In 2004 I noticed that they had boarded up the house and I immediately became facinated. A few months later I was assigned a project in my photography class and I decided that this house would be my subject, afterall it was an excuse to go exploring. It was solidly boarded up so I couldn't get inside just yet. I wasn't able to tell from that excursion that this house was actually over 80 years old!

About a month after I was done with school a friend and I decided we were gonna go in. I had to squeeze through the top broken panel of a door which was a feat in itself. Upon my snooping, I had discovered a phonebook from 2002 and all the medicine in the cabinet had expired about the same time. But I thought maybe people had been squating there because EVERYTHING in this house (furniture, appliances, the tub, even the curtains were from the 60s) was so out of style. The only thing that was modern was the hospital bed in the living room near to like the first ever zenith TV. That and the phone was a rotary phone with a cord attached to the wall (No jack, see back in the day when you got a phoneline the phone company gave you a phone and hooked it right up to their lines.) On the landing leading up a few more steps to the bathroom was a chair and a broken floor board, looks like someone knew where dad kept his money....

there were 4 bedrooms, one bathroom, a basement that had all kind of antique furniture, old tools, canned food and a TV that was probably from the 50s. The light switches were the kinds that were pushbuttons, a lot of the outlets were located in the middle of the wall as opposed to the floor, the fan was placed in the doorframe since the only electricity running was to the chandaliers and would have been IMPOSSIBLE to rewire to run the fan. both fireplaces had been plastered over and there was a huge heating vent in the floor, the heater had been replaced in 2001 (as per investigation of the basement)

I made another trip back there months later to explore further, we finally went in the attic (I'm DEATHLY afraid of heights and due to the waterdamage to one of the rooms, I knew that there were probably places in the attic that were not very sturdy.) We found tons of womens clothes in the attic, including these really cool aprons from the 50s. We also found some old metal skates (no skate key though, those things are so cool)

There was some old paperwork in the basement I found next to a broken lock box, in there was some tax papers and the wife's social security card from the early 20s.I got the names and address of the house and did some research (My sister and dad were both real estate agents, so I know where to look stuff up)

I found out that after the father died, his daughter had sold it to a funeral home agency in Febuary of 2002. I was hoping maybe they'd restore the house but no such luck. I also found the gravestones of their relatives, who were buried literally yards away from the house in the silverton cemetary. This house was kept in the family until the daughter had sold it, I'm sure he is ASHAMED that she took practically nothing of his. How can you leave your families SOCIAL SECURITY card and information about when your grandparents were born? Maybe she took some photo albums, that seemed to be the only thing this place was lacking.it looks like a crew went in and cleaned out the basics, the fridge and scavanged for money/antiques. Who knows...

This poor guy probably died alone, but... there is a possibility that someone was taking care of him, but if they were they did a piss poor job, there was dust caked all over EVERYTHING, that kind of dust doesn't accumilated after 2 years...