The Blue House: A Soldier’s Farmhouse Left for 25 Years
Twenty-five years is a long time for a house to stand with its owner’s life still inside it. This old farmhouse is said to have been abandoned for over 25 years, and the photographs show what that kind of time does to a home: paint peeling in sheets, plaster falling, dust over everything — and, underneath it all, the small personal things that never got taken away. Boots. Clothes. Photographs scattered across a desk. A handbag hanging on a chair. Everything in this article comes from the post that published the photographs and from the five photographs shown here.
The house has two names, and the post explains both. It is the Blue House because the living room and bedroom were decorated in blue, and the paint is still peeling off the walls in that colour. It is the Guards House because a photograph found inside shows the man who lived there in a guards outfit. The post says he was a soldier who one day vanished without retrieving his belongings. That is the post’s telling of it, and it is presented as such — not as a verified fact.
A stone farmhouse going back to the field
The featured photograph shows the house from across an overgrown field. It is a stone farmhouse, or rather two stone buildings under slate roofs, with tall stone chimneys, ivy climbing over the walls, and grass growing long all around it. The sky is clear and blue, which makes the ruin look almost peaceful — until you look at the stonework and see how much of it is open to the weather.
The post says the kitchen extension on the other side of the house is now completely in ruin, with only parts of it remaining. The five photographs do not show that side, so the state of the kitchen is the post’s claim, not something visible here. What the photographs do show is a house that has been decaying for a long time, and doing so slowly, from the inside out.
Blue paint, peeling off the walls
The living-room photograph is where the house’s first name comes from. The walls are blue, or were: the paint is peeling and flaking across the whole room, and the plaster underneath is bare in places. A fireplace stands against one wall with a framed portrait above the mantel and an oval portrait hanging beside it. A small round table holds a teapot and a framed photograph. A wooden chair stands in the debris on the floor.
It is a room that was once decorated with care and then left to the damp. The teapot on the table is the detail that stays with you — an ordinary object, left where it was put down, in a room nobody has sat in for decades.
The desk that tells the story
The last two photographs are the heart of this post, because they show the things the man left behind. One is a close-up of a worn beige leather handbag hanging on the back of a wooden chair, with old photographs, letters and a book scattered on the chair seat below it, against a crumbling plaster wall. The other is a desk top: an old wedding group photograph — bride, groom and bridesmaids — smaller old photographs beside it, a handwritten birthday card decorated with a rose and a horseshoe, a lace cloth, and a 1964 change-of-address card.
The 1964 card is the one hard date in the whole set, and it is visible in the photograph itself. Everything else about the man’s life comes from the post: that some items left behind date back to the late 1800s, that his boots and clothes were still there, never to be worn again, and that photographs on the desk show him with his partner and in his guards outfit. The post gives no name, no date for when he left, and no explanation of what happened to him beyond the word “vanished”. None of that is claimed here as verified fact.
What 25 years does to a house
The bedroom-corner photograph shows the same decay from another angle: a wooden chest of drawers with a mirror, old photographs and papers scattered across it, a small clock, an open trunk with clothes spilling out, and a wooden chair holding a handbag and books. The plaster on the walls is bare and crumbling. Dust and cobwebs cover everything, the post says, and the photographs agree.
The post describes the house as a place where “you can feel the emptiness of this once lived in home of now just sadly decaying with sadness.” That is the explorer’s own feeling, and it is fair to quote it as such. What the photographs prove on their own is simpler: a stone farmhouse, blue-painted rooms, and a man’s belongings — photographs, letters, a handbag, a trunk of clothes — left in place for a very long time.
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
Why is it called the Blue House?
Because the living room and bedroom were decorated in blue, according to the post — and the peeling blue paint is still visible on the walls in the photographs.
Why is it also called the Guards House?
Because a photograph found inside shows the man who lived there in a guards outfit, according to the post.
Who lived there?
According to the post, a soldier who one day vanished without retrieving his belongings. No name is given, and the post gives no date for when he left.
How long has the house been abandoned?
Over 25–26 years, according to the post, which was published on 31 May 2023.
What is still inside?
Boots and clothes, photographs scattered on a desk — including a wedding group photograph and a 1964 change-of-address card visible in the photographs — a handbag on a chair, an open trunk of clothes, and a teapot on a table in the blue living room.
What condition is the house in?
Very derelict, according to the post: dust, cobwebs, peeling blue paint, crumbling plaster, and the kitchen extension in ruin with only parts remaining.
Where is the house?
No address or place is given in the post, and none is given 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/this-stunning-old-farm-house-is-known-as-the-blue-house-or-the-guards-house-and-/636369798528712/ — 5 of the 34 photos are shown here.
