Exploring mansions

A few weeks ago my friends and I found ourselves up early and ready for a long(ish) ride to an undisclosed part of the tri-state. We had an address and open back door to get to. After about a two hour drive we finally found her, a rare gem as not many explorers had been here, there was also not a trace of any graffiti or noticeable vanadium. From the outside it looked massive, a giant among the small and average homes near by, it had beautiful stone work and balconies as well as a large garage attached. When we walked inside we were greeted by an incredible main stairway that ascended three floors. there was enormous living room with a ornate carved plaster ceilings and fireplaces not only in the living room areas but in most of the bed rooms as well. There was a study and amazing hard wood floors large windows to let in lots of light which was nice for natural light shooting but the were not well covered well by the sheer curtains and had people been walking by being off a main road, they would of most definitely been able to see us making shooting in some spots was more difficult than others. In the living room the only furniture left was a single red chair in the center(to perfect) and a desk off to the side. Down the hall was another living room / den space with a few construction items and a discarded wheel chair eerily placed in the center of the room, the most interesting part of this room though, was the large closet sized safe built into the wall and made to be hidden behind an unassuming door. Yes is was obviously empty. Exploring this place was a lot of fun with so many rooms to all with different colors and changing decor themes that went with the passing decades. There was shag carpeting in some rooms consistent with the style of the seventies and old vintage furniture that looked out of the forties . There were pink bathrooms with claw foot tubs, a child’s room with a few puzzle pieces and a lost teddy bear. Some parts of the house showed more decay and water damage than others but this was one of the few that with the right amount of love and elbow grease, it could absolutely be restored to its former glory. I won’t spend all day telling you about each room and all this house’s personality, that is what my photos are for, but I will give you some history as always. Built in 1903 as the home of a successful industrialist who made his fortune starting a sewing machine company, this home is a 14 bed room 6 bathroom time machine. The american industrial revolution made a many insightful business men very wealthy and they often spent their wealth building lavish homes to reside in and entertain high society friends. This home was certainly lavish, you could see how much care went into building it by the way it still holds up today. The original owner died in 1910, it was than turned into a rest home for the ladies of the masonic lodge which explains why you could see the evidence of elderly care as some of the bathrooms had handicap bars and the other medical equipment like walkers and wheel chairs that were left behind. From researching online it seems that the home for ladies closed in 1990 and the present owners have had it since 1996. They have done a great job with keeping it from crumbling and restored parts of it over the years, with a project like that its hard to say if it will ever be finished but I would love to see it lived in again. A place like that still has a few good decades left live deserves to have people love it. In reading some of the comments from the owners online they even found a time capsule containing a newspaper from 1902 and a piece of paper with the builders names on it in one of the hollow wooden columns when they were replacing the porch! that is some thing I have always wanted to find since I was kid reading mystery and adventure novels. This mansion was as I said a gem! And from what I heard has since been locked up tight, now like its own giant time capsule and it will sit there waiting to be opened again hopefully by people who will enjoy it as much as we did! Check out some of these awesome before and after shots below as well as the cool shots I got in the More galleries tab. Also stay tuned for my friends video over at the need for exploration on youtube because you know that’s going to be an awsome episode!