Scott Smith has been fascinated by what he calls “the ramshackle architectural folly” on Edgemarth Hill Road for 20 years. He writes:
Today I drove by to see 2 guys hauling away all the wood and trash that had collected on the property for decades.
I asked if it was a complete teardown. One fellow said, “Yeah – wanna take a look inside?”
You bet I did.
I’m sure there are treasures inside among all the mess, but it will all go to landfill. I think the house sold a year ago or so, and as it’s 3 acres, no doubt a magnificent new home will rise in its place. Imagine the stories and the history in this old house.
(Photos/Scott Smith)
I bet the house was gorgeous with the archways and what looks like a part of a spiral stairwell. Those beams are probably wooden, but in one photo they looked like steel beams. I have no idea where the road is and I wonder what year it was built. It might have been an older structure with windows that might have been replaced at one time.
I was thinking the same thing – not that there weren’t a number of interesting old houses scattered around (some you couldn’t see) in the Greens Farms area. When I saw your name, I couldn’t help but respond. Hope you are well. Lisa (Sarasota), me and my husband (Bradenton) are in FL (Gulf Coast) but we occasionally get up to CT to see Carol Royak Magrath who is living in Black Rock. Next time we come we should try and get together! Lucy
Wow, thank you so much for sharing. I would’ve loved to fix up this old house, and I totally agree amongst the debris treasures and stories. Currently, I am just finishing a new house on the Jersey shore for a client, but in the past for clients and with my husband and Family we have renovated over 35 houses in this disrepair. I’m actually going to look at these pictures close up on my computer …..the brick work around the fire brick oven was once amazing in its day as you can see ….as always, thanks for sharing your biggest fan Dorothy Let me get my hands on Baron’s South and I will bring it back to its natural beauty 🪚🪮🔨❤️👩🏼🎤
I’ve always thought Golden Shadows should be restored, along with its gardens. You do the house, I’ll help with the terraced gardens.
So sad to see this left with what I am sure great treasures for someone to bring to a new light.
Where on the Jersey shore? I had a house in Ventnor that I bought nine months before the casino vote to allow casinos in Atlantic City. I knew the people who owned the auto dealership just as you entered Atlantic City, by the arc, and their two acres went from $250,000 to a value of 15 million literally over night!
Jack, you have one comment left. The rest of you are in good shape. I told Dan I’d keep things under control so he can figure out how to get the town’s head back on straight with all the “issues” it’s been confronting. The recent “Three Strikes You’re Out” policy is a step in the right direction. It’s even rumored that “the government” is taking it seriously (as Westport has always been a model of excellence in action). They are very impressed with Jack. “Retirees can move to Florida and still contribute to society” was a quote attributed to a wetlands resident of the DC area.
Eric, I’m proud to use my final comment to comment on your comment!! I’m not too sure the 06880 readership is impressed with me and all my comments! I’m probably part of the reason the “Three Comment Limit” was initiated. I just hope the Washington Post doesn’t do the same thing.
Jack, I’m pretty sure you weren’t the cause of the 3 and out. That puts me at two. You can have my remaining up at bat. Dan didn’t say we couldn’t do that so I’m just going to do it.
Oh wow I can see some beautiful pieces in amongst all the chaos. Hope buyers got a good price…and what a shame to loose a house with such character.
This is or was quite a home. There are often treasures out there for the finding and also, ir financially workable, rehabilitation. I would welcome learning more of this story or a once beautiful, now decaying house. Possibly someone on our fine Historic District Commission is knowledgeable.
I grew up next door to this home – and their family is forever a part of the fabric of my life. What’s a shame is that while you nod to the stories and human tragedy the work wasn’t done to learn of the love and laughter that was Edgemarth Hill. Perched a quarter mile straight uphill from Hillspoint, 25 kids lived on a cul de sac. We had open doors and it was one big community. We rode bikes until the sunset, played in the rambling woods and built tree forts out of stone slabs. We built friendships that have truly been tested by all human experience and have lasted a lifetime. That home welcomed us for the most epic Easter egg hunt you ever did see. The home I grew up in was the childhood home the the father who lived in 11 edgemarth. There’s great history there. It was a grand dame of a brick home on two acres with a veranda off the bedroom my sisters and I shared. Truly the backdrop to a dreamy childhood.
So, while I am grateful for this home being taken care of – I surely hope that our neighbors have also been cared for. I hope that as the home is cleared, the beautiful relics of the past are at least appreciated if not saved. A boy was raised there – now a young man. I hope he has been notified of the happenings in case he wants to walk the property before the castle vanishes. And lastly, I hope that the property is photographed to be appreciated. It served that family – the mother, whom many of you knew from having worked at a local nursery – was an incredibly talented gardener. Holding lots of love and appreciation for Edgemarth Hill Road.
Thank you, love and light.
Chaleureusement, the young man.
I feel like there is “untold story” being hinted at here. What’s the deal with the place? Obviously, there are a lot of family heirlooms that were just left there. Who was the family? What was the human tragedy?
I second what Chris expressed. This place has always fascinated me. In a town now largely populated by airbrushed, plastic glop, that building (before apparantly unfortunate circumstances got the better of it) appeared to be a passion project. To judge from the fairly complex masonry, the person or persons driving the vision were quite skilled and pretty fearless. Without invading anyone’s privacy or opening doors that ought not be opened, I would love to know, in broad strokes, some of the backstory here. In particular, what was animating spirit which drove this effort?
The guy who lived there was a mason.
I toured the site a few weeks back, there is nothing on the property or in the home of any value unfortunately. Years of weathering and wildlife intrusion. The property was listed online and was purchased for about $1.1 million, roughly 3.09 acres. There was a total of over 28 trucks, cars, and pieces of mid 20th century construction equipment removed.
Vanessa is spot on about the wife being a pro gardener and extremely knowledgeable and one of the nicest people you could ever encounter.
I wish to see the house restored with the conglomerate stone base, stucco, Spanish tile roof with oak beams (the details are intricate and someone took their time back then) but it’s beyond blighted and destroyed.
This house is my childhood in a way. I’m looking at these photos from California, remembering hours and hours of running through that kitchen. There’s a brick turtle pond built into the floor by the way.
For years I drove by to show my kids where I grew up and when I would see the man who lived here, we’d stop and say hi as he tinkered on his stone wall.
My heart hurts thinking of this house gone and a McMansion in its place but such is the history of Westport.
The edgemarth 90s families forever ❤️
Love and light,
W
One person’s “architectural folly” is another’s person’s artistic vision. There is a line between interest in local news and displaying someone’s house which they built by hand – and lost – and nosing inside at the ‘treasures” and speculating on the memories of people they did not know. Gracious of the few who wrote comments and did not reveal more personal information.
All our neighbors in Westport deserve dignity and a respect for privacy in their homes and personal affairs.
At the same time, I am disgusted by the speculations of self-promoting renovators and those who picked over personal items to see what was “valuable”.
Thank you Lisa. This is exactly right – everyone deserves dignity which often includes privacy. Though I did divulge about the turtle pond because I loved it so. All of us kids on that block also had a pet snake named Long John Slither 😉
My family lived on the top of Edgemarth Hill during the time that the owners lived and thrived in the stone house, and my daughters ran and played and made forts under the huge trees and honeysuckles. The builder was a creative soul; a poet, an artist, and a dreamer, who liked his solitude. My friend, his wife, was a gardener, who loved cats, and embraced life. It was a special time, that we all cherish. Good Cheer #11, and may your next life be happy and may your thrive.
Wonderful to know, and beautifully expressed. Thank you, Karen.
The most special of times!!
Love and light
W
I don’t think an abandoned home deserves the respect that the privacy some of the commenters think are deserved. You don’t see this much anymore but back in the 70’s and 80’s “abandoned houses” were not so uncommon which were filled with abandoned stuff which I for one enjoyed picking through. Who knew? Maybe bankruptcy or foreclosure or even death or prison. Who knew why anyone and / or a whole family would walk away from a home filled with furnishings? I’m guilty of “adopting” some framed paintings that were abandoned so many years ago from a very abandoned house in Georgetown. Maybe this house has been looted of it’s treasures or the previous owners took those with them, doesn’t look like there’s much left of any value. If anything from this story, I would check out who owned it and what happened to them?
That’s really debatable. Looking through the nooks and crannies of anyone’s life for whatever reason is bound to turn up things that are, frankly, nobody’s business irrespective of how interesting one may find it. With the internet, and the lack of respect for privacy, it has become easier to pick apart the sadnesses that might be part of people’s lives.
It’s interesting, in retrospect, whether the world would have been better off knowing FDR largely operated from a wheelchair or knowing the details of JFK’s personal life. Arguably, the political climate might be different and we might all be better off if Bill Clinton’s adventures had not surfaced. There is, of course, the position that the public has the right to know everything about anyone, or at least those in public life though commenting on public blogs starts to put one in the latter category.
How would you like the details of your life, and your familiy’s lives displayed for everyone to see and discuss on Dan’s blog? Not just what might be discoverable on the internet but comments from anyone you may have come across in your life – friends, enemies, busybodies, randos, whomever. Heck, maybe even get ChatGPT to make something up based on what can be gleaned from the internet.
Is that different than you wanting to know the deets behind a house that may or may not have been abandoned? You find that interesting so you want to know. Someone else, on the other hand, might find your comments interesting and want to understand why you write what you write.
Few people would care to have their life an open book. I’m with Europe on this one. People should have the right to privacy.
But the family simply left this behind, no? Google provides enough information to create more questions than answers.
I don’t think it reflects any sordid motives to observe, “this is really interesting – I wonder what happened here.”
Though it also makes me want to clean out my basement – a task that has been put off for twenty years!
These photos to me are so heartbreaking, someone who lived there with suffering. I wonder what support they had, did they have family? I wonder how many people in town are isolated and in need of support and care. This house didn’t fill up by itself. we have an amazing department of human services that can support people in need. Please refer neighbors who you might think are also suffering in someway.
why was all that furniture and other stuff left? Just from these pictures I see some treasures I really would love