, there isn't much there to see anymore. What was once a moment frozen in time, a hotel without it's workers and guests, is now just like any other abandoned building. It is barely recognizable. Our focus has shifted. This memorial will remain, but we have been exploring other locations. Just in time for the new decade, I am happy to announce the launch of AllAbandoned.com - our new site for urban exploration photography. To be even more specific, we think visitors to this site will also like to see that we added a few new galleries of pictures that we've been holding back on. The first gallery is the Pines Hotel in the Summer of 2004, and the second gallery is the Pines Hotel in the Fall of 2005. But also of interest to fans of this site is from December 2009 at another popular Borscht Belt hotel. Wishing all the visitors here a happy and healthy new year.
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11.13.2008 -- 2 unsafe buildings removed from Pines Hotel property
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The Times Herald Record ran a story today reporting that the owners of the former Pines Hotel have removed two unsafe outbuildings and have pledged to remove more buildings this year. The Club and Annex buildings are now gone, although more buildings are slated for demolition. However, the article expresses a glimmer of hope: South Fallsburg building inspector Allen Frishman said he doubts the main buildings will come down soon. "They might have interest in keeping and rehabbing them," he said.
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09.02.2008 -- Two (more) charged with looting the former Pines
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The Times Herald Record reported that more suspected copper scrappers were arrested at the abandoned Pines Hotel. According to the story, "Police arrested them late Friday, while they were coming out of the former resort carrying pails full of copper piping."
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06.22.2008 -- Times Herald Record: 'Hotel in ruins'
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The Times Herald Record ran an article recently that clarifies a lot of questions about who owns the Pines Hotel, and features an interview with former owner Jerry Ehrlich, who reflects on his family's legacy at the hotel. The article includes an amusing photo-op of Jerry Ehrlich standing inside the indoor pool area, despite that he was trespassing to pose such a photo. On the potential of a trespassing arrest, a cantankerous Ehrlich said: "I'm an old man. They can come and arrest me if they want."
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03.04.2008 -- More arrests at the Pines
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The Times Herald Record reported that police arrested three men police say were taking copper pipes from the Pines Hotel last week. Fallsburg police found Clemente Garcia, 22, Elit Mota, 21, and Efrain Mota, 19, with copper allegedly taken from two separate buildings. The men were each arrested and charged with two felonies and a misdemeanor. They were sent to Sullivan County Jail in lieu of $25,000 bail. This author hopes they get some piping up their butts while they sit in jail.
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02.12.2008 -- Cliff Ehrlich to manage Empire Resorts & Monticello Gaming
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According to the Times Herald Record, Cliff Ehrlich has been promoted to director of Empire Resorts and Monticello Gaming. While I try not to editorialize, I can't help but think this is beating a dead horse. Tourism has proven to not be a viable and sustainable industry for Sullivan county. Furthermore, casinos tend to cause more problems than they solve, and re-inforce economic disparity. And to take that one step further, I would say Cliff Ehrlich helped drive the Pines into the ground in its final years. Hopefully he won't take all of Sullivan County with him. Sorry Cliff, I loved your hotel, but I'm not so sure about you.
This news comes just in time for today's announcement that Empire Resorts has finalized its $700 million deal to knock down the Concord and build an all new, massive hotel with gambling, a convention center, and golf facilities. Herein lies my distrust of this deal. Cliff Ehrlich drove the Pines into the ground. At the time, the Pines owed Sullivan county about $1 million in unpaid back taxes. They also owed the utility companies money, and really only shut down once the lights were cut. How is it that Cliff Ehrlich couldn't pull together enough to pay his electric bill 10 years ago, but suddenly can secure $700 million in funding for a casino today? Taxpayers of Sullivan: you're about to play a game that you're sure to lose: this guy has already burned you for millions in taxes that he should have paid. Don't trust that this will revitalize a damn thing. This just serves to make the rich richer.
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12.01.2007 -- Police dog a hero in nabbing Pines Hotel burglary suspects
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South Fallsburg - Three men were arrested yesterday morning and charged with breaking into the former Pines Hotel, police said. A K9 named Chase alerted his handler, Sgt. Christopher Pratti, to the burglary at 11:50 a.m., police said. Robert Potter, 27; Alan Macnary, 43; and his 17-year-old son, Alan Macnary Jr., were all charged with possession of burglar tools, a misdemeanor. All three men are from the Kingston area, police said. The men were arraigned and are currently in Sullivan County jail being held without bail.
Read more: Police dog a hero in nabbing Pines Hotel burglary suspects
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08.20.2006 -- The Record Online dept. of obvious reports "Owner of Pines Hotel delinquent in paying taxes"
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The Times-Herald Record ran a blurb on August 13, 2006 by the above title. Here is the text:
The owner of the Pines Hotel has failed to pay local taxes since buying the 96-acre property in 1999, a county attorney said.
Sullivan County is battling with Long Island-based Fallsburg Estates LLC, which filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy several years ago, over $1.8 million in taxes the company owes to the county, the Town of Fallsburg and the Fallsburg School District, said attorney Tom Cawley.
The company has tried to settle with the county, offering much less than half of the $1.8 million, Cawley said. The attorney said that was "not remotely acceptable."
Sullivan County has been consulting with the town and school district over the litigation and fighting on behalf of the two governments.
This week, county legislators agreed to pay an extra $10,000 to a Newburgh law firm for work beyond an existing $15,000 contract with the firm.
The county and Fallsburg Estates will go to trial in October as part of the bankruptcy proceedings. Fallsburg Estates has also been seeking a lower tax assessment in court, Cawley said.
The Pines Hotel has been empty since at least 1999 when the Ehrlich family sold the property.
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06.08.2006 -- Pines resort land eyed for 700 homes
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The Times-Herald Record ran a story on June 2, 2006 by the above title. Here is the text of the article:
June 02, 2006
Pines resort land eyed for 700 homes
By Heather Yakin, Times Herald-Record, hyakin@th-record.com
South Fallsburg – A new owner of land that used to be part of the old Pines resort wants to build single-family homes there. The project includes building just over 700 homes on 364 acres in several phases over several years.
It won’t affect The Pines hotel, but the old golf course and the ski hill and chalet will be gone. The developer plans to build on those parts of the property.
Steve Proyect, who is handling the proposal for buyer Abraham Eisner and The New Pines Villas LLC, said the homes will be geared toward different markets, from families to snowbirds.
Proyect showed a conceptual site plan to the Fallsburg Planning Board two weeks ago, and water and sewer allocations will be decided by the Town Board.
"Now, basically, our work starts to gain approvals," Proyect said. He estimated that it will take 20 to 24 months to break ground.
"It’s going to be a phase project. The market will dictate how long it takes," he said. "Nobody’s looking to put up 700 houses the first year."
Meanwhile, the old hotel is still in limbo. The place has been empty since 1998 when the Ehrlich family sold it to Fallsburg Estates, owned by New York City interests.
The paved drives are cracked and broken, and grass has pushed through the asphalt. Weeds are gradually reclaiming the walks and stairways. Vandals and squatters have picked through the interiors. An arson fire in 2003 claimed the 28-room Carleton building, one of the residential buildings on the hotel property.
The current owners of the of the hotel once planned to rehabilitate the property.
But Allen Frishman, Fallsburg’s code enforcer, said it’s probably too late. There’s been too much water damage. Only the kitchen and dining room, which were rebuilt after a roof collapse a dozen or so years ago, might be salvageable, Frishman said. "But everything else," he added, "is pretty much shot."
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03.01.2006 -- Mailing list now available
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I regularly receive and answer emails from visitors of this site. Because of the sheer number of interested people, I've set up a mailing list so that you can be notified when there is a major update to this site, or there is major news about the hotel. If you subscribe, you will not be contacted for any other reason.
Also, that doesn't mean I want people to stop writing in. I greatly enjoy sharing memories with other people interested in The Pines Hotel. Of course, if you have something that you'd like to share with others, you can always post it on the message board.
[ SUBSCRIBE TO THE PINES HOTEL MAILING LIST ]
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01.21.2006 -- Happy New Year
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This year will mark the 8th year that The Pines Hotel has been closed. I can't believe how quickly time has passed. The years have not been kind to the hotel as many regular visitors here know. Amazingly, the memories never seem to fade. I believe I received more mail in 2005 from former employees, guests, and other interested parties than any previous year. Another thing I received was some incredible photos from D Jordan Berson. Some of his family members were there in 1961, and he's been gracious enough to scan the slide film they brought home on that trip in high resolution so that everyone here could enjoy a trip into the past!
[ SEE THE PINES IN FEBURARY, 1961 ]
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03.30.2005 -- Some updates, just to let you know we're still here!
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Yeah, we're still around. It's kind of hard coming up with fresh new content when your subject matter is an abandoned building. How much news is there, anyway. Well, I filed away some of the photos that were in the What's New section, and added about eighty new photos. Check out the What's New section for more on that.
I have to go back soon! It's been over a year since I've seen the place. I also plan on buying a new camera with my tax return check, so we'll see about that. In the meantime, enjoy the photos.
Sincerely,
-Pete, Webmaster
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05.04.2004 -- We're baaaaaaaaaaaaack!
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After a long hiatus, this site has triumphantly returned! Feel free to click around. There will be more photos coming soon, better organization, more captions, and just more stuff in general! It's good to be back!
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08.20.2003 -- Check out our new discussion area!
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Want to talk about The Pines with other people? Want to share memories with other former guests or employees? Maybe take a chance at finding an old love interest from The Pines? Post in our new discussion area and let's get things going!
[ CHECK OUT THE DISCUSSION AREA ]
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08.19.2003 -- WHAT THE HECK IS GOING ON HERE?!
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This site just blew up! I checked the stats, something I normally do every day, and noticed that I had well over 200 hits, most of them after 4:30-ish. I checked my referrer stats and noticed that I was getting alot of hits from Metafilter.com. Thanks, to whoever linked me from there!
So I updated the site and put up a bunch of new pictures. All of these pictures are user-submitted, and I will attach proper photo credits upon request.
Pictures of the Carlton building after the fire are in this gallery!
[ SEE THE USER SUBMITTED PHOTOS ]
If you like those photos, each of the links on the navigation bar to the left has tons of pictures in it. If you're interested in seeing what the hotel was like, check the 'WHAT'S NEW' page and the 'ARCHIVE' page.
Also, I added a few pictures of The Concorde and The Laurel that were submitted to me. They are available now as well.
[ SEE (a little bit of) THE CONCORDE AND THE LAUREL ]
Once again, thank you to whoever linked me! I owe you a beer. If you're interested, check out my other site which is amusing, whereas this is depressing.
[ YES, I WANT TO BE AMUSED, NOT DEPRESSED ]
Enjoy the site.
Sincerely,
-Pete
Webmaster, The Pines Hotel
pete AT ineedattention.com
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05.31.2003 -- Finally, 80 New Pictures from before the fire
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Ok a few things to clear up --
-> Yes, there was a fire. More on this as I continue my update.
-> There are 80 new pictures, preview them by looking here.
-> If you just want to see all 80 pictures and captions, click here.
Stay tuned as I finish the update.
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04.09.2003 -- OH MY! 30 NEW PICTURES!
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So... I finally got off my lazy ass and added 30 new pictures for all you fanatics. Also, I am visiting the place some time very soon, so you can expect me to bring a ton of film and my video camera. When I first made this site, all I had to work with were a few pictures I had taken with the intention of only showing a few other people. Then, the more I thought about it, I decided I should share the pictures with the world. And so I did, but I had only so many pictures. A few people helped out here and there, and I appreciated it, but external sources of pictures are few and far between. So... When I go up this time, you can guarantee I'll be taking hundreds of pictures.
[ CLICK HERE TO SEE THE NEW PHOTOS ]
Also not that anyone really pays attention to whats going on behind the scenes on this site, but this site is running on a version of my CMS software that is very out of date. Unfortunately, I have to port this site to the new version of the software (which allows much, much greater flexibility than this version). If you want to see how much more fluidity the site will have, check out https://www.INeedAttention.com/. Anyway, have a good week! I'll be back soon with alot more.
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03.26.2003 -- Monthly status update
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Hey yall. I am going back to The Pines in April, it is definite. The primary reason that I haven't been able to add anything to the site is basically, that I had nothing to add. But now, I am going back, armed with my Sony DV Camcorder, my old Olympus SLR camera, and a buttload of keys, maps, and other people. It should prove to be my most productive visit yet (as I will not be intoxicated this time, j/k). I've heard that the harsh Winter that New York experienced this year has not been kind on the old place. One correspondent described in detail the 3" of ice on the floor in the main lobby, and the "raining indoors" that was taking place in the 2nd floor lobby. There have been some very interesting developments recently, but I not completely at liberty to discuss them yet, as they are a combination of speculation and some dumb luck. When something pans out, I will publish the info on the site.
Also, another reason that updates have not taken place recently is that I have been working on coding the PHP scripts that run the site now. You may have noticed over the last few weeks that things have been a little bit buggy. This script, called Dynserve ("DYNamic SERVEr") was originally designed to help me expediently add content. What it ended up doing, unfortunately, was tying me up with bugfixes and traces, and ended up seriously slowing my content development down. But... I actually just finished the core components today! Implementation is quite of arduous, so the new code won't be used probably for another week or so. After this point, the only things left to be coded are a few 'add-in' modules that will really only be used in other sites, such as for log-in only pages, shopping cart functionality (definitely nothing to buy here), 'cup holder' functionality (you'll see), and other really nifty things that you can use PHP for. Anyway, enjoy your visit to The Pines, and we hope that you return soon.
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02.26.2003 -- The Pines has sold out!
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But first, info about the site. An update is coming soon including older pictures and a little bit of commentary.
Expected date of completion: 03.08.2003
In other news, yes, although I am stridently anti-advertising, I have sold out. It's not like I'm gonna rake in dough now, actually, I'm pushing it because I have faith in the company. Vonage is a phone company that for $39.99 a month offers unlimited local and long distance, plus free voicemail, plus free caller ID, call forwarding, hell plus free pretty much everything. The catch? It's VoIP -- so you need a broadband connection. I know, I know, VoIP usually sucks. But Vonage doesn't, so seriously, check it out. Oh, did I mention you can get a number in pretty much any area code you want? Believe me, it's worth looking at. I can't speak highly enough of them.
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02.09.2003 -- We're open for business again!
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Ooh yeah, just tryin on the PHP code to see how it fits.
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01.27.2003
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First update of the New Year. There is no new content yet, but believe me I'm still working on that. Why has there been such a delay? I have more in my life going on than this website unfortunately, but now that I'm getting back into the swing of things, I should be able to update this site again. I actually have spent the last few weeks working on a completely new interface for all of my sites. If you'd like to see what this new interface will look like, check out https://www.ineedattention.com/, which has the first fully functional example of the code that will be used. This new code will drastically decrease the amount of time and effort that I have to spend updating the site, thus enabling me to produce more content more quickly. Also, since some of the pages are growing so large, it might be nice to have thumbnails or a "tour" mode, which this new script will support. One last thing -- my direct email address is going to be taken off the site, and will be replaced by a comment box where you can send me messages. I have received an inordinate amount of spam on this account for some reason, and it has to stop. But anyway, I hope all of the visitors of The Pines Hotel are having a lovely 2003 -- I know that I'm not.
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12.16.2002
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It feels so nice to be back home, away from the hellish world that is Rensselaer. I've completed phase two of my plan to add lots of new content. I'm thinking about changing the color scheme too, but if I do the only change will really be making the background black and the text white. Also, I wasn't kidding many months ago when I said that I would put videos on the site. I'm trying to figure out a way to put old advertisement videos up, but it's a little hard without a video capture card. Fortunately, I can still put all of the videos I captured on my Sony DV Camcorder up on the site, although they may not exactly be high quality since I only get 30MB of space from my host, DigitalRice. Of course, this is where die hard fans of my website offer me space to help relieve the crunch that I'm feeling. ;) Enjoy the pictures.
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12.11.2002
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Well, finals are over for me in a few days, which will assure me plenty of time to finish the update that I started today. There are 50 new pictures coming, to start with, and there will be a new section on the urban exploration aspect of The Pines, with less about the well known and memorable areas and more about the industrial building traits that it exhibits. It'll be fairly small to start, but eventually I'll build it up if there is a good amount of traffic to it. Also if any repeat visitors noticed, I broke up the "What's New" page because I realized that it's going to be getting quite big. Now, the "Recent Updates" page will take it's place and will show only the latest update, and will have a list of older updates which you can then navigate to and see by itself. Well alright, let's get to it.
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11.08.2002
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I reorganized some of the links on the pages to make it easier to navigate around. I noticed that some hits were coming from the pages within the site and from there it might not always be easy to get to what you want to see. Hopefully by moving everything people will be able to explore the page more and thereby traffic will increase.
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11.06.2002
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Just tossed a couple of extra photos up. Check "What's New" to see them.
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10.18.2002
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As luck would have it, I happened to find my video tape that includes footage of my visits to The Pines. Some of the tape I can put up on the site, other parts are pretty poorly filmed and I doubt I'll ever be able to get them to look much better. As always, check back frequently as I update the site about once a week and keep an eye open for the videos.
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10.15.2002
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Two whole weeks without an update. Well guess what we're still alive and kicking. I added 4 new pictures in the archive section thanks to another gracious donation by the talented Carla Rozman. Also, I recieved an email explaining the Hebrew graffiti depicted in the town section. To quote:
"In your segment on the town, there is a picture which shows hebrew lettering
on a wall. This wall is on Route 42 between Kiamesha Lake and Monticello. It
represents a tribute to a very well known Rabbi who lived many many years ago
in a town in Russia. Millions of Chasidim travel to his grave each year
because they believe that if they pray at his grave, they will be rewarded
with good health, long life, and prosperity. His name was Rabbi Nachman of
Breslov (a city in the Soviet Union). Superstition says that tributes to him
begin with abbreviations of his name and that is what is printed on the wall.
It is "Nach Nachma Nachman May-Uman". The last word "May-Uman" means "from
Uman" and it is where he is buried."
Thank you for that, it has been a curiosity that I have been wondering about since I first noticed it two years ago. Incidentally, I was able to find some absolutely FABULOUS pictures that will be included in the next update -- including photos of the honeymoon suites in their heyday! I also happened to find a few shots of The Pines that I meant to add to an update of my old Weird NY site, but obviously forgot about and never got around too including a terrific shot of the extremely bizarre underground tunnel connecting the Marlboro, Carlton, Sheraton, and Dorchester buildings to the area under the indoor pool by the health clubs and boiler facilities. Keep visiting for updates, or, email me at pineshotel@digitalrice.com (use our contact page) and tell me that you want to be kept in the know about new additions to the site! I wouldn't mind emailing you with the all new content so that you didn't have to dig through pages that you've seen numerous times.
One more thing, the pool house by the outdoor pool had always been a mystery to me, but I finally received clarification on it's function. It appears that the pool house served as housing for the pool boys, and also as cabanas for summer use. Anyone have photos inside the rooms here? Let me know!
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09.30.2002
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I received a total of 13 new photos from two internet contributors, Carla Rozman and Rob D., and they are all currently in the archive section. If I continue to get more pictures, I will be forced to split the page into sections, because my website testers have informed me that as it is already it can take almost 5 minutes to load the archive page on a 56K modem. That could be a major problem, and I promise that I will try and consider loading times when I edit the photos and layout the pages. For the time being, it'll remain the way it is. I also fixed a few bizarre HTML quirks that were all over the site.
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09.20.2002
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I have three new photos that were placed in the archive section. Go check them out now!
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09.18.2002
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Check out Microsoft Terraserver's satellite photo of The Pines!
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09.17.2002
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I now have the individual floor maps scanned. These maps indicate exact placements of rooms with specific details about room setups. I am not going to make these public immediately due to the amount of damage that a person with this information could cause. If you want to view these maps, please email me at pineshotel@digitalrice.com (use our contact page) and I will personally arrange to send you the files. Currently, these are the floors covered:
Essex - Floors 1, 2, 3
Hampshire - Floors 1, 2
Main - Floors 1, 2
Regency - Floors 1, 2
Savoy - Floors 1, 2, 3, 4
If you're interested please be prepared to talk to me for a little bit about why :) Just as a sample, I have put just ONE map up on the maps page. Check it out by clicking here.
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09.16.2002
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Thanks to the kindness and generosity of Rob Disner, I have been able to put lots of new pictures up, all in the archive, and the building shots. Check the new pages out because now you can get a much better idea of what the rest of the hotel looked like. Believe me there is still much more to come. Soon enough.
Oh, I almost forgot, check out the general building info page which now includes a map and rooming list.
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09.14.2002
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The "About Us" section and the guestbook have just been added. We have detailed floor maps and some other interesting junk coming. There will be a slight delay on the video while we locate our footage. An old archive video of the "9th Infantry Division 44th Annual Reunion" at The Pines Hotel, dated June 19-23 of 1989, will be coming soon. Some parts are almost disturbing, that's all I will say.
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09.13.2002 - We're in business!
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Well, we are. They're out of business. This page is just more or less a teaser -- I actually have FULL COLOR FULL MOTION HIGH QUALITY VIDEOS COMING SOON! I'm lucky enough to experience the magic produced by combining a Sony DV camcorder and an IEEE (1394) port on the computer. :-) I highly recommend Sony DV camcorders for this very reason. When the video is available on this site, it may at first be low-quality while I resolve web space issues with digitalrice.com. Oh, hey, speaking of digitalrice.com, you really should check them out, I am a member of their premium services and I love it, it's totally worth the $5 a year you have to spend. But come on, $5 a year is nothing. Ok, there's no reason for me to plug them, so just look around and oh yeah -- don't forget to email me! You can reach me at -- you guessed it -- pineshotel@digitalrice.com (use our contact page). E-mail me about anything Pines related that you want to discuss. Submissions, including stories/anecdotes, and pictures will be posted almost for sure so long as they are appropriate, and I will, of course, give the original author proper credit.
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