The enduring mystique and allure of abandoned old houses
One of the best memories I have from the decade of the 1970s after I had moved from New Orleans to South Carolina, was heading out to the rural countryside outside Columbia with two new friends to explore abandoned farmhouses and barns, a first-time experience for me, as I had grown up in a big city and had no idea what the rural countryside was like.
I had recently graduated from college and moved to South Carolina to get started on a career in journalism, which I had my sights firmly fixed on. I was taking journalism courses at the University of South Carolina as a special student since my college in anew Orleans didn’t have a journalism program. I had just obtained a B.A. in English.
One of my courses at USC was Photojournalism, and in the class we learned about processing black and while film and printing our own photos for the class in a large darkroom. It was all intoxicatingly novel and exciting for me, and I loved it.
Traveling outside Columbia where I lived at the time was eye-opening because with my camera, and the knowledge that I would be making prints myself, I was more deeply sensitized to my surroundings. Having a camera in hand, then as now, enabled me to see the world with fresh eyes.
With the 1930s-era images of the famed Farm Security Administration (FSA) photographer Walker Evans inspiring me, I was ready to explore. My friends and I found one particular old farmhouse we actually went inside of to take pictures, mindful that we could have been noticed and cited for trespassing. But when you’re young, concerns like that fade amid the excitement of adventure and discovery. And then there are the questions: Who lived there? What was their life like in the middle of nowhere? Why was so much left behind? Are there any spirits or ghosts? Why couldn’t the house be saved?
I took one particular photo of the kitchen with a classic 19th century cast-iron stove and calendars on the wall above a fireplace, one of which dated from November 1966. We were there in 1974 so the house had been abandoned at least eight years. We also explored an enormous old barn, the weathered wood sides making great subjects for black and white photography, showing off the sturdy aged wood that was holding back time, at least for a while longer. A sweet old dog named Alice accompanied us, ever curious and to explore with us..
I don’t recall having ventured into another abandoned house since then, wary of trespassing laws and the possibility of self-appointed guardians popping up from the undergrowth surrounding so many of these houses with a shotgun and convincing threats.
Today the young in their 20s are far more fearless than I was, not only exploring abandoned buildings and structures, but posting fascinating YouTube videos that thousands watch, myself included, as they go from room to room with their cameras, offering up commentary that conveys their excitement and awe, especially when the structure was once a grand old Victorian structure with all the last occupant’s belongings left behind, sometimes untouched, but most of the time sadly vandalized and strewn about with often ugly and obscene graffiti on the walls. It’s heartbreaking when the cameras zoom in to for close-us of the last owners and their and their children’s treasured possessions, books, vinyl records, toys, magazines, antiques, forlorn and sad bits and pieces of lives scattered everywhere in each room. In other houses, everything is gone, but the rot, deterioration and mold of decades of exposure to the elements is apparent, and hints at a only brief time remaining before the entire structure collapses into the ground.
While I may not have been inside any abandoned houses in decades, I have photographed many a structure from a sidewalk or street, maybe from my car as I drove by. Occasionally I’ve tried to peer inside. What mysteries lurk within? My imagination takes over and I picture 19th and early 30th century family scenes in and around the house, particularly if there is a large yard with big trees and a weathered and dilapidated picket fence.
As someone once wrote, “Abandoned houses serve as a stark reminder of impermanence and the passage of time. They evoke reflections on life, decay, and the eventual fate of all human endeavors.”
I find this statement to be quite apt, and rather well summarizes what these abandoned places symbolize, and how they make me think about a past that only lives on in what is left behind, be it a house, barn, abandoned commercial buildings along a small-town Main Street, letters, diaries, photographs and films made in pre-Internet days, but which can now be digitized and shared online.
In the downtown and historic district of Charleston, and on James Island across the river from Charleston, I have discovered a number of abandoned houses, most of which I can photograph from the sidewalk. Who knows what the interiors look like? I wish I could venture inside, but that’s quite out of the question. It’s dangerous also because floors could collapse.
This year I have photographed two abandoned houses and I am posting an album of pictures of them. I also went through years of photos of old, abandoned houses that I have posted on Flickr, and put some of them in an album linked below. It’s always amazing to me how these structures can possibly be so neglected when they are beautiful and historic houses that deserve to be saved and preserved. But restoration is very costly, and so most of these old houses end up lost to time, either crumbling into piles of wood and brick, or demolished. Charleston, however, goes to extreme lengths to save all historic abandoned, or else empty houses that have seemingly been abandoned. .
This is one of my all-time favorite empty or abandoned home (not sure which) located a couple of blocks from the downtown of a small, county seat town in South Carolina. It’s been quite a number of years since I took this photo, so I don’t know whether it’s still there or has been restored. I do plan to go back there as soon as I can. It’s about an hour’s drive from where I live.
Beautiful and elegant old house
Abandoned house, downtown Charleston
https://www.flickr.com/gp/camas/9V68Dx7673
Abandoned house and surroundings, James Island, SC
https://www.flickr.com/gp/camas/06md6611J7
Some abandoned and empty houses taken in the past 15 years in South Carolina small towns, and during day trips in the country
https://www.flickr.com/gp/camas/cP945Vioc1
Kappy is one of the most prolific, dedicated and respectful of the YouTube abandoned house explorers. I have no idea how he finds out about all the places he explores and shares with his viewers and subscribers, but he’s dedicated his
life to preserving the memory of them before they collapse and disintegrate and are lost forever.
https://youtu.be/c8aku7MtLWE?si=5pLfZ64vItf1XMK-
Below is the link to Kappy’s exploration of Mayesville, SC, a fascinating town in Sumter County with a rich history. I have been to this town several times over the years and photographed there extensively. Tragically, the three-story, brick Kineen Hotel in the empty downtown, burned completely on Christmas Eve in 2020. I had so hoped to visit the town again and photograph the hotel. I will go back at some point, hopefully. Mayesville is located only a few miles from where my mother grew up.
https://youtu.be/-kK74wq5NUQ?si=4hJv4RV0IHoKlNTF
Kappy’s Main Page
https://youtube.com/@urbanexploringwithkappy1773?si=kRR5koYcfOk1Uq2a
Kappy filmed this house last year, a house abandoned with everything left behind, for who knows what sad or tragic reason.
https://youtu.be/nHF8NICD3i8?si=wfkSjY0dBqGxjQmN
Bros of Decay is one of the most viewed and popular abandoned house exploration channels on YouTube. The filmmaker is based in Belgium.
I used to explore abandoned houses when I was in college studying photography. And I also remember developing and printing black and white film. I no longer go inside of them either these days. There was one house I found that I photographed extensively during my senior year in college, from the time I found it abandoned to its restoration, sale and eventual inclusion on the National Register of Historic places. I also shot some 16mm film of it once it had been restored.
Not sure if you’ve ever heard of it, but there is an old photography book called “Ghosts along the Mississippi”. The name of the photographer is escaping me at the moment, I’d have to look it up. That book had some really cool photos of old antebellum mansions in the south that were starting to crumble away. I don’t think it is in print anymore as it was published in the 1960’s. I used to borrow the copy my college library had.
@schrecken13 It was enjoyable to read this comment about your interest in photography, and especially that one house. What created such interest in that house for you?
I’ve long known about and admired greatly “Ghosts Along the Mississippi” by the Louisiana photographer Clarence John Laughlin. I grew up in New Orleans but left right after college. We had a copy of that book in my parents’ library, and I’ve owned at least two copies. I still have one of them among my huge and unwieldy collection of books. Now I am ready to go back and explore his photographs again, as it’s been some years since I’ve looked at the book. This new train of thought about photographers I’ve long admired has inspired me to order a book tonight about Laughlin titled “Clarence John Laughlin: Visionary Photographer” by Keith F. Davis.
I’ve visited a number of Mississippi River plantations over the years, but not any of the abandoned ones that once sat in ruins. I wish I had been able to visit Belle Grove, one of the plantations Laughlin photographed, I believe. It’s sadly gone now, destroyed by a fire. This Web site looks promising. I really like the old photos of Belle Grove.
https://touringlouisianaplantations.wordpress.com/2016/04/04/belle-grove-plantation-white-castle-la
@oswego Ah, Clarence John Laughlin – I just could not think of that name! I have also visited a couple of plantation homes much further north, in Virginia, many years ago.
As for the house I photographed, I had driven by it hundreds of times, as it was not far from where I lived. I never gave it much thought until one day I suddenly developed a curiosity and decided to take a look. It was down a long lane in a big field, and I didn’t want anyone to see me, so I first explored it one night on the way home from an evening class in college. That was really something – spooky but fascinating. Then I took my camera and tripod and I did some long exposure moonlight photos of the house. Finally I got up the nerve to visit during the day and take more pictures. Then I began inquiring about the house (this was before the internet) and to make a long story short, the land it was on (multiple acres) was being annexed by the nearby town. There were fears the town would tear it down, but the town was willing to sell it to a man who made his living restoring historic homes. He was happy to allow me to document his work of restoring the house, and I even had a key for a period of time so I could come and go as I pleased and take pictures. The house started in the late 18th century as a log cabin (this was discovered during the restoration), and then in the early 19th century a Georgian style addition was added. Then, in the late 1850’s an Italianate Villa style addition was added, complete with a huge ground floor ballroom with an elaborate plaster cornice frieze and matching ceiling medallion. The ballroom also had almost floor to ceiling windows and a big fireplace. I have so many pictures of it. One of these days I am hoping to put together a slide show and upload it so others can see it.
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