Overgrown Abandoned House Swallowed by Ivy After a Fire

From the road, there is almost no house to see. The ivy has done its work so completely that only a white front door, a bay window and a stretch of roofline show through the green. The explorer who photographed it calls it the Overgrown Abandoned House, and the name is not an exaggeration — the building has been folded into the garden around it.

What the outside hides is a house that was hurt twice: once by a fire, and once by being left alone afterwards. The post that published these photographs says there is not much known about the building, other than the fire damage visible in the pictures of the inside. Everything in this article comes from that post and from the five photographs shown here.

A door in a wall of green

The featured photograph is the outside of the house, and it takes a second look to make sense of it. The ivy covers the walls from the ground to the roof, thick enough that the shape of the building underneath is mostly a guess. The white front door stands out because it is one of the few things the ivy has not covered — a pale rectangle in a wall of leaves, with a bay window just visible beside it and the roofline above.

There is no sign of a path, a fence, or a boundary that is still being kept. Grass and weeds grow right up to the door. The house does not look lived in, and it does not look as if anyone has tried to keep the garden back in a long time.

The car that never left the drive

The second photograph is the detail that stays with you. A silver, light-blue car sits on the old drive, half-buried in nettles and weeds that have grown up around its wheels and over its bonnet. A commenter on the post identifies it as a Ford Puma. Two wheelie bins — one with a red lid, one with a purple lid — stand behind it against an ivy hedge.

The post says the car is still left on the old drive, with nature taking over that as well. It is the clearest sign of how the house was left: not cleared out and locked up, but simply walked away from, with the everyday things still where they were. The bins by the hedge, the car on the drive — these are the objects of a household that stopped, mid-routine.

Burnt rooms, kept things

Inside, the fire’s mark is everywhere the photographs look. One room shows a black leather armchair with two laptops sitting on it, a Yamaha keyboard in the foreground, a CD rack and a framed ship picture on the wall. The wall behind them is damp-stained, and the room has the sooty, scorched look of a space that burned and was never cleaned up.

Another photograph shows a bust statue of a bearded man standing on a wooden cabinet, with a framed ship print and a framed animal print behind it. The wall is soot-stained, and a double wall light hangs above. A third shows a framed old-master-style painting of two boys — one eating, with a dog and a basket of fruit and vegetables — leaning against a cluttered, burnt-looking floor, an Amazon box behind it.

The post says that much of what was left behind is still in good condition, while other things are burnt out because of the fire. The photographs support that split: the laptops, the keyboard, the statue and the painting are all still recognisable, still in place, but the rooms around them are stained and scorched.

How long has it been like this?

The post offers one clue about timing. The explorer says he found things in the house dating back to 2015, and that it may have been derelict since then. That is a guess, stated as a guess in the post, and it is repeated here as one: no date for the fire, no date for when the house was last lived in, and no owner or address is given.

What the photographs do prove is that a decade of weather, growth and fire damage can turn a home into something unrecognisable from the road, while leaving the objects inside almost exactly where they were. The laptops on the armchair, the keyboard, the painting on the floor — they are still there, collecting dust and soot, because nobody came back for them.

For a contrast with a house that is lived in and on the market, see a lived-in 1902 home in Alexandria, Minnesota, where the questions are about upkeep and price rather than about what a closed house leaves behind. More houses in this condition are gathered in abandoned houses and in abandoned mansions, and the site’s front page is abandoned.blog.

FAQ

Where is the overgrown house?

No location is given in the post, and none is given here.

What happened to the house?

The post says the inside shows fire damage. No cause or date for the fire is given.

How long has it been empty?

The explorer found items dating back to 2015 and suggests it may have been derelict since then. That is his guess, not a verified date.

What is still inside?

Two laptops on a leather armchair, a Yamaha keyboard, a CD rack, a bust statue, framed pictures and an old-master-style painting, among other things — as shown in the five photographs here.

What about the car on the drive?

A silver, light-blue car sits on the old drive, half-buried in nettles and weeds. A commenter on the post identifies it as a Ford Puma.

Is anything in the house still in good condition?

According to the post, much of what was left behind is still in good condition, while other things are burnt out from the fire.

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/the-overgrown-abandoned-househidden-in-over-grown-mother-nature-is-this-abandone/1422098606622490/ — 5 of the 25 photos are shown here.