Lately in the line of my work, which I am not sure I can technically call work, I have been going into vacant buildings and taking pictures. This series, which I’m still preparing to publish on my city blog, shows the interior of a grand old mansion on a prominent city street. In the 19th century at some point, a former city mayor made this place his home. The latest residents were evicted when a bank foreclosed on the property, if I understood the details correctly.

P1010135.JPG

Walking the rooms told a bizarre story of what went on in the house. Numerous color photographs were strewn about, on the marble mantelpieces, for instance, showing raucous parties, strange Halloween costumes, and especially women posing. People struggling to take care of their homes, failing to respect the spaces around them, demonstrate how they feel about themselves.

P1010142.JPG

P1010158.JPG

P1010161.JPG

P1010165.JPG

P1010166.JPG

P1010167.JPG

P1010174.JPG

P1010175.JPG

P1010177.JPG

P1010181.JPG

6 Responses to “If walls could speak”

Strangely beautiful and creepy at the same time.

This blog post and its accompanying articles reminded me of the issues you’ve been chronicling in your blog. I thought you might like to see it.

Malik, thank you for the link, which led me to more interesting photos at archinect.com. Where I live there is seemingly a lot in common with Detroit (elevant in your link), although there is a different scale in my city of 152,000, and a different set of perhaps New England-specific problems. The depth and reach of abandoned structures combined with other social ills is overwhelming, and numbing, in a way, but it’s also inspiring in terms of the opportunities for change possibly within reach. Buildings like these speak to me of past dignity and still-present, yet currently ignored, nobility that is also symbolic of our humanity. This bit from the archinect.com article captures some of this for me:

“We have little reason to be concerned about forgotten lives; no interest in using the spaces in the city that have been long abandoned, and no reason to repurpose building elements or materials that can be found among the broken down architectures of our cities. We often don�t recognize poor people when we see them and we can usually live lives separate from theirs if we want to; we have plenty of space in this country, and we are confident that more new materials are always at the ready. For the sake of many persons, in many places, this can no longer be the case.”

This house is so beautiful. I can’t believe that it is just abandoned. Is there so much more damage that you did not show?

I don’t know enough about Springfield to fully understand why these lovely houses were abandoned (of course I have my guesses as to why)…but I’m sure that with such lovely architecture, gentrification will be in full effect in no time. I should email these photos to every Angeleno paying $2K in rent for an apartment. It won’t be long till you all get transplants from the west coast housing market.

thanks for posting this heather.

i think it’s such a sin to let our amazing city’s (or your former city’s) historical homes go to ruin!

=(

Something to say?

You must be logged in to post a comment.