I have a fascination with all things abandoned (in fact, recently I have been tearing through both seasons of the old History Channel series Life After People…the visuals in that are an urban explorer’s wet dream). I rarely go “urban exploring,” so if I happen to stumble across something, I photograph it.

Recently, I was out shooting some photos and video for a book trailer I’m working on for Stacey Longo’s collection Secret Things. The footage I needed for my concept involved architectural details on Victorian, Edwardian, and other unique-style houses. My friend Michele, who grew up in downtown Danbury, gave me a tour of streets I’ve never visited, including Pleasant Street, on which sits a house Wes Craven used in his 2010 feature My Soul to Take (on a side note, I think the scenes on the bridge were filmed in my home town of New Milford, CT, at the infamous Lover’s Leap Bridge).

We cruised down several streets, among them Deer Hill Avenue, noted for its stately homes and mansions. One house, however, stood out—an abandoned, rotting Dutch Colonial. I was immediately intrigued by how such a beautiful home in one of the wealthiest areas in town could just be left to pot, especially since it obviously includes the adjoining lot (very rare for this street). I spent about fifteen minutes taking photos, and then we were on our way again. Michele noted it had been abandoned for several years, and that at one point she had entertained fantasies of buying and restoring it.

It turns out, however, that this home isn’t abandoned. Well, not really.

As I was preparing the photos for this post, I learned from a co-worker that the home had been bought about five years ago, and the owner had even begun to do some gutting on the inside. As you can also see from one of the photos below, there are brand-new wood beams under the front overhang, suggesting that this was one of the owner’s priorities in the hopes of preventing the overhang from further collapse. According to my co-worker, the project was put on hold due to expense and other issues.

Hopefully the owner will be able to return to the project and the house will be restored to its former glory before it’s so far-gone that the only thing left to do is raze it. Until then, here’s what it looks like.