"Trinity" . . . Yep - - Please expect a set of three posts here as well another excellent video from yours truly. This is Post #1 of 3 of a recent rural exploration I took in with our most excellent UrbEx buddy neX who acted as local guide in this neck of the woods near Aurora.
This old farmhouse had a very lovely addition to it on the east side (not shown here). Surrounding by residential and commercial development on all sides, this location gave a flavour as to what a working farm looked like here less than a decade ago.
It had appeared that the last time an interior decorator popped around to this place may have been in the late '70's / early '80's. You may call this hideous and want to beat the former owners with a style stick, but I call the shizzle 'retro-licious' !
There is a theme most avian to these two images. One is of a bookshelf in the west living room retro-fitted to house an aviary. The other is a robin, quite dead in the basement . . . or perhaps just asleep / dreaming and pining for the fiords.
Here in the image on the left, my narcissistic side is showing itself in my photographic work. I am also somewhat 'hooked' on this image on the right taken from the front hall . . . (get it - - 'hooked' ! - that was a funny there).
The stairs and arrangement of rooms upstairs were very typical to just about every other farmhouse I had been in dating from this era. The only bit of interest to be had up here was the interior electrical wiring exposed by the removed floor-board (image on right). Unfortunately that image did not really turn out.
I have noted with a casual interest that in many abandonments, I have explored, the previous owners often leave behind toilet plungers and brushes. Although I am rather certain that there is a good reason for this, the answer is presently just beyond my grasp. Also, it was noted that this house was operating with an older version of Windows from which I am sure they had a beautiful rural vista.
This particular barn did not hold much interest for me, that being said in comparison to the wonderful barn neX toured through which will be revealed in our third Aurora Rural-Ex Trinity post.
~Stay tuned kiddies, more to come.
Until next time, Happy + Safe Exploring.
aka - The 'Crime-Scene' House
The Township of Oro-Medonte is located just a titch north and east of Barrie and has previously offered up a number of decent abandonments worthy of exploration. This lovely abandoned farmhouse provided decent photographic opportunities and a good number of personal effects left behind by the last denizens.
Those who have had the pleasure of exploring with us know we deeply respect each property we visit and the privacy of the owners. Shown here is our very own JuicyFruitKisses knocking of the (boarded-up) door to ask permission to photograph . . . no owner could be found.
We checked the washroom (read: outhouse), out back and still could not find anyone. Personally, I rather like outhouses . . . you might say I have a 'leaning' for these comfortable commodes.
Speaking of commodes, I am starting to feel that this post is developing a theme . . . perhaps even its own movement. According to a recent survey, this model 245 PortaPottie beat the competition checks down. A poke with a prudently long stick produced a sloshing sound . . . we're hoping its rain-water.
Moving along - we discovered the remnants of a vintage television in the field behind the house. I could not find the remote control so had to 'manually' switch channels using a "dial". I kept getting the same program where this crazy red-head is jeering at me.
As we continued our reconnoiter out back, we also discover that the previous occupant may have been a fancier of outdoor motorised winter sports. We suspect this hobby had a short life . . . from 1969 to 1971.
We found covers for a 1969 Moto-Ski as well as a 1971 Ski-Doo Nordic, shown below with the garish product brochures from the day.
We probed the remnants of the barn which also contained a limited number of items (including another toilet). Observing that the structural integrity was questionable, we left . . . we were sort of 'tired' of this anyway.
On the way back up to the house, I ate a bit more on my memory card with these two shots. I realised two things as I took these . . . (1) no farmhouse is complete without a rusty wheel-barrow parked in the middle of a field and . . (2) I was taking a lot of black and white images.
It is now the part of the post where I explain the alternative title - Oro 'Crime Scene House'. JFK spotted this in the middle of the overgrown track just behind the house.
That's right, several yards of OPP crime scene tape and a 12-gauge casing. If any readers or members of the local constabulary know what may have gone down here on the 7th Line, please let us know.
Near the back door was this relic from another time . . . a time when smiling uniformed milk delivery staff would provide dairy goodness in these metal cases. Don't get too reminiscent, this was also a time of manual channel changing.
Evidence found inside the house from periodicals and fashion faux-pas indicate that the domicile was last inhabited in 1995. We also learned that the previous owners enjoyed vodka and Dobel (a product of a Mexican mistake between tequila and kahlua).
This house was constructed in a day where electric base-board heaters was just a wet-dream of your local utility. We see here the stove flue piping its way up through the upstairs bedroom and then outside.
Attached to the bedroom upstairs was this room featuring a funky tile design and this lovely old-skool hi-fi stereo console. Unfortunately it appeared that a raccoon used the console to dump in . . . repeatedly.
If you every had the pleasure of driving north of Toronto via highway 400, you would likely have had to drive through the 'Holland Marsh', just outside of Bradford. This is the largest area of organic (muck) soil developed for agriculture in Ontario and one of the most intensive areas of agricultural production in the Canada. This is the reason why they call it Ontario's vegetable basket (sorry - not sure exactly who 'they' are). Naturally a swamp, drainage of the wetlands began in 1925 and was completed by 1930. The marsh's length is about 15 km and its width about 4 km.
Some History . . Straight from the Plaque - The Plaque don't lie -
THE DUTCH SETTLEMENT OF HOLLAND MARSH
The Holland Marsh consists of 7,000 acres of reclaimed land in the Schomberg River Valley. Named after an early provincial official, this fertile area was drained between 1925 and 1930. John Snor, Canadian represenative of the Netherlands Emigration Foundation, visited the sparsely settled marsh and proposed the relocation here of recent Dutch immigrants in Ontario. Assisted by grants from the Netherlands, Canada and Ontario, fifteen Dutch families many from Friesland and Gronigen originally, settled on the marsh in 1934 and formed the nucleus of the community of Ansnorvelot. Later, Dutch farmers settled throughout the marsh , through skilled farming practice and co-operative management, the Dutch were the first group successfully to develop the marsh as one of Ontario's most important vegetable growing districts.
This particular abandonment is pretty much right in the middle of the Holland Marsh, just west of highway 400. I would often see this place in the distance from the road but never had the time to stop by and smell the roses, or rather mildew as it were.
I often imagined that this structure was at one time the domicile of a lovely agrarian couple who, perhaps, had upgraded and kept this on to house seasonal workers. I was unable to find anything to support this during the exploration.
There were obvious signs of fire damage but it appeared to have been contained to only a limited portion of the east end of the house. The vines in front of the door here presented a very nice fire-red colour perhaps echoing the conflagration.
In fact, on the wall beside the obligatory 'keep out' posting, someone had scrawled the word "fire" (??).
I wish people would use these words in a full sentence.
Given the fact that the agricultural real estate is so precious here, I am rather surprised that the previous owner did not raze it for radishes. A considerable volume of detritus was laid up along the property from the adjacent fields so I guess that even in its abandoned state it is fulfilling a purpose of sorts.
Everything and the kitchen sink seemed to have grown legs at this house and walked off.
Personally, I blame gypsies.
One item the gypsies did not take was this richly upholstered chair. From this image it is readily clear that sneaky dirty raccoons had carried off the stuffing.
Did I mention the exquisitely-design open concept of the house? One would be quite thankful for this on a hot summer's eve for any draft to blow through.
Given the lack of screens, I do not think the former occupants worried about disease-laden mosquitoes.
The only life still left in the house was moss. Specifically, Plantae, Division Bryophyta, Class Bryopsida, or your common window-sill sitting moss.
If you're ever in a pinch for 'fresh greens' . . .
On the way out from this place out on the marsh, I went looking for a location tip from fellow Urban (Rural) Explorer Mr. Nitromare. He described a fairly pristine abandonment dying a natural death on the wrong side of the canal . . . I found it.
One of the reasons why this is pristine is because it is largely inaccessible to a$$-hat vandals and tag monkey.
One would need a boat or commit to a good hour hike into some bad-a$$ swamp land to get to it.
Alternatively, if one were a brave soul and the ice thick enough, you just might be able to walk across the frozen canal.
I will just admire from afar for now.
Happy and Safe Exploring.
If you are a gypsy or a raccoon, please direct to hate mail via the comments box.
