Faded glory
Delray Beach, FL, December 2008 [Click to enlarge]
Just because something's drab (see here for more on Thematic...) doesn't mean it's always been so. Often, we see glimpses of past glory. But only if we take the time to notice.
No one takes much notice of this abandoned house these days. Part of me wishes they did, because it's easy to imagine the right person with the right capabilities returning this substantial piece of architecture back to its rightful place as a family's home and a center of their world.
If only...
Your turn: Who might have lived here? Can you paint the picture?
One more thing: Have you captioned yet?
You're going to be kissed, and kissed hard by someone who knows how. And you're going to like it.
ReplyDeleteThe voice of Rhett Butler could be heard faintly in the wind.
If you listened hard enough you could almost hear Scarlett's sigh.
Colonel Sanders
Mmm... I'm not getting Rhett's voice. More like Fred Gwynne or John Astin.
ReplyDeleteFunny thing, I had a bit of "past glory" for today's offering too, only on a much smaller scale.
Thematic Photographic 42: "Drab" v.2.0: We Used To Play Here
This one is sad and drab.
ReplyDeleteSo much like what's going on today with foreclosures on peoples' homes....
The morticians house stands idle now...
ReplyDeleteit wasn't that he lacked business.
It was because he was his own final customer.
Now THIS is drab .. and sad .. I hate empty houses
ReplyDeleteThe house looks like it was quite grand in better days. Sad to see such classic looking architecture fall to ruin.
ReplyDeleteThose columns are amazing - I'll bet the house is huge and maybe has secret panels and trap doors. Sounds intriguing!
ReplyDeleteHello, Michele NetChick sent me.
ReplyDeleteAnd I'm glad she did, because I've lived in the Delray Beach area, and I love pics of old houses, barns, building. Beautiful!
Faded Glory, nostalgia.
ReplyDeleteSadness with potential, very mixed emotions and more so because the image is clinical in its execution... unlike the film openings where the leaves in front of the boarded up door are blown away by the wind as the years peel back and the house comes alive again with the noise of the family... you pan round to the open french windows ...I'm sure I've watched that introduction a few times...
If you get the chance have a look for Tony & Eva Worobiec's book "Ghosts in the Wilderness: Abandoned America"[Pub AAPL Artists and Photographers' Press London 2003] where there are some really great images of abandoned farmsteads and I recall someone recently did something similar on the west coast of Ireland.
Don't you just want to open the door and ... I do..
I'm sure a large grand house like that was home to a family. Wealthy Plantation owner with a beautiful wife and 5 children. Three boys and two girls. Lots of parties and frivolity.
ReplyDeleteHi Carmi. NetChick sent me.
Great to *meet* you :)
Thought about the idea of what was once grand now not so much and remembered my stay in Baltimore a few years ago. We called the part of town we were in alternately "balt-i-less" or "balti-not-any-more". Right in the middle of this is the Peabody Institute (including Peabody Conservatory) of Johns Hopkins University. The Institute takes up a city block and is effectively a walled fortress. There are only a few points of ingress and egress from the campus, and those are strictly monitored. The Conservatory turns out some of the finest musicians in the world, but I would imagine that most of them emerge lightly more demented than when they went in. At times during our visit, it seemed like they'd even locked out the sunlight. (Which, inside the buildings, they actually had owing to the ancient tapestries and other artwork that would be ruined by direct sunlight.)
ReplyDeleteBut outside the campus, life in the city is like most urban centers. Not especially artistic, and not always pretty.
And sometimes downright drab.
Thematic Photographic 42: "Drab" v.3.0
The wind comes in from the east, bringing a freshness that wakes him up each morning- it's easy to go to work with that sort of start.
ReplyDeleteShe wakes when the youngsters wake, make the most of the sleep.
The young ones leave. Then he goes, lingers but finally leaves in a pile of flowers, sentiments and offers of condolances.
She still cleaned the steps, used the back door though now.
Then people noticed she was alone. Son in Law saw to the metal shutters after the third break in, but after the fourth she moved into a home. For a rest.Just for a while.They keep an eye on the old house. So they say