The last couple of places I visited at the old PTL/Heritage USA site were the convention center and the "Upper Room". The last time I'd seen the convention center, the roof had partially collapsed and the interior of the building was full of water. Since then, someone with lots of money has come through and renovated the place. And they've seemingly done a pretty good job of it.
The facade looks okay, and there's new glass in all of the doors and windows. Maybe they're actually going to use the place again. One has to wonder what it was like in the great days of Jim and Tammy with all of the comings and goings and millions of people flocking through. Oy.
The convention center as it looks today. Not too bad for the neglect it suffered for so long. The parking lot is about the only decrepit part of it--cracked and weedy and looking forlorn. 
The waiting area for the tram that will never arrive. This, too, looked to have been renovated a bit in recent years. Or maybe it's just been relatively dry and free of well-deserved rot. 
No comment. 
The guard rails along this road that runs around the convention center are almost completely rotted away. Whole sections were missing. I should have gotten out of my truck and taken a photo of the road itself--pocked and strewn with the accumulation of years of compacted leaf litter. 
And then it was off to "the Upper Room"! Now, this was the weirdest place of them all! Outwardly, it looks to be in fairly good repair. But that's misleading, once you get up close and take a good look. Then you notice how it's going south. 
The walkway had these paving stones adjacent to it. Each of them had some Biblical quote etched into it. This one, in retrospect, was pretty much waaaaaaaay the fuck off the mark. 
Off center of the Upper Room a little was this sculpture of Pontius Pilate and entourage condemning Jesus Christ to death. I don't know who did this thing, but he sucks. The figures are crude and stiff. Someone must have done it for free. Looks like a high school nudnick did it. 
Pontius Pilate with cabbage leaves or something on his noggin. 
Jesus also complete with cabbage leaves on his head and additional crown of--ten penny nails??! With clueless centurion in attendance. 
Someone stole the centurion's javelin! 
What? Don't look at me! (Said the evil priest with cabbage leaves stuck to his face.) 
Part of a covered walkway leading to a door in the Upper Room. Looks like either the wind or someone swept it out recently.
This was in a little alcove. Not sure what that is in the pot--socks? Underwear? Rag? Hanky? (Ick.) 
Stair leading away from the alcove. You can see the plaster flaking away as weather works at the structure. If they don't tear it down, Mother Nature is going to do it for them. 
Another alcove at the bottom of the Upper Room. It was packed with leaves--at least one season's worth.
The absolute weirdest thing about the Upper Room. It looks as if there's actually some dude buried there!!! Some guy named Aubrey Sara. When he got planted there, they probably figured this was going to be some kind of shrine forever and ever and ever. How wrong they were. Looks like someone comes here occasionally to sweep off the concrete bricks over the grave site and pull up the weeds. Needs another weeding, I'd say. 
Closeup of the plaque above the grave, complete with "No Trespassing" sign. The word "love" or a variation of it appears four times in the first four lines of the plaque. Guess the dude was jam-packed with love.
Some years ago, in this part of the Carolinas, there was a religious scam going down. Its popular name was "the PTL CLUB". Begun and operated by a couple of scumbags, it grew and thrived until it had become a 2400-acre theme park that rivaled the Disney operations in total attendance. The place was enormous and the growth potential was limitless, for there seemed to be an endless supply of clueless rubes whom the operators found only too easy to frisk of their hard-earned pesos.
Alas!Finally, the poorly constructed house of lies came to pieces. Like Bernie Madoff's theivery, the instigators were caught in the act and everything came crashing down. The outfit proved to be a tremendous Humpty-Dumpty, and even Jerry Falwell (whose jaws no doubt slavered at the thought of that wealth) couldn't put it back together. Neither could Morris Cerullo. The entire operation and all of that vast acreage fell into receivership. Some Asian gentlemen bought it all up for a song, and there it lay fallow for years, most of the place just wasting away into ruins.
The last time I'd been there, was in the company of authors Rick Hautala and James Morrow. That had certainly been an interesting trip, as at the time the PTL facilities had pretty much reached their apex of deterioration. Everywhere we looked the parking lots were jutting with weeds. Buildings were coming apart. Roofs were collapsed from lack of repair and water filled the buildings on which we spied through dark and smeared and shattered windows.
Today, I went back for another look. Much of the damage has been repaired, although many of the landmark buildings are still wasting away to the elements. But huge swaths of the 2400 acres are now filled with subdivisions. Those Asian gentlemen who had bought the land at such a reduced price seem to have done quite well for their small investment. I'd heard that they were Christians, but there's a certain kind of justice to think that some of those profits might end up in Buddhist temples. Who knows?At any rate, here are some interesting photos that I took on my brief journey through the old grounds of Heritage USA, aka The PTL Club. HAHA!
These are the towers that really got Jim Bakker in trouble. Apparently he'd oversold the condo units here. Like some kind of real-life Max Bialystok and Leo Bloom he'd sold several hundred per cent of the joint! HAW! HAW! HAW!
This place was really, really weird. It was an amphitheater where the rubes would go to watch the "Passion Play". When I saw it last, the part that's all red clay and brush was a twisted representation of what the builders saw as Jesus-era Jerusalem. It wasn't accurate, of course, but it fit the bill for the average idiot who attended these "plays". For some reason, the city part of the structure has already been demolished, so all that remains is the boarded up box office and the stadium-style seating. Adjacent to the ruins is a ramshackle time-share campground.
This was something called "The Upper Room". Sorry, I'm not a devout Fundie, so I don't know the origin of that term. It means nothing to me. This place was probably the strangest of all the places where I stopped for photos. I'll post details on just why when I get around to the small stuff tomorrow.
One place that I didn't see was "Kevin's House". I just didn't have time to look for it. Kevin's House was a big, rambling structure that had been built, ostensibly, for a hideously deformed young person whose name was Kevin and whom the founders of PTL had milked for all he was worth. People would get one look at the pitiful tyke and empty their savings account into the PTL Club coffers. I'm not sure what the theives had planned for that house once its initial use was done, but I'm sure it was for nefarious purposes.
I also didn't go to see the area once called "Main Street USA", because it's in use again by a religious organization, and I just didn't want to encounter any of those folk. But not too long ago that place, too, was in ruins, and I'm sure it would have made for some interesting photographs. Now, though, I wasn't keen on taking a look at it.
This spot was really creepy. It reminded me of that abandoned amusement park that used to be in Salt Lake City (the Saltair). That Utah spot had been used as a location shot and it featured prominently in the classic Herk Harvey indie film CARNIVAL OF SOULS. This building reminds me of the one from that 1962 film, and it is all that remains of the old Heritage USA water park. All of the pools and water slides and such have been bulldozed and demolished. Other than this decrepit "castle", all that's left of the old water park is a huge empty lot full of weeds and red clay. HAHA!
Tomorrow, I'll post shots and comments on some of the really creepy stuff that I noticed upon closer inspection of the area. (Shudders!)
Here's a link to a very cool short horror film directed by Mark Steensland, based on a short story by Keelan Patrick Burke, and screenplay by my old pal Rick Hautala. So go take a look for a quick chill!
PS: This is, apparently, my 500th blog post.
The convention center as it looks today. Not too bad for the neglect it suffered for so long. The parking lot is about the only decrepit part of it--cracked and weedy and looking forlorn. 
The waiting area for the tram that will never arrive. This, too, looked to have been renovated a bit in recent years. Or maybe it's just been relatively dry and free of well-deserved rot. 
No comment. 
The guard rails along this road that runs around the convention center are almost completely rotted away. Whole sections were missing. I should have gotten out of my truck and taken a photo of the road itself--pocked and strewn with the accumulation of years of compacted leaf litter. 
And then it was off to "the Upper Room"! Now, this was the weirdest place of them all! Outwardly, it looks to be in fairly good repair. But that's misleading, once you get up close and take a good look. Then you notice how it's going south. 
The walkway had these paving stones adjacent to it. Each of them had some Biblical quote etched into it. This one, in retrospect, was pretty much waaaaaaaay the fuck off the mark. 
Off center of the Upper Room a little was this sculpture of Pontius Pilate and entourage condemning Jesus Christ to death. I don't know who did this thing, but he sucks. The figures are crude and stiff. Someone must have done it for free. Looks like a high school nudnick did it. 
Pontius Pilate with cabbage leaves or something on his noggin. 
Jesus also complete with cabbage leaves on his head and additional crown of--ten penny nails??! With clueless centurion in attendance. 
Someone stole the centurion's javelin! 
What? Don't look at me! (Said the evil priest with cabbage leaves stuck to his face.) 
Part of a covered walkway leading to a door in the Upper Room. Looks like either the wind or someone swept it out recently.
This was in a little alcove. Not sure what that is in the pot--socks? Underwear? Rag? Hanky? (Ick.) 
Stair leading away from the alcove. You can see the plaster flaking away as weather works at the structure. If they don't tear it down, Mother Nature is going to do it for them. 
Another alcove at the bottom of the Upper Room. It was packed with leaves--at least one season's worth.
The absolute weirdest thing about the Upper Room. It looks as if there's actually some dude buried there!!! Some guy named Aubrey Sara. When he got planted there, they probably figured this was going to be some kind of shrine forever and ever and ever. How wrong they were. Looks like someone comes here occasionally to sweep off the concrete bricks over the grave site and pull up the weeds. Needs another weeding, I'd say. 
Closeup of the plaque above the grave, complete with "No Trespassing" sign. The word "love" or a variation of it appears four times in the first four lines of the plaque. Guess the dude was jam-packed with love. 
