In the Halls of Heaven...

I took this photo in January of 2010.  The front door to the building was wide open and I was in an exploring kind of mood so I checked it out.  I have other photo previews at the bottom from the same building, but from various shoots.
  I digress.  This is the state of the building in 2010, before any real restoration work or preservation has begun on this building.  there was a blue tarp over the front of the entrance, but it had just been put up.  There weren't even any no trespassing signs when I went there.

  I did a little bit of digging online and learned this amazing building I had been in is none other than the James Clemens House, named after an uncle of Samuel Clemens, aka Mark Twain.  There's no evidence that Twain lived here for any significant length of time, but certainly he spent time here in his youth.

  I went into this building not expecting anything in particular.  I walked through the front door and headed straight for the giant four foot wide staircase that took up half of the hallway.  The wood was in good condition, the plaster on the walls faring relatively well.  I walked up the stairs, turned right into the first doorway I happened across and stopped in my tracks.  The above photograph is the room that I stepped into and held my breath.

Outside the Hall

  To say that the space was holy is not untrue, at least from what I experienced there.  There was a lingering quiet about the place, even as I heard birds chirping from outside the room somewhere.  But a peace washed over me as I walked into this sanctuary and I was humbled by the vastness of the room as well as the toll that the elements had taken on it.

  I've returned to this building since then but the doors were all sealed and once, when I pused on a door to see if it would open, an alarm went off.  One day I noticed the front porch overhang had been removed and that was bad enough.  But then this morning I was able to return to this beautiful building that I had come to cherish so much, and decided to visit my room and see how she was faring in the 3 years since I had seen her.  This is the sight I found.

  The building had been cut away, braced as you can see so it wouldn't fall completely over.  There was no "inside" any longer, just a beautiful alabaster and marble archway that would soon be dissolving in the rain.


  To be really depressed, go look at what this room was like in 2003 at the following: http://www.builtstlouis.net/clemens3.html

P.S. - Trying to post more photos with blog isn't working out as well as I'd hoped.  Bear with the technical difficulties for me, please!

#urbex #photography #abandoned #MarkTwain