The Present State of the Past – 25 Abandoned Houses from Across Ontario.
– Originally written for Huffington Post Canada –
With every passing year we are finding more and more abandoned houses along Ontario’s back roads and farm lands. As cities grow and the need for improved infrastructure increases, our cities and towns encroach upon what was once vast farmland. Home builders, real estate companies and developers will buy out acres upon acres of land and sit on it, waiting for the need to build, waiting for the people to come and waiting for the growth.
But it’s not just the home-builders and developers that are jumping on this land, the windmills that pepper the back-roads and cornfields of Ontario have claimed hundreds of houses,. If that weren’t enough, the 407 extension that is stretching east across the province has also claimed its fair share of homes.
Road expansion, schools, hospitals, condominiums and cookie cutter houses that are built with lightning speed, windmills and highways. As we try to keep up with a population boom and new Canadians who have left their counties for a new life in Canada topped with the need to travel and consume power – we are consuming land and houses and history at an alarming pace.
Now, I am no expert in population growth, I am not a city planner, I am certainly not one to speak to the reasons why we are experiencing such a rapid increase in the need for new large communities and why we need them built as fast as possible. I am a hobby photographer with a passion for shooting decay and abandoned places and empty spaces.
Myself, along with many others photograph the present state of the past by exploring the urban and rural outskirts of your cities and towns. Not alone in this hobby, we share a common passion with hundreds of weekend warriors who head for the back-roads every weekend with their DSLR cameras, i-phones and android phones to capture these beautiful homes before they are demolished and replaced with new life, new families and a new future.
As we experience this growth an alarming number of homes are being left, literally in the dust, some will be saved and given heritage status but most will be demolished. But it’s not just the physical home that will be lost, inside these homes are memories, photographs and furniture. Some of these homes were built with elaborate staircases and hand carved newel posts, crown moulding, and decorative ceiling medallions.
Many of the images in this photo essay are from homes that are now demolished and these scenes will never be seen again, some are still standing – getting worse with each passing season, and there are many more out there to be discovered.
Here are 25 examples of Ontario’s empty and abandoned spaces and some of the items that have been left behind.
This photo essay focuses on the abandoned houses in Ontario, equally as shocking are the amount of hospitals, factories and institutions all across the province that have been closed down and left vacant for many many different reasons.
To see more of my work and to see more of the abandoned places from all over Ontario and the North Eastern United States, you can visit www.freaktography.ca, or follow me on Freaktography Facebook or on Freaktography Instagram.
Thanks for reading, I hope you have enjoyed my work
– Freaktography
Hi I do like your decay photography in Ontario. Will like to ask do you do trips with photographers outtings and explore? I would love to join if you wish of course, I am Cambridge, Ontario.
Thank you.
Carlos
Ontario – well Canada – has a bad habit of just throwing stuff away. I think it is a backstop to their British / European heritage, one example being years ago when the Brits left a massive factory alone for years and when an international buyer bought it turning it into condo units they went absolutely ape.
But I work with a heritage museum and the head organizer once told me it was literally like fighting tooth and nail to get actual heritage sites – as part of the 1812 battle and other such sites – acknowledged as heritage and as such upkeep. Such a shame as the old stuff usually is many times better than the cheap modern versions.
Hi I’m curious as to why nobody seems interested In salvaging bits and pieces from these old houses. There Is so much material that can be repurposed. I like fixing up old cars. sometimes parts on a finished car might come from multiple vehicles. So someone out there might be trying to fix up one of these old jewels. someone should take the good stuff out of the soon to be demolished house, and put It out there for other people to use. maybe a light fixture, mouldings. Some of those ceiling medallions have a family crest on them. Some show wheat or barley indicating the crops they farmed way back In the 1800’s. I think it’s sad these houses are falling apart, In Montreal we call It demolition by neglect. these houses took weeks to build, people lived In them for over a hundred years. And It takes about 2 hours to make It disappear. Wow man.
There are a lot of New Immigrants who just arrived in Canada from 2011-2016…..looking to create their own town to protect their country’s identity and culture…can they just move in …..
Does anyone research who these people were and why they abandoned these houses? It would be interesting to know. Since so many personal items have been left behind, it seems it wouldn’t be that difficult to find out.
Is there any property for sale
Is any for sale?