This is for the contest for the abandoned "Commercial/Industrial" contest ! #aswcontest
The Hotel Sterling in Wilkes-Barre, Pa was built in 1897 Wilkes-Barre and the area at the time was a major mining source for coal which made it a prospering area (Unlike today).
Here is one of the few shots I have of the hotel before demoltion
The Hotel Sterling was an extravagant hotel with 175 rooms, a beautiful ballroom, and many other banquet areas. It is said that the hotel started to have financial troubles during the great depression. After WW2, gas became a competitor of coal, and then finally in 1959, the Knox mining disaster ended much of the coal mining in the area. The hotel, tried different tactics, like private apartments, dorms for 2 local universities, but nothing could keep it running. The Hotel closed in 1998, and was left to rot. In 2002 a company received 6 million to start with renovations- basically they said they fixed the roof and all of the 'rooms' were gutted to the brick. After many years- it finally had to come down. What was thought to be a multi week/month demolition actually took 5 days.
Here are views of the Ballroom:
One of the banquet rooms:
Main Stairway Looking up:
Main Stairway Looking down:
One of the nicer views from the upper floors:
Now the sad part Demolition time:
I walked into some architecture firm to get this shot, did what I had to do and left (as I heard some important guy say "How did he get through here?"
Last wall standing:
Now if you want to see what's there now, almost 5 years later, close your eyes and think of an empty unpaved lot with nothing on it...