If This House Could Talk

At what point do you realize that this is not functional and needs to come down?

My husband and I went on a trip to Austin in March and I saw an old abandoned house by the road and decided to take a picture of it. Then I saw another abandoned house, and another, and another. As I am seeing these dilapidated houses, barns and businesses I am wondering what is their story? We always see the half standing, or the completely demolished barns that in some cases are still being used, and my guess is that it is either cost, laziness or stupidity that the owners are not repairing them.

It looks like they are actually storing something in this barn.

It is amazing to me that there are so many barns in complete shambles.  Is this even safe? Are the owners not worried about the rest of the barn falling on their kids or themselves? There were so many barns that were still being used and I wonder what shelter they are possibly providing the products they are storing "inside".

I am not really sure this is a barn. Could be a house.

But the bigger question to me is what happened to dilapidated and abandoned homes?

This looks like it was a grand home at one time.

Personally, they make me sad. I wonder if they were family homes passed down to the next generation and they just couldn't keep it going. Did they lose the house because of a failing farm or ranch? What makes someone walk away, or what drives them away, from their home? Sometimes you will see an abandoned dilapidated house sitting on the property in close proximity to a newer house. In this case why are you keeping the older house? Memories? Or, is it just that much more expensive to tear it down?  So many questions!

This little house looks so sad.

Two abandoned houses on Main Street in a small Texas town.

This old abandoned business had a tree growing up through it.

Some abandoned or bordered up homes or business, were on the main streets in very small towns. Was the town once booming? Did they have a bustling cattle and farming community?  I picture a granary in the downtown area where the farmers drive their grain to ship out to places all across the country. Were there stock yards in town for the cattle ranches in the community? Maybe they were a oil town that went bust. Many, I am sure, were just people falling on hard times and had to move to bigger cities to find work.

I wonder what this house looked like in its hay day.

The story teller in me wants to know their history. I want to know the people that lived in that house, or ran that business. What drove them away? What are they doing now?