Heart-shaped tubs going from hotels and into homes
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A promotional image of a heart-shaped tub at Cove Haven, one of two remaining love hotels in the Poconos, where honeymooners once flocked by the thousands.
PHOTO: COVE POCONOS RESORTS/NYTIMES
Josh Ocampo
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UNITED STATES – The sight was anything but romantic.
Heart-shaped tubs littered the carpark of Pocono Palace Resort, one of the last remaining honeymoon getaways in the Pocono Mountains of Pennsylvania.
“They’d all been torn out of the rooms,” said Ms Savannah Rose, 39, who learnt that the tubs were for sale when she saw a Facebook post. “A lot were scuffed or chipped from use and removal.”
Ms Rose, an event director at a Poconos music venue, found one with nary a scratch and paid US$800 (S$1,070) for it.
While interior design and decor are a matter of what is trending and personal preference – grey floors, earth tones – the heart-shaped tubs were rarely considered tasteful. But many Americans were wooed by their tackiness.
To understand how heart-shaped bathtubs went from kitsch to cringe and ended up in a carpark, look at the evolution of romance in the United States.
Many young couples once flocked to the Pocono Mountains in search of privacy and romance.
Around the time the country joined World War II, and millions of men between the ages of 18 and 45 were forced to register for the draft, couples rushed to the altar.
In 1945, likely sensing the financial opportunities in the honeymoon market, Mr Rudolf Von Hoevenberg opened the first love hotel, The Farm On The Hill, in the Poconos – an area ripe for resorting with its proximity to New York City and Philadelphia.
Other hoteliers soon followed suit. In 1958, Mr Morris Wilkins, an electrician and submariner, and his business partner Harold O’Brien bought an 18-room hotel along Lake Wallenpaupack and renamed it Cove Haven. They marketed it as a couples-only resort, adding facilities such as a nightclub and an indoor skating rink.
In a promotional image, a vintage brochure promoting the heart-shaped tubs at Cove Haven.
PHOTO: COVE POCONOS RESORTS/NYTIMES
Perhaps Mr Wilkins’ most famous invention was the “sweetheart tub” in 1963. The tub proliferated in hotels across the country, coinciding with the sexual revolution, among other influences.
After selling Cove Haven to Caesar’s World of Las Vegas, Mr Wilkins would help open two other love hotels in the area, including Pocono Palace.
In the late 1990s and early 2000s, Americans were falling out of love – at least with marriage. From 1982 to 2009, marriage rates almost steadily declined, before stabilising between 2009 and 2017, and then hitting a record low in 2018.
The marriage rate would again hit a record low in 2020, largely because of the Covid-19 pandemic. The rate climbed back up in 2022, with delayed weddings taking place.
A heart-shaped tub that once welcomed honeymooners to one of the many love hotels in the Poconos, now installed in the Michigan home of Corey and Margaret Bienert.
PHOTO: MARGARET BIENERT/NYTIMES
Unsurprisingly, love hotels also fell out of favour. Today, two love hotels in the Pocono Mountains remain: Cove Haven and Paradise Stream.
Some guests are there to document the retro furniture for social media. Others are there for nostalgia of another kind.
“You’re dealing with a lot of much, much older people who had their honeymoon in the 1960s, 1970s,” said Ms Carlotta Champagne, a model who has been a guest at the love hotels. “They go back once a year, just to rekindle romance.”
Until 2024, guests could experience a romantic night inside a special suite at Pocono Palace for roughly US$400, breakfast included.
A 2.1m whirlpool in the likeness of a champagne glass stood in the living room. To enter the pool, one had to ascend a carpeted staircase, which also led to a sauna and a bedroom. The bedroom contained a round king-size bed and a mirrored ceiling, and overlooked an heart-shaped indoor swimming pool.
“It changed my life,” said Ms Margaret Bienert, 34, who stayed in the room in 2018 with her husband, Corey. At the resort, the Bienerts, who own a production company, participated in a karaoke contest and swam in the champagne glass whirlpool. “It felt like this untouched landscape of just magic.”
For their 10th anniversary, the couple renewed their vows in front of the oversize champagne glass in 2021. They loved the resort so much, they began writing a book and launched a video project, documenting kitsch and themed hotels across the country.
In May, the Bienerts were among the heartbroken who learnt that the hotel was closing. Cove Pocono Resorts announced that it was selling the 50-year-old resort. The new owner bought it for over US$17.8 million. Online sleuths speculate that the hotel might be converted into a wellness or yoga retreat.
Then the tubs went up for sale, giving former guests and others the chance to take an iconic piece of the hotel. NYTIMES
