Dead Houses :Rural Ohio In Pictures
George Corneliussen
* To view larger versions of these pictures, click on Article Images ( upper left ).
This special edition of "Rural Ohio In Pictures" features houses from bygone eras that have died on their tracts in remote areas of the Ohio countryside.
Between 1995 and 2001, I took many pictures on the Sunday rides my wife and took (and still take) in rural Ohio. All these images were taken within a hundered mile radius of Cincinnati. They are all 35mm, the film speeds vary. All pictures are copyrighted.
1880's Large Family Farm House
Small Farm House 1920's
Inside View 1880's Farm House
No Roof = No Walls
1870's Era Wood-Frame Farm House
1880's Brick Farm House
Depression Era Owner Operated Store
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Comments: 62
Thanks, It is amazing how the angle of a shot makes it or breaks it.
After I took the store picture, I went inside. There wasn't much left, but you could definitely tell it used to be a store. It felt like "the owner" was still in there, and was waiting for me to buy something.
They are beautiful, but they are disappearing fast. Because of feared liabilty and escalating land values, many of these old ghosts are gone.
Best wishes,
~Z~
I love your Dead House Edition. Did you resist the urge to grab one of those 7up signs from the abandoned store's windows? They sure seem tempting.
Thanks
I have Adobe Photoshop Elements. You can preview photos in black & white, sepia, old time photo, etc. While they look cool in with these effects added this time around I went with my own composition.
Thanks, It is really nice to have a place to show these.
Thanks, It's really interesting revisiting these pictures, since some go back eleven years.
You know, I did resist the urge. It wasn't easy.
You are more right than you know.
Friendly ghosts. Maybe we should call buildings like these "caspers".
Thanks ! It's neat to know people like these shots of old homesteads. They are special places.
At the time it was home to Susie the Deer. She was a wild doe that adopted the town and expected treats on demand.
Indiana has more than it's fair share of these type of "photo ops". The farm country there can be beautiful.
PS: I think Susie has quite s few Ohio relatives.
I love this! I'm primarily commenting now so I can quickly go back to it and look at this on my larger monitor on home...
I'll be back with something real to say later.
In most cases, these houses outlived the economy of their times. Big houses on farm land became white elephants when farmers started moving to the city for work in the early 1900's.
Thanks, cruise at your leisure.
I'm fascinated because every one of these has a story to it -- I wonder how many family tales we could write with these homes as material?
And, when a house crumbles like these, what happens to the ghosts who are staked out there?
Like Hannah, there's a nightmarish quality to them...
Thanks, most of the credit for the lighting goes to the laws of nature. For the most part, I walk around each scene until a particular angle grabbed me.
At least these structures survive if that happens. I've seen way too many that have rotted beyond repair.
When you walk around these houses or go inside, you feel the vibe of the lives that used to fill them. And, this is no lie, stories come flooding in everytime you do.
It would be easiest to say that these old houses are a great source of fiction, but the stories that seep into your soul as you walk around these places usually doesn't feel like fiction at all. It makes you wonder.
It's hard not to feel like somebody is still living in these places when you visit them.
Home is where the heart and soul is.
Thanks, It is really rewarding to share them.
Every generation changes from the one before it. In most cases, the lifestyles that made these house necessary in the first place disappeared. As farms gave way to city jobs the houses were left behind.
Many farm families 100 years ago had ten or fifteen children in them, so they needed big houses. The kids were the built-in labor pool. As technology replaced the kids on the farms, and farm jobs began to disappear many of these old houses were simply left behind.
I know what you mean. When I was a kid, there was a store very much like this one where I hung out a lot.
What's really interesting is how much the lighting determines the feeling of the picture. Some of these same places on a bright sunny day feel warm and fuzzy.
I know what you mean. There's still some of the type of landscape you speak of around here, but you have to drive farther and farther to find it. Att least it's still here.
It does look like Marshal Dillion could come walking out of it at any minute.
Thanks, very kind of you .
That's something to think about, thanks.
I agree, especially the part about wondering about the lives that happened inside these places.
Hope you share more soon!
Every year, more and more of these relics disappear. These are within a fifty mile radius of Cincinnati.
Great job!
Sadly, these beautiful relics are disappearing rapidly. I'm glad I took these pictures when I did.
my SCENIC OHIO & NY
Home is where the spirit is.