The Heart-Shaped Tub
at Hotel of Horror
The heart-shaped tub is a piece of Pocono hospitality history, reimagined here as a complimentary amenity photo experience inside the Hotel of Horror.
For generations,
Pocono resorts turned hotel rooms into destinations of their own-
places built around escape, romance, celebration, and memory.
That idea feels right at home in a historic hotel that has been welcoming guests since the 1890s
and frightening them since 1990s.
So climb in, take the picture, and add your own memory to the story.
The Heart-Shaped
Photo Op at
Hotel of Horror
At Hotel of Horror, the heart-shaped tub is meant to be used, not simply looked at.
Guests are invited to climb in, pose with friends, partners or family, and create a photograph that feels completely different from the usual
haunted house snapshot.
The setting gives you room to make it romantic, ridiculous, theatrical, spooky or entirely your own, which is exactly the point.
Share the photo, tag
@hotelofhorror
and use
#hotelhorrorheart
so the image becomes part of a growing collection of memories made at the Hotel.
Years from now,
the photograph may matter for the same reason the old Pocono resort pictures still do:
Because it captures who you were with, where you were, and one strange memorable night you decided to climb into a heart-shaped tub at a haunted hotel.
The History of the Heart-Shaped Tub
Long before the heart-shaped tub became
a punch line, a souvenir photograph or an instantly recognizable piece of retro Americana,
it was a remarkably clever idea about what a hotel stay could be.
A Heart-Shaped Piece of Pocono History
In 1963, Cove Haven resort owner Morris B. Wilkins introduced the now iconic "Sweetheart Tub" at his couples resort on Lake Wallenpaupack.
The earliest versions were substantial handmade creations – formed from concrete that was shaped into a heart and covered in brilliant red tile.
Instead of treating the bathroom as something purely functional, the tub made the room itself part of the experience.
The timing could hardly be better. The Pocono Mountains were already becoming one of America's great honeymoon destinations.
Within driving distance of New York, Philadelphia and much of the Northeast, the region offered generations of couples a place to disappear for a few days among lakes, mountains, and resorts increasingly designed around romance and escape. The heart-shaped tub gave that era an image.
Other Pocono resorts embraced the idea, and soon hearts appeared everywhere – from tubs and beds to mirrors, windows and entire room designs.
By the early 1970s, images of the famous red tubs had traveled far beyond
northeastern Pennsylvania.
National media attention helped turn them into a symbol of the Poconos reputation as the
"Honeymoon Capital of the World."
What began as one unusual hotel amenity grew into an entire style of hospitality:
playful, extravagant, theatrical, and completely unafraid of being memorable.
The region would eventually produce even more elaborate creations, including towering champagne-glass whirlpools, but the simple red heart remains the image that defined the era.
There is something wonderfully sincere beneath all that kitsch.
These rooms were designed around the belief that, where you stayed could become part
of what you remembered.
People photographed themselves in the tubs because the tub was not merely plumbing -
it was proof that they had gone somewhere unusual together.
Decades later, those photographs have become little time capsules:
hairstyles, clothes, anniversaries, honeymoons, friendships, and couples preserved
inside an unmistakably Pocono heart.
That is why one belongs at the Hotel of Horror.
Our story is different, but the instinct is familiar.
The Lake House Hotel welcomed travelers for generations
before monsters ever occupied its rooms,
and for more than three decades, as the Hotel of Horror, people have continued
to come through these doors looking for an experience outside the ordinary.
Different errors have defined the extraordinary differently.
For one generation it might have been a red heart shaped bathtub in a honeymoon suite.
For another, it may be spending an October night wandering through
five floors of a haunted Victorian hotel.
So we have given this little piece of Pocono history another life.
Climb in. Take the photograph.
Be romantic, ridiculous, spooky or completely yourself.
Bring your friends, your partner, your family – or whoever happened
to share this strange night with you.
Years from now, the heart may not be the most important thing in the picture.
The people beside you will be.
The Rules of Engagement
This heart has been made to be used.
Climb in, strike a pose, and make the photograph your own -
romantic, ridiculous, spooky, or somewhere in between.
Enter and Exit Carefully.
The tub is a playful photo op, but not a playground.
One Small Group at a Time.
Give everyone room to pose safely.
No Standing on the rim or climbing on the display.
Keep drinks, food, and loose items out of the tub.
Be mindful of other guests waiting behind you.
Take your photos, have your moment, then let the next memory be.
Share it with us.
Tag:
@hotelofhorror
Use:
#hotelhorrorheart
Your photo can become part of the Hotel's growing collection of memories.
From the Heart of the Hotel:
Why the Heart is Here
Within Me.
Different eras. Different hotels. Same mountains.
The heart-shaped tub became famous because the Poconos never treated a hotel room
as simply a place to sleep.
Here, hospitality became part of the story.
Hotels created places for people to celebrate, escape, laugh, fall in love
and return home with something worth remembering.
The rooms themselves became part of the memory,
sometimes as important as the mountains outside them.
I understand this.
Long before my rooms upstairs became home to monsters and mayhem,
they welcomed travelers for more than 90 years.
And for more than 30 years as the Hotel of Horror,
people have continued to come through my doors together.
I have watched friends return year after year.
Those who first came here, frightened with their parents
have returned years later as adults,
bringing someone new through the door beside them.
I have watched couples make me part of their romantic traditions.
Wedding parties have paused beneath my roof for photographs.
I have watched marriage proposals unfold within my walls –
here in my queue line, and even in the rooms above you,
in the middle of the haunted journey.
I remember more than the screams.
Halloween may be what brings many of you through my doors today,
but the scares are not always what you take home.
Sometimes it is the laughter –
that rare feeling of forgetting yourself long enough to play again.
Sometimes it's the person walking beside you.
Sometimes it is the photograph that quietly becomes proof of who you were,
who was beside you, and a night you did not yet know you would miss.
Not because a heart-shaped tub belongs in a haunted house,
Although I feel it does.
Because it belongs to our home: the Poconos.
It belongs to a chapter of this region's history,
when hotels understood that hospitality could be
theatrical, playful, romantic, and unforgettable.
I understand that, too.
For more than a century, people have crossed my threshold,
looking for something beyond the ordinary.
More than 13 decades have passed,
and every one of them has defined the extraordinary differently.
The reasons have changed just like the seasons.
The memories have not.
The heart shaped tub belongs to another chapter of Pocono history...
Now, for a little while, I am holding that chapter open here.
For you.
Each year we continue celebrating the fall and Halloween season- now included- an outrageous hat tip to our
Pocono Mountains regional history alongside the honoring of our own actual history at The Lake House Hotel in Saylorsburg, Pennsylvania.
The heart-shaped tub is a complimentary amenity for the guests of the Hotel of Horror Haunted House.
A playful photo-op experience awaits while you linger in line anticipating your interactions with the ghouls in your near future.
The actual tub itself is authentic Pocono heritage,
once enjoyed at Strickland's Mountain Inn, Paradise Township, Pennsylvania.
It was later bought at auction by a couple who had honeymooned there... they then turned it into a Koi Pond in their garden.
They don't build them like they use too is a frequent catch phase you may hear in the off-season at the old hotel
with all our antiques and vintage splendor. But especially for the heart-shaped tub.
Our serial numbered piece of romantic kitsch cleaned up nearly to perfection
- the few scratches on the bottom must have occurred from the high heels of the 70's.
Our featured scene has been designed around the original concepts discovered through historical research on the subject,
however ours is a strategic collision of mid-century modern meets goth.
We have included a skirted facade around the tub that compliments our recognizable queue line black and white stripes.
We were able to obtain a black and white tile that is reminiscent of mid-century modern starbursts.
We feature a heart shape mirror on the vine covered ceiling above the tub.
The scene is framed by columns as many of the original settings also contained this grand visual, however we have custom embellished ours.
The columns flanking our tub are painted to emulate the beloved Victorian Era painted ladies-
the multi-colored detailed porches found on those grand dwellings.
We have also included a custom gold pattern overlay that contains mid-century star bursts,
blends of Victorian Damask, and swans.
Why swans you may ask? Well for one, swans would certainly be found in mid-century decor,
BUT the swans here are actually another hat tip to our own Lake House Hotel history.
Our old haunted hotel once featured wooden swan boat rides on Saylor's Lake-
its first tourist attraction.
We have never forgotten this fun fact- you may have noticed we have always included swan decor throughout the attractions because of this.
We welcome you to hop in the tub- be silly, be romantic, be spooky, be yourself-
or step out and be outrageous in the spirit of the season.
The season will swiftly change, and so will you-
the memories will remain.