funeralcrasher: (Default)
funeralcrasher ([personal profile] funeralcrasher) wrote2006-12-27 06:18 pm

Sad

While most people would never in a million years live in something like this, it's unfortunate that in less than 70 years the entire estate has turned into a fucking McNeighborhood. 
mb2u: (Default)

[personal profile] mb2u 2006-12-28 12:59 am (UTC)(link)
Sad is not the word for it. Criminal neglect of history, disgusting lack of a sense of beauty...

[identity profile] vampgrrl.livejournal.com 2006-12-28 02:43 am (UTC)(link)
Homogenization of America.

One of the many reasons to save New Orleans, one of the few large areas of history and unique culture still in America.

Estates and mansions

[identity profile] aquaknot.livejournal.com 2006-12-28 12:16 pm (UTC)(link)
It is not uncommon that these monuments to riches are abandoned. The huge fortunes needed to sustain them are broken up among family members as the cost to maintain them spirals and the number of really skilled artisans decreases.

I remember reading about a much larger mansion in Long Island that was offered as a donation to the government because the family could not maintain it; the government couldn't either. There is a website that lists historic homes for sale and you see all sorts of stories like this (though only a few homes of that magnificence). One such home was a Czech castle outside Prague, but that seemed to be in pretty good shape.

To sum up, the loss of beautiful estates is not always the result of neglect or avarice; sometimes it's simple impossibility.