A Step Back (2)The kitchen of an abandoned home in Eaton Rapids Michigan.

     This picture is obviously a kitchen room. Two refrigerators and cabinets are a few good clues. But the house that possessed this room was something to behold. The front of the home had a wall that had come down, exposing the interior to the elements. The side porch had a gaping hole under the floorboards where the house began to sink in. There was a massive honey bee nest in the east wall that made it difficult to take pictures through the windows just below it. The kitchen was found through the back door. The floor slats seemed stable, but there was a small hole in the side of the room between two counters. One of them had a water pump and the other had some garbage and jars on it.

     Driving into Eaton Rapids Michigan, on a road I hadn't ever been on before, I passed this house on the left. I turned around, pulled in the driveway, and found that there were two other houses behind this treasure. They were modern houses, so I had to believe that one of them housed the owner. I looked into the field next to the house and there was a guy on a tractor. I pulled off and waved to the tractor driver. In time, he made his way to me, where I noticed he was blasting ACDC over the noise of the machinery. He stopped the motor and the music and I introduced myself, conveying my wish to photograph the house. He said the owner was away on vacation, but given the fact that most people that stop to look at the house do not ask, he didn't see any problem with granting me permission, but advised to not go inside due to the instability of the floors.  He did add that the original owners of this house participated in the underground railroad movement and several former slaves were hidden in rooms under the house.

     I walked around the house a couple of time, photographing little things I could see. As I photographed through one of the windows, I learned of the bees nest directly above me. I did get the shot I wanted, and then fled the area. I walked to the back and found the kitchen as well as the remaining appliances and cupboards. The hole in the floor, complete with a ladder leading into the ground, was no longer a mystery. Through the windows, I could see that the house had become a huge storage structure over the years. There was even a motorcycle inside the living room. I left the area after about an hour and went to a friend's house. I told him about the house, and, of course, he already knew about it. I told him about getting permission, and we went back together. It was then that we entered the kitchen and really got to feel the age of the house. We were standing in a home that stood for something someplace in history. I looked around for a little bit and then left. we were going to come back at a later date when we could look around some more, to explore the upper floors via a drone. 

     We did make it back for one more visit before it was demolished, and the photos from the drone, as well as from our cameras were epic opportunities. This kitchen really shows the age of the room as well as the generations it was used for storage. It was a good find, and the little extra step of asking for permission allowed us to explore farther into it.