Hey all. It's way been a while. But this weekend I re-visited one of the first places I ever explored and thought I'd share some photos.

2017:
Falling to pieces by M Raven, on Flickr

Shot through by M Raven, on Flickr

2012:
Flood house, September 2012 by M Raven, on Flickr

Front porch by M Raven, on Flickr

One of the most startling things about this house, for me, has been a weird sense that it could still be inhabited. The siding remains a cheery, unblemished yellow in person. and we stood outside, and circled it, several times the first year. Stones had been thrown through every window, the front porch was falling off the house, and the door was open, and the surrounding area is so remote and silent that everybody in the state could have just died while we were out there. If you're very still and the wind isn't blowing you can hear the deep hum of two power plants and another factory just across the river.

Now, though I failed to go back to a vantage where I could get a picture of it, the roofline is visibly bowing as a support wall inside slowly sinks into the basement. We didn't go inside. Only about half the floor on the ground level is even somewhat in tact and I didn't want to fall into the cellar with the rest of it.

2016:
Sinking by M Raven, on Flickr

That shot is through this door, which in 2012 was stuck closed so we went in through the sagging porch up front. At present, that buckshot door is laying askew on the concrete steps leading up to it.

2012:
Door and buckshot by M Raven, on Flickr

Back in '12, though, we went all over.

2012:
Front room by M Raven, on Flickr

The front room of the house (that side door is right behind those stairs).

2012:
Rear door by M Raven, on Flickr

2012:
New growth by M Raven, on Flickr

The back room of the house, which is now pretty much entirely in the basement. That tree didn't get much of a chance, I'd wager.

2012:
Basement and water line. by M Raven, on Flickr

A high layer of mud in the basement and a visible water line.

2012:
Bathroom by M Raven, on Flickr

What's left of the bathroom, now also collapsed into the basement.

2012:
Girl's room by M Raven, on Flickr

2012:
Last rites by M Raven, on Flickr

2012:
Consolette by M Raven, on Flickr

A girl's bedroom, painted pink with a cloudy blue ceiling. The 'Consolette' was a 'portable professional hair dryer'.

2016:
Weathered window (and door) by M Raven, on Flickr

2016:
Girl's room by M Raven, on Flickr

2016:
Settle by M Raven, on Flickr

Pink boards laying in the basement.

2012:
Mattress by M Raven, on Flickr

2012:
Child's room by M Raven, on Flickr

2012:
Tot Finder by M Raven, on Flickr

The other upstairs bedroom, perhaps belonging to a young boy?

2016:
Tot finder by M Raven, on Flickr


2016:
Sleep well by M Raven, on Flickr

I'm not sure when this mattress came downstairs. I don't think there was a mattress here four and a half years ago.

2012:
Old faithful by M Raven, on Flickr

An old tractor on a corner not far from the house.

2016:
Us by M Raven, on Flickr

2016:
Remote by M Raven, on Flickr


I'm glad she's still out here. There are quite a number of houses from this summer that have been demolished, sometimes within months of our visit. There's one in particular from later this same day, farther into Illinois, that had so much stuff left in it... I would have loved to have come back for better photos, or to examine the old mail and papers to see if I could piece together at least when it was last lived in, but it vanished within half a year. I would have liked to have known its story... there wasn't any evidence of modern indoor plumbing apart from the pump sink in the kitchen, though electric lights had been wired in, and among the detritus I found old cell-phone bills. Alas. I know better now than to expect I'll be able to go back to a place.

Happy new year everyone

This looks like a pretty cool place and I especially like the tractor.

How much different is this place than the first time you saw it? Were you able to walk around on the second floor before?

A cool shoot
I like that tin lid of the floor.

It's strange to step back into the time and into what was someone else's life.
To see how the lived and some of what they saw and objects they handled each day.
So to be erased forever...

Posted by YotaMan20 This looks like a pretty cool place and I especially like the tractor. How much different is this place than the first time you saw it? Were you able to walk around on the second floor before?

I love the old tractor, we were very glad to see it was still right where we last saw it.

The house has changed a great deal in the intervening four and a half years. The parcel is being farmed now, and it much more active use is being made of the two sheds on the north side of the house. Hence, I suppose, all the trees being torn out. The first time we came, there were a few areas where the floor was beginning to rot through the but the rest of the structure seemed fairly stable. My partner and I are both fairly small humans, and we've never had any near misses with floor underneath us, but we're still quite cautious (would prefer to keep it that way) and did not go inside the house this time. So much of it had collapsed. The first time I was here, I hopped a bit of a hole and climbed the stairs (which were very solid) to see the two kids' bedrooms upstairs (the pink room and the cream colored room). You can't tell for the trees in the earlier photos, but the house definitely did not display the troubling buckling of the exterior walls and rooftop that we could see this time around, most visible in the first photo in this post. On the right-hand wall, facing the light, those are three identical, evenly-spaced windows, and if you click through to view it at a larger size you can see pronounced contours where the siding is warping with the wall. This isn't terribly far from my home so I have ambitions of keeping closer tabs on it in the next year or two to see what happens, but we'll see if I manage it.

Great shots! The first photo especially shows just how DESOLATE and isolated that location is. Thanks for sharing!

Nice! Isolated places like this are great.

Posted by JohnInMi The first photo especially shows just how DESOLATE and isolated that location is.

What this guy said. The place looks like the last house at the end of the world. Great photos, comparisons are always cool.

The first photograph is my favorite! Great find!