A friend and I made a trip down to east-central Ohio with a goal of hitting three abandoned houses that have been on my list for a while. While the trip didn't go
exactly as planned, we had a good time and saw some interesting old houses. I also furthered my goal of exploring something in every Ohio county by knocking two (Guernsey and Muskingum) off the list.
We begin with the first stop, a very old and very dilapidated farmhouse east of Kimbolton. It was located in a large, untended field, the entirety of which was surrounded by what appeared to be an old electric fence. If it was, it was not electrified so we passed through.
1. Front view of the house. Anyone want to venture a guess on when it was built?
2. An up close view shows the front wall under the porch is starting to cave in.
3. Rear view.
4. We walk inside and...bedpan!
5. The bathtub was full of debris fallen from the ceiling.
6. A couch that now could pass for a park bench.
7.
8. Most of the upstairs flooring was either completely gone or very unstable.
9. The upstairs hallway, really the only walkable part of the second floor.
10. A bedroom window provides a peek outside.
11. There was a small cellar with various bottles, jars, and containers scattered around.
On the way to stop 2, we found another abandoned house but were not able to find a way in. It was rather small and did not appear to be that interesting. Continuing on, we came upon our second planned stop, a small abandoned house in the absolute middle of nowhere just south of the Coshocton/Muskingum county line. It looks much better on the Google Street View image (from 2008) than it does today. In the interim, it has lost most of its roof and the south wall has mostly collapsed. Once we got inside, we found bees. Lots of bees. They must have had a nest in the rear of the house. I got stung twice and my friend was stung once. We snapped some very quick pictures before heading upstairs where there was a nice lack of stinging creatures. According to the time on my pictures, we were on the property for eight minutes total, very easily the quickest explore I've ever completed.
1. The house was close to the road and surrounded by greenery.
2. The roof is about gone and it's only a matter of time before the rest follows.
3.
4. This is where the bees were coming from. They must have had a nest somewhere in this area.
5. We got some very quick kitchen photos before heading upstairs and out of the bee zone.
6. A square hole appears to have been cut in the floor of the lone upstairs room. It contained a closet in the rear and a storage crawl space on either side, one of which had completely collapsed.
7. The useless roof
8. The collapsed crawl space.
9. Stairwell.
10. To the left is the second crawl space and to the right is the closet.
After dodging bees and quickly snapping some photos, we left the Bee House and continued on to stop three near Adamsville. Before we got there, we happened upon a decent-sized house outside of Otsego that was clearly abandoned and easily entered. At this impromptu stop, we deduced that a fire and an attempted renovation have both happened. We're not sure if they were renovating because the place burned or maybe the renovation was halted because the fire occurred during it. Either way, it barely got off the ground. I looked the house up on Street View after returning and in 2008, it looked rough but not quite abandoned.
1. Most of the white paint has faded off the house. The upstairs windows appear newly installed. They also looked this way in 2008.
2. Cabinets that had been removed their place and set in the middle of the kitchen. We found a hard hat on the floor just outside this shot.
3.
4. Most of the belongings that remained in the house were children's toys.
5. Tiny sneaker amidst the debris.
6. An entire room on the second floor had either collapsed or been taken down. This is where much of the fire damage is. This closet now leads to nowhere.
7. Another look at the upstairs through the nonexistent ceiling.
8. Dishes appear to have been packed to go but were forgotten.
9. The doll was singed but survived the fire.
10. Lonely chair
11. Found in one of the upstairs bedrooms. Two still existed, one full of belongings in trash bags and the other full of debris.
12. An entire notebook seems to have been devoted to unearthing a family tree. I photographed every page and am in the process of looking up names.
13. Fire damage upstairs.
We packed up and headed to our final destination, another two-story house a little further down the road. When we arrived, thick brush (with thorns) and trees provided no way to get to the house without a machete. We decided to save this one for winter. On the way back, we stopped at another house near home that I've been to (and posted pictures of) a number of times but my friend hadn't seen it yet. I didn't take many photos and mostly just let him look around. Despite the bees and everything else, it was a fun day and made for some pretty relaxing exploring after what was a very long week for me.
