Sunday, June 08, 2008

sunday at duncan manor



This magnificent home is called Duncan Manor and it's huge and old and up until today
has been quite mysterious. It's located far up a looooong lane in the middle of nowhere.
It is so huge that it's easily seen from the highway though and I swear every person who lives around here has uttered these words when driving past:
"I would love to see what that house looks like on the inside."

For years it was rumored to have been part of the underground railroad. I have done my part to perpetuate this myth, only recently hearing the truth (that it was not built yet during the times when the underground railroad would have been effective.)

This home has sat empty for as long as i've been alive. A couple of months ago a couple purchased the house. The woman is the president of the local "Old House Society" and the husband is a contractor. They plan to restore it and make it their residence.
I read in the paper that due to such a huge response from local residents that they were going to offer tours of the home in the "before" stages.

We drove to a nearby school where a bus picked up all the curious people and paid our $10 per person. (The money was all being donated to the Old House Society). They did the tours two days and had hundreds of people go through the house.

In the bottom photo you can see the back of the house and the amazing open air patios between the two sections of home. There is one on the main floor and the second floor. This was the coolest thing about the house (close up photo on wikipedia). You walk from one bedroom out onto the patio and then into the master bedroom. All of the windows (something like 65) were ceiling to floor (10ft), of course they were all busted out and graffiti lined many of the walls but good bones are good bones.

Each bedroom had a massive ornamental fireplace, the doors in the parlor were still in tact and massive. Up the winding staircase there were niches with marble bases (can't believe they were still in perfect condition). There was a second staircase that was much more narrow (the servants stairs) and it went all the way up to the third floor. In the third floor attic (which a very cool room that the new owners son told me he wants to convert into his bedroom) was a ladder leading up to the roof balcony thing that can be seen in the top photo (that is the front of the home). We weren't allowed to go up the ladder for safety reasons.

The couple have said that they are going to offer another tour when the project is finished.

6 comments:

Anonymous said...

Hi. I was there yesterday too. It was so much fun to see the house from the inside after spending so many years wishing I knew what it was like. I can't wait to see the finished product.

flyingvan said...

Did they say what they paid for it?

princess slea said...

no numbers have been mentioned. i'm curious about that too.
i do know a bunch of area businesses have donated materials for the reno.

if you want to see interior pictures, click on carrie's link in my comments. she has pictures posted and a link to her other shots.

Galoot said...

Where do you park the "Mystery Machine"?

flyingvan said...

Geez---are you guys getting flooded out again??? Why don't you pack up and move out here? We already burned everything down so there's no more fire threat..No tornadoes, floods, etc....Well OK we have killer bees and rampant liberalism. Hurry because everything east of the San Andreas fault is going to slip into the Atlantic ocean soon

princess slea said...

Floods, Tornadoes, Earthquakes ~ you name it. It must be from Global Warming! (wink wink)