Explore this abandoned 'clown house' in the Catskill Mountains - serpaja america

Explore this abandoned ‘clown house’ in the Catskill Mountains

You can’t imagine what lies within…

Hidden deep in a valley in New York’s Catskill Mountains, this abandoned mansion offers a lot more than the exterior suggests. Urban explorer and photographer Bryan Sansivero has captured the remarkable interior, its fantastic outbuildings and fascinating contents in all their glory. Are you ready to take a tour? Click or scroll for more…

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Reclaimed by nature

Tipped off about the property by a fellow explorer, Sansivero wisely chose a sunny day to pay a visit – this is one locale you really wouldn’t want to visit after dark. Approaching the main house, the grounds are noticeably neglected, reclaimed by Mother Nature over the years.

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Forlorn mansion

Abandoned in recent years, the palatial Jacobean Revival mansion was built in 1925. The family who lived here, an extended Italian-American clan with a penchant for theatrical color, left the property vacant for reasons unknown. Several attempts have been made over the past decade to sell the house and outbuildings, but the dwelling was mysteriously delisted in 2018.

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Eerie entrance

Upon entering the main house, the disconcertingly bright canary-yellow entryway offers a dramatic first impression. The wallpaper and paintwork are peeling away but the original features, including the hardwood floor and elegant wrought-iron banister, are more or less intact and simply require a deep clean and a good polish.

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Spooky cellar

This eerie open door leads to the cellar, but we’re not sure we’d have the courage to venture down. What lies below in the basement of the house is anyone’s guess. Note the once-gilded sconce on the wall, which would have lit the way as historic residents descended into the home’s spooky underbelly.

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Unexpected color

The parlor is decorated in the same Day-Glo canary yellow as the entryway. While the carved fireplace surround is grand, the room’s worn floorboards are loose and buckling, which could indicate a serious damp problem.

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Ornate grate

An ornate cast-iron grate graces the hearth, which looks like it has been well-used over the years. Radiators are few and far between on the ground floor of the property, so open fires would have been a must during the bitterly cold winters that affect this location in the wilds of upstate New York.

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Pink room

While bathed in sunlight, this dilapidated salmon-pink space is just aching to be restored. No doubt adding to the property’s seemingly bad luck, a colorful umbrella lies open amongst plaster debris on the dusty floor – a no-no for the superstitious.

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Crumbling staircase

Heading upstairs, scraps of yellow wallpaper cling to the wall of the stairwell. A number of recessed alcoves, once home to ornamental vases perhaps, sit alongside red crosses, presumably marked by a decorator working on a revamp that never happened.

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Kaleidoscope hues

The home’s curious circus theme comes to life in the bedrooms upstairs. Peering into the rooms from the landing, we’re taken aback by the vivid kaleidoscope of primary colors. Whoever spruced up these spaces was obviously not a fan of muted understated hues!

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Circus playroom

Talk about a daring color combo! This child’s bedroom or playroom has the look and feel of a big top with its vibrant décor and yellow and purple harlequin border. Several croquet mallets have been left on a stand, with a number of balls strewn across the floor.

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Big top ceiling

Looking up at the ceiling, the big top tent design, which was skillfully created way back when in dramatic yellow and red, is in a very poor state of disrepair. The last remnants of color are clinging on, while the underlying wallpaper is peeling away to expose the bare wall behind.

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Bold palette

The adjacent bedroom hasn’t fared too well over the years either. One of the only rooms in the mansion to boast a radiator, the space is no shrinking violet, featuring an especially loud color scheme that pairs tonal oranges and moss-green with a surprising sky-blue ceiling.

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Faded grandeur

What looks to have once been the master bedroom is decked out in a slightly more sedate powder blue, with a deeper, royal blue border. Once a grand fixture, the fireplace is the space’s main focal point, featuring Regency-style detailing with color-matched blue accents. Looking up at that crumbling ceiling, we don’t think anyone’s spent a night here in quite a while…

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Renovation potential

A French door in the master bedroom leads out onto a spacious terrace. The roof covering that protects the interiors from the elements remains intact and the brickwork looks in decent condition, major bonuses for any potential buyers who wish to renovate the abandoned mansion.

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Striped wallpaper

Like the other spaces in the house, this small bathroom is an eerie tribute to the circus. Bold red and white striped wallpaper alludes once more to the iconic big top tent, though its tattered condition makes for a pretty spooky atmosphere. Fortunately, the washbasin is still in place and appears undamaged.

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Delightful details

Leading up to the mansion’s top floor, the second staircase features a curious rope handrail and a floral stair runner that would have looked beautiful in mint condition.

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Derelict décor

At the top of the house is this vast yellow bedroom, featuring the same worn carpet as the staircase. The striped curtains carry through the circus theme, but there are even more surprises waiting to be discovered…

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Hidden artwork

The closet features a painting of a bullfighter by Spanish artist Antonio Casero Sanz, who died in 1973. Whether the picture is an original or a print is difficult to deduce, however, similar works by the painter depicting matadors in the bullring are listed for around $500 online at auction site Invaluable.

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Discarded keys

Strewn on a windowsill lie an array of named keys for the property’s numerous outbuildings which are spread out across the acreage. We wonder what caused the family to abandon the estate so suddenly and if the owners might come back one day to reclaim the land?

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Sprawling estate

As well as the main house, there are at least five other buildings on the large plot in various states of disrepair. Two or three are residential, while others served as booming commercial businesses back in the property’s heyday. Let’s see what secrets lie inside…

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A fairytale cottage

First up is this traditional cottage, which in spite of its overgrown appearance, shouldn’t be overly challenging to fully renovate. Perhaps a later addition to the estate built by the property’s former owners, the two-story structure is crafted from stone and wood, giving it a rustic feel.

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Fading fresco

Venturing into what looks like the cottage’s grand living room or library, we can’t help but be impressed by the fresco of a fantastical landscape that covers the entire wall surrounding the doorway. Sadly, it appears to have been warped by damp, though in the hands of an expert renovator, perhaps this artistic masterpiece could be restored to its former glory.

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Debonair drawing room

A blackened fireplace takes pride of place in the room, which impresses with its solid oak paneling and grand built-in cupboards that would not look out of place in a millionaire’s house.

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Overgrown vines

After leaving the cottage, overgrown vines offer a clue as to what some of the property’s outbuildings were previously used for. The estate is situated in a region of the US that is famous for its wineries. The first vineyard in America was located in upstate New York, and the state is home to the country’s oldest continuously operating winery.

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Winery barn

Indeed, the barn on the property was used to process and store wine. A tapped cask is shown atop a dusty trunk, while several bulbous demijohns or carboys, as they are also known, litter the space. One of them even still contains wine, which has presumably been left to age for quite some time.

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Deerhaunt Wine

A small stack of labels left in the barn provides a clue as to what the estate was producing. On closer inspection, the printed labels feature a red stag and the name ‘Deerhaunt Wine’. No records exist of the winery, so it’s likely the operation was a very small-scale family concern. As well as the labels and empty bottles, some pipettes and an old American flag can also be glimpsed.

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Abandoned treehouse

In the grounds surrounding the barn, a child’s treehouse, complete with slide, leans jauntily beneath a tree canopy. Decked out with glass windows, a domed roof and spindled balustrades, this thoughtfully designed playhouse now looks less than stable.

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Steeped in mystery

This enigmatic house keeps its secrets close to its chest and with so many unanswered questions, we’ll never know why the previous owners abandoned its circus-themed halls. With beautiful old bones, we think this once-playful property still has huge potential.

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29/29 SLIDES

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