Abandoned 1860's Pink Victorian Mansion - Found Room for Underground Railroad 

Renovation cost would be prohibitive.

​@@mikemanofleisure assuming that it is in fact true that the house was a stop on the underground railroad, that would almost certainly mean that the owner could get enough funding to completely rebuild/restore the entire house, and they might not even need to spend any of their own money on it! Yes I agree that it would definitely not be cheap to do but when houses or buildings are on the commonly acceptable side of history then there's always a way it seems.....

It was not a stop on the underground RR. There is a home in NB that was and it was put on the nation register in 1974. If this house had any historical significance, the town historians would have found it and done everything possible to save it. But this is a one stop light town. Trickle down economics never made it to here. Since P & G shut down, so much of Chenango County has withered.

@@ingridshappard7694 "Town Historians" are usually someone who has read all that has been discovered in their town. That doesn't mean there aren't new finds that "local historians" don't know about. They should research it, bring in experts in the Underground Railroad and get their opinion. If they feel it is a valid stop, then I am certain there are grants, and could also do in person and online fundraisers to restore the property. Lack of knowledge of truth doesn't mean it may not be true!!!

@reset setmefree There is no acceptable side of history if you're referring to slavery. There are more enslaved now than at any time in history and sadly the price for a human is at an all time low. PLEASE do a bit of research. Everyone thinks "but what can I do"... A LOT. Even if you don't have or want to donate money, there is a lot that can be done.

Numerous investment properties and they don't care we've got too much

Its America. History means nothing here.

Wow. I almost bought this house but too much work for my budget.

with a street no 10 yards away ? @@BennieWilll

I don't understand... this house sold in 2020. Who bought it and why are they still letting it sit?

I was thinking the exact same thing!!

It was cheaper for it to rot than to maintain it.

money and taxes, thank the jews

It's a total loss now there's no saving it

The owner is into arcade trash.

Yes omg 🤍

Yess. That’s what the home reminded me of too, the pink palace ❤

I was scanning the comments to see if anyone here mentioned Coraline so I wouldn’t post the same thing! 😂 It’s totally the Pink Palace. There’s also a hotel in Avalon, Catalina Island that also looks like the Pink Palace. ❤

@BrandiLucero oooh! I'd love to see that one, too. I'll have to check it out! 🖤 A small part of me has always wanted to own and restore an old home like the pink palace. However, my bank acct says otherwise. Haha. A girl can dream, though! 😊

Yes omg I totally see it ❤

Wow!!!! Like a big victorian home??

Oh, definitely. A friend of mine bought a Victorian house in a bad neighborhood (used to be a great neighborhood). She then had the house removed and trucked far away to a good location piece of land she owned, and placed the Victorian house there, fixed it up, hooked it up to utilities and such. It looks great.

@@princessmarlena1359 wow, I wish I had the money

@@GoldenKingdom-kp6dt it’s not a huge Victorian, definitely smaller than the one in this video!

@@princessmarlena1359 amazing! I’m glad she gave the home a better environment 😊

I love the slave part and imaging them creeping up that little narrow stairway and then getting hidden behind some false wall until they could move on. God bless these people, which even more makes it a real sin to have it rotting away.

Where is this house I know someone who might want to buy her and bring her back to life

​@@njione It's 5050 State highway route 8 New Berlin NY.

I had the same reaction, it's such a shame that something so beautiful is falling apart like that. I just love it

Totally agree..if history is forgotten it will be repeated

Several investors should buy it!

So much $$ to restore now …family fighting over rights - always sad ! Never should have been let to get this way !!!!

Still watching - all those new boxes - semi new paint - games - did he gave permission to go in that house ?? I’m not sure what is going on there …

It's insanity. People are wasteful. It would of easily lived another hundred years if taken care of. Now it's on its death bed.

Modernism has nothing on classical architecture.

That roof alone would cost way over $50,000. Ours was $30,000 15 years ago and was half the size

@@HeatherMarieG I live in a small 1920 house. The roof was $15,000 in 2013. Today with inflation it would probably be $20,000.

Bro, I know exactly where this is. I drive by it all the time. There’s a huge campground facility not far from that house just off that same road that you should check out. Idk if it’s an old resort or a summer camp but it’s pretty big. And the covert parking situation is perfect with a fishing area just a few hundred yards away. Hit me up, I’ll tell you where it’s at

My those magnificent doors and archways could be sold for a pretty penny rather than rotting away. The room off of the kitchen would have been the servant's bedroom.

Many mansions in the Victorian era were built with gas stoves and gas light fixtures tho. So many the self powered homes were probably more common with poorer families

My grandfather was a master woodworker. He built ornate furniture and very high end cabinetry (he also built his own house and cabin cruiser that could sleep four). He was an Austrian-born German with meticulous attention to detail. He could turn four posts for a bed free-hand on an old lathe and they would all match perfectly (no computer to get them 'right') At the age of 90 he built my sister a four-poster mahogany bed with the headboard made from a piece of mahogany that he had stored in his workshop for 50 years. It was a queen-sized bed and the headboard (excluding the posts) were of just ONE piece of solid mahogany (which gives you an idea of how big the tree was). My grandfather died at the age of 92 (at the age of 80 he put a poured tar roof on his house all by himself!) These kind of meticulous, hardworking, perfectionist craftsman are rapidly disappearing. In the Victorian age, they were more common. They took pride in their work. Unfortunately, our society has become overtaken by big corporations whose bottom lines are the almighty dollar. And younger generations don't want beautifully hand-made antiques, but but the latest plastic/particle board furniture from Ikea. It's very sad.

@@loribragg2947 "younger generations don't want beautifully hand-made antiques, but but the latest plastic/particle board furniture from Ikea." Not true, none of us want cheap crap, but we can't afford anything decently made, and frankly not much of anything is decently made anymore. And we can't afford to buy homes anymore, so antique heavy wood furniture is impractical to an extent because we'll have to move it at some point in the next few years at minimum. With regards to the idea of the craftsperson disappearing, the skilled trades are just not keeping up as workplaces. You can make the same, if not more, money doing less backbreaking work elsewhere with a better schedule. The last skilled-trade apprenticeship I remember hearing about was a local cobbler who wanted full availability, 40+ hours/week, no school commitments...for $500/month. This was just a few years ago, maybe 2018 or 2019. The industrial facilities I've worked in seem to have no interest in training anyone up to replace the operators who frankly don't have many working years left in them. I'm thinking of one facility in particular that can't fire the one guy who knows How To Do The Thing because no one else knows how to do the thing in the entire metro area. It's niche enough that I don't even want to say what it is, but it's a manufacturing process that the military needs. Yet they won't bring anyone on to train under him so the guy can at least retire at some point.

@@loribragg2947the younger generations dont want fine craftsmanship because they can’t even afford the cheap shit You’re not understanding that we are literally back to the 1880s with tenement housing, slums, and child labor. There will always be a market for fine craft, but it will be with the rich who aren’t worried about eating tomorrow. My grandfather was also a carpenter with a perfect mind and hands, much like yours. Though I doubt he worked on the same quality of projects as his clientele were lower. It’s because there was a system in place to train and work and materials available. That headboard would be 10k today.

​@@loribragg2947 Truer words were never spoken. I did have to giggle at some of the "abandoned" homes wherein the Master would have a double size bed - small wonder they had such large families was my take. This one has a Queen's size so that had to be put in more recently - like within the last 60 years.

Imagine if those walls could talk!

It's on page 48 & 49 of a book called America's painted ladies!! 🫶

I t costs more to repair a house than build a new one sometimes, especially a house like that.

This house is beyond repair. But they should definitely salvage whatever pieces of the woodwork and fixtures as they can.

@@violet_riot i don't think anything is beyond repair if you throw enough money at it

An architectural salvage company could buy the components of this house and sell to enthusiasts. At least then the pieces of this beauty could live on.

I share your dream. Depending on the resources, this house might stand a chance, but there would have to be deep resources in skill and funds. The DIY restoration could work with other houses small and not so far gone.

BLM bought expensive real estate with their mulit-multi-millions. How did they miss this historic Underground RR home? Oh that's right, they only bought really luxurious mansions. They could have refurbished this place and made it a museum.

I agree! And the house and history is just beautiful!

R you single

Don't forget the people that gave their lives to end slavery here in the United State's.

I live in a tiny town in Wisconsin that was part of the underground railroad

Yes restored to how it was during its time.

Victorian houses would usually be painted earthy tones. Deep orange, green, or blue.

@@djplonghead5403 also electrified by wireless, look at that huge antenna on top

Its definitely 90's themed. I recognise the kitchen handles, lights and wallpaper as 90s trends. It seems the family did a massive renovation on it and then couldn't afford to fix the roof when it started leaking. And my 90s bedroom was the same pink 😂

The light fixtures have CFL light bulbs in them. Those didn't exist until 2005 ish. I'd guess that it was used until 2010 or so.

This was absolutely lived in in the 90s. This guy talked about certain things like they were original to the house and I'm like buddy.....LOOK at it lol, it's like 30 years old lol

Millions, actually, but it could probably be done

I agree, salvage the beautiful woodwork, cabinets, doors and doorframe etc. I'd donate the materials to Habitat for Humanity. It's a reputable charity organization. 😊

There’s plenty of rich 🤑 that could easily have this resurrected. The saddest part is not investing in something so magnificent. Is all the world traveling and buying more, and more worthless trash.

I'm thinking millions, too, instead of hundreds of thousands. I wonder if it might be cheaper to remove any usable elements (like the pocket doors) take detailed photos and measurements and completely rebuild the house new. 😂 I often wondered that when I see magnificent architecture that has mouldered beyond rescue.

Money pit

I think I know the house, I used to live in Ithaca!

I was gonna say. This looks like upstate NY through and through. A lot of places like this around CNY.

i live in upstate ny, would love to find a place like this to explore

I knew this had to be New Berlin, New York! This is my home town grew up there in the early 2000's i figured i had to be in a state of disrepair as its gone from owner to owner. But no one ever gets past trying to fix up the outside before they run out of money. Thank you for answering one of my life long questions being as to what this house looked like on the inside.

Which town is that and where

I was an interior designer and I spent most of 2007 looking for oiled bronze appliances as I was sick to death of stainless Steel. JennAir had some, but in Europe only. The clawfoot tub had my oiled bronze - so they had it way back then but just not today!

Yes, agree. But it’s a big house with what people considered a sad past, in the south, which was devastated by war. It became a rental, which usually means abuse for such houses. So much loss. These abandoned properties with historic value might be taken over by the government, but you already know how that would go down. Wishing a photographer and salvager would get involved now, before it’s too late to save anything there.

@@robinbirdj743 It's in New York state. Not the south, and there doesn't actually appear to be any connection to the Underground Railroad, doing some research on the house outside of this video doesn't bring anything like that up. He showed servants quarters, not anything in connection to the Underground Railroad.

you fix it then 😂

Humans are just too wasteful.

Where do you think slaves escaped to? They went north. They still had to hide to escape slave hunters who would capture them and send them back down south. Jesus, I am not American ( thank god) but I know this history.

Yes, the style of this house and the woodwork, pocket doors, and locks were superb!!!

Sadly, the neglect also reminds me of how we treat old folks, too. Used to have grandparents and aunties-n-such there close at hand in the home. Not so much now 😏🥺

@@SuZ4242 ahhh true! I can see how it reminds you of that too!

I hope you’re right! Whirlpool churned out appliances and their products in no way were ever on par with JennAire.

@@debbieedwards9508 yes they are still alive and well! Whirlpool’s product line (from entry level to high end) is: Amana, Whirlpool, MayTag, KitchenAide, Jenn Air. My job works very closely with Whirlpool, and they are all great product lines.

Yes, they still make a high end Jenn-aire gas burner stove/oven combo with a griddle in the middle of the stove. I have seen several magazine ads that show this appliance in a new renno of kitchens with the "before and after" photos. Pretty pricey appliance.

I love my Jenn Air!

Yep, my parents had the JennAir grill in the middle of the stovetop!

There were a few parts of this videos where I was REALLLLLLY questioning this guy cause I wasnt sure if he was realizing how modern certain things were lol. Like the woodstove, that thing wasnt even 50 years old and he was talking like it was 100 years old lol.

@@Zach2ThaFuture Yeah, imo, first day on the job. He is much more suited to an arcade gallery of a few years ago relics of the trashy 90's.

@@camlacasse3760 absolutely

Do you have a $Million and a half to put into a home to renovate it? If so, go to it, if not, keep dreaming.

Roof and gutters are very important.

It could probably be restored, but it would take 4-5 million, I'd guess

@@groofoot true, but sadly these days those with means have no real interests in making over old homes, they on only want to bulldoze them down and built some crazy oversized mega mansion, in its place.

Yes it should’ve been but it’s too far gone now😢

@@kimlarso As I say, if the right person is willing to drop 5 Mil on it, ... it could be done .... new floors and roof ... etc.

@@groofoot The nostalgia of these houses lives on deep down in my Soul as I know the Soul/Sole purpose for why these homes were built as they were>Well, I’m afraid those days are long gone….It was a Time when people loved people & used things, a time when family & loved ones really meant everything & no one minded hard work Bc it always paid off….days when ya got up with Sun & went to sleep with the Moon…Today, people love things and use people! Don’t want to Debbie Down but it’s the truth! I’m quite alright living in a much smaller house=Less you have the less you have to do….I live rural and often see big houses like these in the same condition & so, I do some photography & can only hope my childrens childrens children will look in amazement as I did/do Bc I’m afraid the day will never come when we see this craftsmanship of houses ever again…..if I had the money I’d certainly invest in land that had some caves and have a cave home=idk where I was going w this LOL & I’m thankful & grateful I will not live to see the housing 100 yrs from now=I envision it to look something like how China/Japan do>huge skyscraper apt homes as we’ve worn out the current farming lands & Chinese foreigners have bought a lot of American land, bought out our major meat plants & currently have a dozen or more ‘Chinese Police Stations’ in many dif States=They say to help Chinese foreigners w their documents & DL’s but since when do we use the police to help us w such things??! I’m hate to say it but I believe America has been bought out & so it’d only make sense/since that the kinds of houses our forefathers turning over in their graves & would’ve lived in will suffer the same fate our beloved Country appears to be heading too…..On a lighter note, yes, I absolutely appreciate videos such as these Bc they’re capturing a History we barely know & will soon be lost forever….🦋

Exactly my thought.

Nice catch👌

I was going to say the same thing

I’m 31, and knew that the Underground Railroad itself did not refer to a literal railroad. I will say, however, that I thought these homes were strategically in places where longer distance travel was a bit easier.. meaning possibly near a railroad? I’ve never even thought much into that or why I thought that though! I’ll definitely be looking more into this now because I’d love to know more about it. They don’t teach much in schools unfortunately.

@@alk4717 hi Alecia- The homes and farmsteads that were owned by people who supported the Underground Railroad were just on "main" routes of travel of the time... Usually. A lot of times they were near a major waterway, a lot of times they were on what was called a "pike"... If you live in a state that was a state during the Civil War, usually there's a road that goes between two biggish cities that "nobody uses anymore"... I live in Ohio and there are several "old roads" like Route 36, Route 42, Route 40, etc... That all have homes on them that were said to have been stops on the Underground Railroad. Of course many of those homes did actually have some sort of hidden room, usually in the cellar or dug out under one of the porches, where people could hide if they had to... But of course like everything else, it probably wasn't as "frought with danger" and as exciting as that stuff is portrayed in the Hollyweird movies. Gotta remember that there weren't one third as many people here back then, as opposed to now. And a small group could travel MILES without running into another soul. Of course, they DID travel at night, especially when near "major" towns... But then again, those major towns were populated by about 200-400 people who wouldn't have noticed much going on at the outskirts. The Slave Owners would hire groups of guys that would ride after the people who escaped... But by the time those groups got north of the Ohio River, folks around would have steered them in the wrong direction if they noticed them once Emancipation happened and a lot of times beforehand... Not many human beings ever enjoyed seeing other human beings enslaved... True story. Although, just like today... I'm sure there were a few crooked scumbags who'd tattle anyway and tell the Raiders which way they saw the dark skinned people go. Some people would sell their own mother for a buck. But yeah... It was a very sophisticated system... And it got people to safety. It just wasn't as elaborate as a lot of people imagine it was... Nor as "glamorous". There's actually an 1835 built house that's just down the road from us. It was the stagecoach stop between Mount Vernon Ohio and Columbus. It was reportedly used as a stop on the underground railroad, too. And there is a "secret room" in the cellar... It's under the side porch of the house. But that room couldn't be more than four by eight feet and maybe with a ceiling of five or six feet. It looks like there might have been a way out from under the actual porch at one time... And the way in from the basement inside the house is really inconvenient... Possibly to deter anyone from looking. It's really interesting... And I guess places like that still exist here in the Midwest and Eastern part of the US. YEAH! Check into the town you live in... It sure is interesting to discover things you might never have known about. Cheers!

@@alk4717 Yes, these houses were built along RR stops too, though this one is likely 1860s-70s, and may have been built just before a RR went in ( the Second Empire style and Eastlake door and window hardware are clues).

​@@slicksnewonenowyou really should be a writer. You literally brought my imagination to life.

@@daughterofaveteran thank you. I was an English Major, but that was forty some odd years ago 😁 Unfortunately, it seems to me like I've lost some of the ability... But I suppose I can still get the point across. Cheers!

Still very common and very expensive. They are often found with Wolf and Viking products at appliance stores.

I still have my Jennair cooktop and use it. I didn't likethe grill so I bought the 2 burner cartridge, so it's a 4 burner unit. Works like a charm.

Exactly, they're from being ancient. I believe they still make them.

Thank you for actually knowing that!

I took the room off of the kitchen as the servants room as they were always placed close to the kitchen to keep the stoves and fireplaces going throughout the night as well as getting up early to make bread and make the family breakfast. They would have to go out for eggs. They could not wake the family, hence, the downstairs room. Many homes of this statute would have all meals in the dining room. The small hidden stairways is for the slaves to disappear upstairs quickly and get behind a false wall.

Don't get why it is not being saved by a historic association.

Where is this? It looks familiar.

Where is this house located? I grew up in an old Victorian home would love to see this before it’s gone

It is in New Berlin, NY

@@kaerandall5816 thank you

This would make the house originally an Elizabethan Renaissance and perhaps updated to a Queen Anne in late or mid 1800's or 1860 if you like, Elizabethan Renaissance was architecture copied by Queen Anne and later Victorian copied Queen Anne. So it would have been 1660 to 1700 plus. that an Elizabethan Renaissance was in style in Europe. But would it have gotten to our shores at that time when there was a war going on? Doubt it. But it was a time the slaves were on the move. Did these Elizabethan houses built by prosperous New Yorkers prior to the war? They could have added on some of the Queen Anne style later, the fancy iron work surrounding the frame, windows, large decks, etc. Hard to say. One would have to see New Berlin's town Records to ascertain when this house was first registered.

I always feel Queen Anne is like the frosting on the cake of an Elizabethan house.

A Wall would have to be built to buffer the car sounds - costly.

What city and state?

New Berlin, NY

Yeah, those kitchen cabinets had country-80s vibes for sure.