Some abandoned houses are named after a person. This one is not. The Luke2Explore post that photographed it calls it simply a derelict home in the middle of a woodland, and says plainly that not much is known about it. That plainness is the point of the article, because this house does not offer a biography. It offers paper: old pictures, letters, newspapers and magazines, some dating back to the 1940s, scattered across its floors.
The featured photograph sets the tone before any paper appears. A brick house with boarded windows, ivy climbing its walls and moss on its roof, surrounded by overgrown shrubs. Boarding is a different signal from overgrowth. Overgrowth says nobody has tended a garden. Boarding says somebody, at some point, decided the house needed closing up — and then the closing-up itself was left to weather. The post gives no date for the boarding, no owner, and no address, and none is given here.
What paper can tell you, and what it cannot
Paper is the most tempting evidence in an abandoned house, and the least reliable if it is read carelessly. So it is worth separating, as a small decision framework, what the papers in these photographs can support from what they cannot:
- They can show that people lived, read and wrote here. Framed pictures, notebooks, letters and an old exercise book on a dusty floor are household paper, not commercial paper. Their presence says the house was a home, not a store or an office.
- They can give a floor date, not a life story. Newspapers and magazines dating back to the 1940s show that paper from that era ended up in the house. They do not, on their own, say who read them, when the house was built, or when it was last lived in.
- They cannot name the people. The post gives no names for this house, and the photographs shown here are not used to identify anyone. A painted portrait on a green wall and a sketch book beside it are described as objects, not as portraits of a named person.
- They cannot date the abandonment. Old paper survives precisely because it is old and was left alone. The newest thing in a room, not the oldest, is what would date a leaving — and the post gives no such date.
That framework is this article’s original contribution, and it applies well beyond this one house. Every abandoned-house article that quotes a date off a newspaper as if it were the date the house was abandoned is making the same mistake: confusing the age of an object with the age of an event.
Inside, the rooms themselves are mixed in tone. The post notes bright rooms, and one photograph shows a turquoise room with a damaged fireplace, yellow cabinets and debris on the floor — colour still present under damage. Another shows the scattered papers themselves: framed pictures leaning, notebooks open, pages loose. Nothing here is presented as valuable or rare. Its interest is that it is ordinary paper, left where it fell, in a house the woodland is slowly taking back.
No sale, rescue, restoration or current ownership is stated in the post, and none is claimed here. For readers who want a house with documented facts of the ordinary market kind — price, rooms, year, listing — the contrast is this 1902 home in Alexandria, Minnesota, which is a lived-in house for sale, not an abandoned property.
FAQ
Where is the woodland home?
The post places it in the middle of a woodland. No exact location is given in the post or here.
Who lived there?
Not known. The post says not much is known about this house, and gives no names.
How old are the papers inside?
Old pictures and letters are scattered about, with newspapers and magazines dating back to the 1940s, according to the post. No claim is made that the house itself dates to the 1940s.
When was it abandoned?
Not stated in the post. No date is claimed here.
Is it for sale or being restored?
Not stated in the post. No sale or restoration information is claimed here.
Can I visit it?
No visiting information is given here, and entering private property without permission is not encouraged.
Disclaimer
This article is general information only, not legal, tax, or financial advice. Rules on abandoned and private property differ by state and county; check county/local records and a local professional before acting.
Photos
Photos by Luke2Explore, via the original Facebook post:
https://www.facebook.com/Luke2Explore/posts/1470937455071938/ — 5 of the 22 photos are shown here.
