Terry discovered this rickety old house as we were driving along Highway NN near Slater, Missouri. Perched on a hill in the middle of the country, it is surrounded by rusting farm implements, a rusted out barbecue grill and evidence of agricultural activity that continues around it as it slowly sinks into the earth. It looks to me as though it could have been the inspiration for one of the sets for the Harry Potter movies.
As rickety as it appears in this photograph, it is almost impossible to capture the image as we first encountered it. The debris surrounding the house, and the utilitarian farm buildings built almost on top of it, detract from a more distant image.
In her heyday she must have been a beauty. Now she has been abandoned and is literally falling apart at the seams. While not the only house we saw in a shambles, she was the most elegant. As such, she captures most effectively, the tragic death of an elegant country residence and, at some level, the changing way of life in rural Missouri.
She was a grand lady.
Shifting the Balance 