This house is a mystery for which I have clues but no answers.



History:

Seemingly abandoned sometime in the last few years, this stately home in a nice neighborhood has  changed owners nearly half a dozen times in the last 15 years. The family that seemed to live here most recently has complete disappeared.

While the home is currently empty, one could get the distinct impression that something rather horrible befell the family that lived here. Some of the last personal property left in the house (and not dumped out back like so much trash) were family photo albums - showing a seemingly happy couple (though rarely seen in the same photo) with young children. They seemed to live in an apartment nearby before buying this house and only living in it a very short while.

I found the wife's /homeowners name via online searches. The only direct hit on her fairly common name was on an NYS.gov website for persons whom the state had received money and were holding should said person or their next of kin come forward. It seems an insurance company had tried to send her a payment but could not get in contact with her.

I once found the name of a recently deceased relative on this list.

Perhaps the family defaulted on the mortgage and left the country. Who knows really. The fact that they seemed to have left so much personal property behind - especially the photo albums - is just plain strange.



Exploring:

Weird place to be, really. At the time, all of the doors to this house were flapping in the breeze. The house itself is large open and airy. A pleasant place to walk through, though we were on the lookout for squatters. Strangely none had taken up residence here.

The house itself has seen some severe vandalism. The walls are punched in all over the place, wiring and pipes have all been scrapped out. Graffiti artists have used it as their own gallery.

Some walls have large cracks - I suspect the building on a whole has some severe structural damage that would make it completely unsellable.

It's always strange to visit a house like this in NYC. The property here is worth roughly $1M - and here it is - abandoned. With property values what they are it's very rare to find a place like this. Assuming this building has a proper owner right now, I can't imagine it will last long.