Return to the Owen House (Part 1)
A few weeks ago I took my new camera and went over to this abandoned house down the road from me. They have rapidly started building around it so it’s only a matter of time before it is demolished. The first photos I shot here I used the wrong settings and they were grainy and bad. So a week later I headed down there again to do a reshoot.
As I walked by I saw a truck in the back of the property at one of the new houses they were building. I saw a man walking around but he quickly got in the truck and started to drive away. I kept walking as to not attract attention and I watched his truck drive away and head down the opposite direction from me. I cut back across the property and began shooting each building.
When I got to the 2nd building that was a barn/garage type structure I was upstairs trying to get a picture of a typewriter when I could hear the crunching gravel of a truck driving up. It was the same truck as before but this time he stopped right in front of the abandoned house. I heard the door of the truck open and close and then the door of the house open and close. I had no idea what would happen if I got caught here, it’s a small town with cops with nothing better to do. I stayed put and tried to ride him out thinking he would leave. About 20 minutes later I hear the crunching leaves of human footsteps. A figure peeked into the building and then entered, turned and headed straight up the stairs to where I was. I had figured maybe someone had spotted me since it seemed he showed up so quickly. I had been in this situation before and when I was younger would have jumped out the window if I had to. But I’m old and lazy so I just stood there.
A man comes up the stairs and does a double take. “What are you doing here?” he said. I showed him my camera and said just taking photos. I couldn’t really read if he was about to be upset or not. I showed him the various photos I took so he would know I’m not here to steal or vandalize. A few minutes of this and I managed to get him talking. Turns out he has known the family who owned the property for many decades. A husband and wife and at least one daughter. The wife died first and then the husband soon after. The daughter stayed on the property while receiving in home medical treatment. Eventually her money ran out and she had to move into a nursing home. Presumably she might have sold this property to help pay for those bills.
The house has been abandoned for about 3 years. The out-buildings were previously almost totally hidden by dense tree cover. There is a garage that kind of looks like barn, a library stacked with murder mysteries, a mini-apartment, and the main house. The house is in decent shape but the other buildings have been ravaged by harsh weather and neglect. All of these buildings are definitely being demolished very soon, probably going to be taken down by controlled burn via the Fire Department. I helped my new acquaintance search the house for any family photos. We found a few binders of photos and one big one of the daughter, probably from when she was in High School. He said he would make sure to bring them to her in the nursing home.
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