This was the home of Melville who was born in 1906. He married a woman named Ruth, also born in 1906 and together they raised six children: J., G., R., G., V. and V. The family were Jehovah’s Witnesses which is evident in the 35 mm slide photos. The photos, taken in 1972, show an assembly of Jehovah’s Witnesses which likely saw members from around the world attend.
Melville passed away in 1980, and Ruth passed away in 1970. Shortly after Melville passed away, the house was transferred to one of the sons. The son would have been about 41 when he inherited the house from his father. Interestingly enough, there was another house title transfer in 2006 but with the same names on the title.
The house was lived in between 2006-2008 so I’m inclined to think that it was vacated around that time.
The house was built in 1870.
This is what I would call a time crapsule. It contains some great memories preserved in time, but due to the messy state of the interior, isn’t well suited to photography. There was so much stuff on the floor, in the sink, and strewn about, that the interior didn’t photograph well. I decided to go for documentation over well framed photos.
Entry to the house is difficult. The porch is rotten and there is debris blocking the doorway. You have to slide your way past electrical wire missing its outer insulation. In order to enter the house, my body literally had to touch the hydro line. There is working power inside!
As for who’s paying the hydro, I believe that the son lives nearby in a more modern house. It’s unclear why they moved out of the other house, but I can only guess due to the aging state of it.
The main floor contains computer equipment, hundreds of old 35mm slides, and two video cameras.
The kitchen is very messy. If you examine the photos of the 35 mm slides, you’ll notice that the tiles on the wall in the kitchen match exactly with the video of the kitchen. These photos were taken inside the house. Also the exterior window brick design matches that of the slides.
There were a lot of papers and letters to be found. This is the type of location one could spend hours in, gathering information and looking through drawers, etc. I was somewhat rushed because my exploring companion was unable to safely make it through the doorway due to the hydro wires and so he waited outside. For that reason, and the messy state of the house, there are limited photos and video footage.
Upstairs, I discovered a room filled with movie video laserdiscs a wall full of baseball hats from which the location found it’s name. I didn’t spend a lot of time exploring the upper portion of the house as by now I was wanting to get back to my exploring companion.
There are calendars dated 1984 and 2008 as if the house is broken up into two different times in history.
Cell Phone Photos (admittedly terrible quality)
Video
518 35mm slides dated between 1972 to 1975
Images can be opened in a new window as full size
