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Photographer captures images of perfectly preserved home untouched for decades

by Midnight Oil
18 replies
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With polished silverware still in the kitchen drawers and outdated toiletries sitting on a dusty dressing table, these incredible photographs show a perfectly preserved home that was abandoned by its owners decades ago.
Urban explorer in Canada discovers home abandoned 50 years ago | Daily Mail Online
  • Profile picture of the author AprilCT
    Is it right to go tramping through and rooting through someone else's belongings because no one lives there right now? Someone has to own the house and property, probably paying all the taxes as well.

    Unless the guy was wearing gloves, he has probably left his fingerprints all over the place. I don't know anything about the laws where he did this, but it does seem like breaking and entering. Now that he's photographed the inside and it's published, I wonder if there will be any criminal charges against him.

    I can certainly see that there are some really odd circumstances here with what might have happened to the family that lived there to abandon everything. He really should have found the current owners first and and asked permission.
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  • Profile picture of the author HeySal
    What happened to the family that they would abandon the house and all of their belongings is a very good questions - and extremely haunting. Were they all killed in an accident, or did they find the place haunted? It's obvious it was more than one person living there - at least for some time. Did they die off one at a time, with the last leaving things in order as they had been?

    If I were this guy, I'd not stop with the discovery of the home - I'd want to "discover" the family and circumstances under which they would abandon a home in such a manner.
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  • Profile picture of the author sbucciarel
    Banned
    I would love to know what happened to the family that lived there and just abandoned everything. Very interesting photos.
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    • Profile picture of the author MissTerraK
      Wow! What a trip back into time! It was like visiting a museum.

      I loved all of the antique furniture there, and like the rest of you, my curiosity is piqued as to why the family left and what ever happened to them

      I would think that public records could give the name of who owned the house last. A search could be done from that starting point.


      Terra
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      • Profile picture of the author Kay King
        I felt like I was invading someone's home... what was with the flowers laying on the chair?

        With all the papers in that house you wouldn't need public records to find the owner. There could be many reasons a home would be left in that condition - and none of them is an excuse for a stranger to walk in and take pictures.
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        • Profile picture of the author MissTerraK
          Originally Posted by Kay King View Post

          I felt like I was invading someone's home... what was with the flowers laying on the chair?

          With all the papers in that house you wouldn't need public records to find the owner. There could be many reasons a home would be left in that condition - and none of them is an excuse for a stranger to walk in and take pictures.
          But in order to go through the papers in the house, a stranger would have to invade. I think invading someone's home and rifling through their personal papers is worse than a stranger invading and taking photographs. That's why I recommended the public records route. Public, not private.


          Terra
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          • Profile picture of the author Kay King
            I agree, Terra - and think permission should be granted for him to go into the home.

            My point was the story makes a lot of "don't know who lived here" and that's hooey as I'm sure records of the home's occupants is right there in the items he photographed.

            Interesting but a little creepy.
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            • Profile picture of the author sbucciarel
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              Originally Posted by Kay King View Post

              I agree, Terra - and think permission should be granted for him to go into the home.

              My point was the story makes a lot of "don't know who lived here" and that's hooey as I'm sure records of the home's occupants is right there in the items he photographed.

              Interesting but a little creepy.
              He's an "urban explorer" and photographer whose hobby it is to photograph abandoned places. Their motto is "take nothing but photographs and leave nothing but footprints." There was one photo album that had become a part of the house and would have been damaged if he had even opened it. He did not open it. He didn't rifle through papers and belongings. He took photographs only.

              His website is http://www.freaktography.ca/
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              • Profile picture of the author Alexa Smith
                Banned
                Call me a skepchick, but is there perhaps something "not quite right" about this? (Why are the pot-plants in such good health, and their leaves so green, if they've been sitting there abandoned for 50 years?).


                .
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                • Profile picture of the author MissTerraK
                  Originally Posted by Alexa Smith View Post

                  Call me a skepchick, but is there perhaps something "not quite right" about this? (Why are the pot-plants in such good health, and their leaves so green, if they've been sitting there abandoned for 50 years?).


                  .
                  I assumed they were fake plants, but now that you mention skepticism, why hasn't the silver tarnished from oxidation? If I don't polish them, mine do.

                  And where are the cobwebs and dust?

                  Perhaps the photographer just assumed nobody took care of these things? But then again, if you're going to polish the silver and dust and clean out cobwebs, why leave the rest in disarray?


                  Terra
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                • Profile picture of the author Dan Riffle
                  Originally Posted by Alexa Smith View Post

                  Call me a skepchick, but is there perhaps something "not quite right" about this? (Why are the pot-plants in such good health, and their leaves so green, if they've been sitting there abandoned for 50 years?).


                  .
                  Potentially because they're fake. That era was rife with faux plants, so much so that I'd much more easily accept that as a reason than someone was watering live plants amongst the remaining wreckage in the house.
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  • Profile picture of the author sbucciarel
    Banned
    What I don't understand is why, if the urban explorer of freaktography took the photos and they are on his website, and they are and there are a lot more of them than the original article, here at
    Abandoned House | Freaktography | Urban Exploring | Photography |

    why on the original article are the same photos watermarked with copyright "Media Drum World" (" a leading UK photo agency working with the national newspapers and international media to produce leading news and feature stories").

    The plants are plastic, I imagine. There are quite a few plastic flowers sitting around.

    The lack of dust and cobwebs is much more puzzling.
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    • Profile picture of the author Alexa Smith
      Banned
      Originally Posted by sbucciarel View Post

      The plants are plastic, I imagine.
      Hmmm, maybe.

      A bit of a coincidence, that a house "suddenly rediscovered" after 50 years had only fake plants that have therefore survived 50 years?

      Maybe.

      Originally Posted by sbucciarel View Post

      The lack of dust and cobwebs is much more puzzling.
      Cobwebs, perhaps, yes ... (unless there aren't spiders in Ontario?). Dust maybe not too surprising? What's already there settles, and with no people there, there wouldn't be much more, perhaps? Dust is mostly exfoliated human skin debris, I think?

      .
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      • Profile picture of the author Dan Riffle
        Originally Posted by Alexa Smith View Post

        Hmmm, maybe.

        A bit of a coincidence, that a house "suddenly rediscovered" after 50 years had only fake plants that have therefore survived 50 years?

        .


        Alexa, this is only my opinion based on personal empirical evidence: I've found that folks with a propensity for fake plants do not have real plants. They have fake plants because they, for some reason, don't want to care for live plants. I can think of several elderly relatives whose homes are filled with god awful fake plants, but you won't find a single living one.




        (Unrelated: can someone tell me why three phantom spaces are being added between quoted posts and my response? Weird. And smilies aren't working for me either, not that I care much about those...)


        (Unrelated 2: apparently the phantom spaces are also between paragraphs.)
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        Raising a child is akin to knowing you're getting fired in 18 years and having to train your replacement without actively sabotaging them.

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        • Profile picture of the author Kay King
          Their motto is "take nothing but photographs and leave nothing but footprints." There was one photo album that had become a part of the house and would have been damaged if he had even opened it.
          But he did open the guitar case - and arrange some of the items for the photos. He also opened drawers and silver cases and mentioned that some drawers "wouldn't open". It's good he did not bother anything that might be easily destoryed by handling.

          If I saw that place and photographed it - I'd feel compelled to look up the history of the property to learn about the people who lived there. I'd want to know who they were and why they left everything as they did.
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          • Profile picture of the author sbucciarel
            Banned
            Originally Posted by Kay King View Post

            If I saw that place and photographed it - I'd feel compelled to look up the history of the property to learn about the people who lived there. I'd want to know who they were and why they left everything as they did.
            I would feel compelled to also. I'd want to know why a family would just abandon everything that they own. Did they all die? I'm sure there's an interesting story there.
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      • Profile picture of the author MissTerraK
        Originally Posted by Alexa Smith View Post

        ...Dust is mostly exfoliated human skin debris, I think?
        LOL Alexa!

        Dust is not mostly exfoliated human skin, but it does consist of some pretty gross stuff though such as animal dander, human hair, sand, insect waste, synthetic fibers, insect scales, pollen, mold spores, and lots of good old fashioned dirt.

        This is one of those "Eww! Sick!" fact wannabes that sounds very scientific, but isn't really true. Unless of course you are a molting lizard or snake or something like that, haha! Then your dust may be comprised of 70 to 80% exfoliated skin.


        Terra
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      • Profile picture of the author sbucciarel
        Banned
        Originally Posted by Alexa Smith View Post

        Hmmm, maybe.

        A bit of a coincidence, that a house "suddenly rediscovered" after 50 years had only fake plants that have therefore survived 50 years?

        Maybe.

        Cobwebs, perhaps, yes ... (unless there aren't spiders in Ontario?). Dust maybe not too surprising? What's already there settles, and with no people there, there wouldn't be much more, perhaps? Dust is mostly exfoliated human skin debris, I think?

        .
        Dan's right about people who love fake plants. Many of them don't want to be bothered with real plants or feel they don't have a green thumb. It was a real 50's thing.

        I googled dust and it appears that it's a combination of many ingredients, only one being human skin cells, and there are spiders in Ontario, CA, so I'm still puzzled by the lack of dust and cobwebs in that place. I've seen some pics of other abandoned places and they were thick with webs and dust.
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