I remember going there in 96' and that place had a very eerie feel to it. The upper room was still open and I remember a few people praying in there. What surprized me the most was an indoor shopping area that sort of looked like main street and how some shops were open and you would see two maybe three old people sitting down drinking coffee. It's sad to see what happened to this place as well as the history. Watching this brought back so much memories.
I was a member and went there several times...I loved it and was blessed everytime I went...I always felt the presence of our Lord when I was thete....broke my heart when Jerry Falwell steped i n. ......
I loved this place when I was a kid. If I can remember right Hurricane Hugo hit shortly after this. I was 5 in 1989 and living in Charlotte. So sad to see the waterpark gone :-(
you are SO LUCKY you got to visit right after it closed while everything was still in tact!!! Everything is SO DIFFERENT now! Most everything is gone and or re-built aka the main street shoppes are totally different now. wow!
I miss Tammy Faye. I had several opportunities to meet with both Bakkers throughout the 80's. Both were quite the personalities to meet! Tammy was far more mercurial than Jim, but both were fun. Check out my videos of Heritage USA, recorded in June 1988, and recently digitized and uploaded onto UA-cam. Compare those with videos I had recorded in June 2009- almost 21 years exactly to the date as my previous visit in 1988. See the differences to Heritage USA in my many UA-cam videos!
It was a very nice place when it was open. I recently found a Christmas Show from there taped in 1984. I'll put it up in time for the holiday season 2009.
Heritage Towers is actually not in the town limits of Fort Mill so they don't have any say in the matter. The tower falls under York County's guidelines and Heritage has met every deadline set by the county, so the tower will stand. Construction is scheduled to begin in Spring 2009.
This is just really sad. I watched the Jim and Tammy faye bakker story about 15 years ago. I learned through that movie and further research what happened and looked at pictures and videos of the ruins of Heritage USA. I thought by now though, someone with good common sense, a pocket full of money, and a huge love for Heritage USA would have restored it back to its original glory! It has really gone to waste...... and that's a shame. I'm from and still live in SC. I would have loved for my husband and I to have our family vacations there. I guess it just wasn't meant to be. 😔
I totally agree with you. Now it's 2020, and that tower will probably NEVER be restored, and will never open. What a waste, it just makes me sick to think about it. :-( I would think the "ministry" there now (I don't know if they're really Christian or not) could fix that hotel and open it to the homeless. But that won't happen.
The Heritage Grand Hotel has been renovated and is open for business. Construction on finishing the incomplete Heritage Grand Tower is to begin this year. It is becoming a high-rise retirement home. Also, the castle was NOT originally intended to be a "go kart place." The castle was originally intended to be the world's largest Wendy's Old Fashioned Hamburgers restaurant. The area is largely being redeveloped as residential.
i think its all very sad that its turned out the way it has, i mean really walt disney probably lived much better than the bakkers and he did it only for himself!
Kerry-Interesting video. Years later the place got totally overgrown. There are videos on you tube. The place looked like a scene from a science fiction moving. Apparently there is a group who is renovating the tower to use for low income housing.
I think someone bought the tower because there is a NEW sign advertising Heritage luxury apartments. This sign also has a picture showing it fixed up and added on to. They will probably put a pool too!
I used to go explore this place when I was in culinary school in Charlotte in 2005. I like abandoned amusement parks. Creepy. I met a few members of a group there and they started telling me about their "prophet" and his miracles, and invited me to come join their service, but I declined. Their eyes were a little to "glazed" for me to hang out with that. Too cultish. The property was going to be a great resort all over. Too bad it failed.
The hotel has 500 rooms. And I don't understand why NOBODY stepped in to finish/renovate it, just left it to rot! What a waste. Maybe the "ministry" there right now, in 2020, could renovate it for the homeless or something. And at the rate everything is going, there will be lots more homeless people soon, thanks to business partial openings, closings, etc.
I used to come home after my night shift job and watch Jim and Tammy, I thought she was likable , but not he...this was between 1978-1982...there was not much else on telly at 4 am back then!
I remember seeing a homeless guy beat up in the parking lot. if they would have had dinosaur's like the Ark and the creation museum it would still be running.
Jim needed financial gurus to help him keep Heritage in the black. Ministers are notorious for poor financial acumen. Heritage could have been saved but it was deliberately destroyed starting with Falwell.
He had money coming in hand over fist. He didn’t need financial gurus. He needed to be less greedy. And Falwell didn’t start the destruction…. Bakker had his affair and the public decided how much they cared… which was much greater then than they would today, no doubt. It was on Bakker’s watch that the tax exempt status was revoked and the timeshare was 300% oversold. Falwell didn’t do any of that.
I remember going there in 96' and that place had a very eerie feel to it. The upper room was still open and I remember a few people praying in there. What surprized me the most was an indoor shopping area that sort of looked like main street and how some shops were open and you would see two maybe three old people sitting down drinking coffee. It's sad to see what happened to this place as well as the history. Watching this brought back so much memories.
I was a member and went there several times...I loved it and was blessed everytime I went...I always felt the presence of our Lord when I was thete....broke my heart when Jerry Falwell steped i n. ......
HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA you are a blind idiot! Open a science book and educate your self!
Open and read the Bible if you want the truth.....science is an "educated guess". You sound like an unbeliever......sad.
Jerry Falwell is a snake in the grass
They all including Tammy and Jim were all blasphemous hypocrites
I loved this place when I was a kid. If I can remember right Hurricane Hugo hit shortly after this. I was 5 in 1989 and living in Charlotte. So sad to see the waterpark gone :-(
you are SO LUCKY you got to visit right after it closed while everything was still in tact!!! Everything is SO DIFFERENT now! Most everything is gone and or re-built aka the main street shoppes are totally different now. wow!
Very interesting video thanks for posting!
I miss Tammy Faye. I had several opportunities to meet with both Bakkers throughout the 80's. Both were quite the personalities to meet! Tammy was far more mercurial than Jim, but both were fun.
Check out my videos of Heritage USA, recorded in June 1988, and recently digitized and uploaded onto UA-cam. Compare those with videos I had recorded in June 2009- almost 21 years exactly to the date as my previous visit in 1988.
See the differences to Heritage USA in my many UA-cam videos!
Thank you, so much for showing this video.
I worked at Carolina Splash as a lifeguard 95 to 96. Great times. The waterpark has since been bulldozed in 2005 and not much left but memories.
It was a very nice place when it was open. I recently found a Christmas Show from there taped in 1984. I'll put it up in time for the holiday season 2009.
Heritage Towers is actually not in the town limits of Fort Mill so they don't have any say in the matter. The tower falls under York County's guidelines and Heritage has met every deadline set by the county, so the tower will stand. Construction is scheduled to begin in Spring 2009.
This is just really sad. I watched the Jim and Tammy faye bakker story about 15 years ago. I learned through that movie and further research what happened and looked at pictures and videos of the ruins of Heritage USA. I thought by now though, someone with good common sense, a pocket full of money, and a huge love for Heritage USA would have restored it back to its original glory! It has really gone to waste...... and that's a shame. I'm from and still live in SC. I would have loved for my husband and I to have our family vacations there. I guess it just wasn't meant to be. 😔
I totally agree with you. Now it's 2020, and that tower will probably NEVER be restored, and will never open. What a waste, it just makes me sick to think about it. :-( I would think the "ministry" there now (I don't know if they're really Christian or not) could fix that hotel and open it to the homeless. But that won't happen.
The Castle is now actually going to be saved and construction began this week to finish the Heritage Grand Tower.
That tower is still rotting in 2020, I guess it was too expensive to fix up.
The Heritage Grand Hotel has been renovated and is open for business. Construction on finishing the incomplete Heritage Grand Tower is to begin this year. It is becoming a high-rise retirement home. Also, the castle was NOT originally intended to be a "go kart place." The castle was originally intended to be the world's largest Wendy's Old Fashioned Hamburgers restaurant. The area is largely being redeveloped as residential.
i think its all very sad that its turned out the way it has, i mean really walt disney probably lived much better than the bakkers and he did it only for himself!
and Walt Disney wasn't the saint the media and other's would have you believe. He was a gangster in his own right.
Walt Disney didn't steal his money from old people under the guise of a pseudo religion.
Thanks for adding this, 5 Stars
Heritage is now re owned by a group of christians and they are fixing up the tower, hotel and castle
Now is 2020, and the tower is still rotting.
Kerry-Interesting video. Years later the place got totally overgrown. There are videos on you tube. The place looked like a scene from a science fiction moving. Apparently there is a group who is renovating the tower to use for low income housing.
That never happened. But it's a great idea.
Daldog3 Maybe they are renovating the hotel. The place looked pretty bad in the video that I saw.
Castle was going to be a Wendy's.
I think someone bought the tower because there is a NEW sign advertising Heritage luxury apartments. This sign also has a picture showing it fixed up and added on to. They will probably put a pool too!
Now in 2020, nothing has been done (correct me if I'm wrong). It's very sad.
@@Monorail-Beyond-the-Veil Can confirm, it's still rotting away, unfortunately.
Elevation Church in 10 years .
For real
Really spooky. Reminds me of the recent documentary "Life After People".
I used to go explore this place when I was in culinary school in Charlotte in 2005. I like abandoned amusement parks. Creepy. I met a few members of a group there and they started telling me about their "prophet" and his miracles, and invited me to come join their service, but I declined. Their eyes were a little to "glazed" for me to hang out with that. Too cultish.
The property was going to be a great resort all over. Too bad it failed.
About as eerie as Pyongyang, Korea..
So just when did it closed down?
The hotel has 500 rooms. And I don't understand why NOBODY stepped in to finish/renovate it, just left it to rot! What a waste. Maybe the "ministry" there right now, in 2020, could renovate it for the homeless or something. And at the rate everything is going, there will be lots more homeless people soon, thanks to business partial openings, closings, etc.
Ken Ham's ARK ENCOUNTER will soon see a similar fate.
MrNckissfan up on this rock I will build my church and the gates of hell shall not prevail against it!!!
I'm not a fan of Ham, but as far as I know, he keeps his pants on with the secretaries.
I used to come home after my night shift job and watch Jim and Tammy, I thought she was likable , but not he...this was between 1978-1982...there was not much else on telly at 4 am back then!
OMG
I remember seeing a homeless guy beat up in the parking lot. if they would have had dinosaur's like the Ark and the creation museum it would still be running.
Already showing signs of neglect.
Jim needed financial gurus to help him keep Heritage in the black. Ministers are notorious for poor financial acumen. Heritage could have been saved but it was deliberately destroyed starting with Falwell.
He had money coming in hand over fist. He didn’t need financial gurus. He needed to be less greedy. And Falwell didn’t start the destruction…. Bakker had his affair and the public decided how much they cared… which was much greater then than they would today, no doubt. It was on Bakker’s watch that the tax exempt status was revoked and the timeshare was 300% oversold. Falwell didn’t do any of that.
its so evil with money luring & deceiving.
What a waste of money! All this in the name of Christianity??
People, keep your money in your pockets! Your wallet thanks you.
Baker is still conning his followers out of there money. What a dishonest crook he still is and when will people wake up. So sad to see.