I've had my eye on this old "bando" for many a long year. It's a large farmhouse sitting on the edge of a U.S. Highway, so finding a way in--without getting caught--was always the thing preventing me from exploring the place. But I woke up today with a real urge to find a way. Far too often, I'll spy a bando that I want to explore, and I'll put it off for years, always worried about getting caught. Then, while I'm hesitating, the place either gets demolished or becomes too dangerous to set foot inside. Once the roof starts to go, stay out! I didn't want this house to be added to my long list of bando regrets...
There are plenty of sweet bandos in this area, and I've got my eye on a few others. Actually, this old farm sits on public land, but there are clear "No Trespassing" signs posted out front. The only way I could see to get in was to park along a side road and bushwhack through the woods behind the house, approaching it from behind. Again, this is public land. I had every right to be in the woods here (just not the house). Here's the farmhouse as seen from the overgrown back field.
The structure itself is still in pretty good condition. I'd guess it's been sitting empty for about 20 years. There were still withered ears of corn in the corncrib, a shower curtain in the bathroom, a container of Ajax on the kitchen sink...and those last sad curtains still in that upstairs window.
I could feel the love that this home once knew. This is the backyard, between the large garage and the kitchen door. Look, here's the root cellar--or maybe it's a springhouse--with an old basketball hoop beside it.
I was tempted to enter through the kitchen window, pictured here, but I didn't like the look of the kitchen. It's spacious and must have been an inviting place in its day. But there were strange little piles of excrement on the floor that made me nervous. I got chased by a raccoon once, so now I'm a little jumpy around piles of excrement...
Someone sweet lived here.
Without entering the room, I did stand at the kitchen doorway and take a peek. This room once had a big family table right in the middle. It was the living heart of the home, where loved ones gathered, and talked, and cooked, and did their homework, and paid their bills, and wrote paper letters, and maybe even prayed.
This small room was just inside the front door. I'm not sure if it was the farm office or a formal parlor.
The living room was immense.
The front porch was enclosed and looked down at the road with a famous river just beyond. The barn stands across the road, and the river would have been visible in olden times, when the banks were open pastureland. What a beautiful place this must have been.
Those of us who do "urbex" and "rurex" avoid disclosing the locations of the bandos we explore for two reasons: 1) we don't want vandals to find them, and 2) we don't want anyone to identify the place and get us in trouble for trespassing!
The old summer kitchen was separated from the main kitchen by a small breezeway.
This just screams 1980s, right?
The tattered curtains still hanging in the window on the landing made me a little sad...
With a bit of trepidation, I mounted the staircase to take a look at the bedrooms. But when I was on the landing, I heard a strange scurrying noise in a room down the hall. Probably just a bird, but I feared the worst--a rabid raccoon! Even if it's not rabid, you don't want to corner a raccoon. I never went the whole way up.
There was a lot of old debris in the woods beside the house. Anyone know what kind of car this was?
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