Old Farmstead Houses ??

Maybe tax reasons ? House is no use to them - gone it is

Where I grew up, it was more the opposite.
Once the milk cows left the farm, within a few short years the buildings started to fall apart, many times the house was the only thing left. Urban sprawl swamped the area, many times leaving the huge farmhouse surrounded by ‘cookie cutter’ houses. New streets were named after the old farm families of the area.

I live in an 1862 house. As farms get bigger, good houses get torn down mainly because rural tenants are usually a night mare, run grow ops, or trash the place and are hard to get evicted for non payment. Not worth the hassle so the house comes down and he saves taxes to boot.

There is also the nightmare of improvements.  How do you run new electric thru lathe and plaster walls.  How do you get modern plumbing thru out the house.  There's an old prairie house here that still has the old two wire and insulator electric.  It's sad to see them go, but it's just more economical to tear them down.

oh...and the neighbors let their hired man live in their parents's house. they told me it keeps him on site and he can walk to work! lol

Calvin Schmidt wrote: I live in an 1862 house. As farms get bigger, good houses get torn down mainly because rural tenants are usually a night mare, run grow ops, or trash the place and are hard to get evicted for non payment. Not worth the hassle so the house comes down and he saves taxes to boot.

     We have torn down two old houses over the years; one even had poles with the bark still on for rafters. Bottom line in both cases was that it would have cost about as much to refurbish them as the cost to build new. One was just sitting on a sandstone "foundation" that was just sitting on top of the ground. Plus renters seem most of the time to be a pain.

Against the law to burn ANY construction materials here, maybe for you all as well,  but you WILL get caught around here, a few have tried.

biggest thing here for demo. is that you always get deadbeat tenants that destroy the houses and have thieving friends hanging around ---- so ya MATCH time! ---Taxes stay the same ( usually raised) here buildings or not ---- they say it looks better after you clean it up so property worth more!

When dad had the old farm house torn down he left the old two car garage and it became the storage garage from that point on. About four years ago I decided it was time for it to go and I spent a week going through all the junk in it saving a few things and leaving the rest to burn. I talked to my neighbor to see if I needed to call or notify anyone and he said nope just throw a match to it. Well it had about six layers of asphalt shingles on it and you could see the smoke from 15 miles away and yes a tank truck came from one direction and a pumper truck came from another along with the sheriffs department and about a dozen onlookers. Only thing I said was please do not put it out.

Many of the old farmsteads the well or the septic has failed and for rental it doesn’t pay to replace

Here in Michigan as T-bone said lighting a fire is a no go unless you have a burning permit from local fire department or there is snow on the ground. I had a burn pile this winter when we had snow. Called the local fire chief and told him I was going to burn and would notify 911 not to send fire trucks unless I called. Fire Chief thanked me as most people just burn away and have to pay $750 plus per hour charge as we have no fire department tax! I told him I didn't want to meet new and interesting people! Yes around here old farm houses and barns no longer meet peoples expectations!

Edited by klinemar - 28 Mar 2021 at 1:50pm

IF as here and part of the Rural VFD fee payers NADA as to $$$$, and Yes they do not mind throwing water in a training exercise. I was a Volunteer for close to fifteen years in St Charles County.

The farm house my parents still live in is dated early 1700’s. Logs were hand cut and some of them were in another structure prior to that house. Originally each room had a chimney and some were just sitting on the floor without a footer. The house is small and was added on to around the late 1800’s. Logs have hardened to a point that can’t be cut any more. They had a fire in the newest chimney in 2000 and the fire company tried to use a chainsaw down the walls, they tried several locations and did not manage more than an inch in any log. Floors are planks up to 2ft wide of pumpkin pine. There is a well on the farm that was apparently one of the first hand dug according to the historians. It would have been a community well prior to any houses. It still flows water to this day and was only dredged when a few historians came out for verification (they had a map of all the first wells on the east coast apparently). There are plenty of old homes in the area that have been preserved, government even gives money if you stay within their guidelines.

Very interesting as Ive never heard of a log that couldnt be cut because of age , unless it was some type of special  oak , or petriffied -

Edited by DougG - 28 Mar 2021 at 6:17pm