Ninja and I awoke at our campsite at Presqu'ile Provincial Park to the sound of raindrops splashing off of our tent this past Saturday morning, and decided it was time to hit the road in search of abandonments. Within minutes we were pulled to the shoulder of the road under a drizzling grey sky, approaching this old house with its yellow siding and brown aluminum roof in the small community of Smithfield, in Brighton, Ontario.
According to his diploma tacked to a wall and covered in spider webs, William Joseph Prarndargast graduated from York University in 1996 with a Masters Degree in Business Administration. According to his obituary, William Joseph "Bill" Prendergast passed away accidentally in Brighton in 2007, at the age of 50, and was cremated and buried in Burlington.
According to me and my best guesses, based merely on conjecture, this was a second home, and Mr. Prendergast ran a business of some sort from this house in Brighton. This is based on the office space in the house, the four fridges in what should have been a living room, the piles of salvageable metals and dozens of fire extinguishers in a corner, and a gut feeling.
Rumour has it that this house was also once a train station, with the old rail bed still out back.
We made very quick work of the place, as from a photographic viewpoint, it was nothing special. The highlights were the photographs on the floor of an upstairs bedroom, and the vines growing inside through broken windows on the first floor. But from a personal perspective, it was a remarkable exploration. Pondering what may have happened to lead to a house like this to being abandoned, is a question the explorer asks him or herself on a regular basis. But with a name, and an internet search of that name, sometimes you can find an answer to that question quite quickly and easily. In many cases, including this one, the answer is quite sad. We are reminded once again that life goes on, with or without us. I couldn't help but think about my stepfather, and how much I miss him. With Mr. Prendergrast's obituary on the screen of my iphone, I closed the door and said goodbye to Mr. Prendergrast and his old home and place of business.
Enter at your own wish
Dirty rotten scoundrels
Green space
Hooped
Certificates of Academic Achievement
There is a table falling through the ceiling
Hanging out
Holy door
Pot
Cigarettes Can Cause Lung Cancer
Carlo Rossi
Outside in
Serenity now
December 2003
Quality Street
Master bedroom
Loose ends
Vacation in Vancouver photographs
On the road again, we made our way down into Prince Edward County, as the clouds slowly gave way and revealed a beautiful blue sky and a golden sun. With no destination in mind, we just drove and drove, covering as much terrain as possible while searching for more abandonments. We came across a dozen more houses and a school, but could only access the interior of two of the houses. The Prince Edward 7 House and the Hill Top House.
click here to check out all of jerm & ninja IX's ABANDONMENT ISSUES
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