Inside an Abandoned Farmhouse: Flanders, Michigan
WARNING: Under no circumstances should you enter this property. By doing so you risk bodily harm and/or prosecution for trespassing on private property.
I've heard small little towns being referred to as villages, burgs, communities, hamlets, crossroads, postal stations, railroad stations...but this is the first time I ever a heard a town called a 'neighborhood'. That's what Mapquest called this one...
Sitting in Alpena County's Green Township is the former sawmill settlement of Flanders. Created and founded in 1869, the town was named after the local lumber merchant S.W. Flanders. When a post office finally began operating in 1885, it's growth began – but not for too many years. The post office closed in 1914.
The town officials were hoping to build Flanders into a booming lumber town – it did OK for a while, but after the post office closed, the population began to shrink. By 1918 there were only 100 people left and the remaining townsfolk had to do their mailing and shipping from the nearby town of Lachine.
During Flanders' heyday, the area was full of lumber mills and camps, a grocery store, general store, and two blacksmiths. Even with the handful of businesses, it appears that Flanders was referred to as a postal area instead of a town.
There is an old farmhouse on the outskirts that probably will not survive a demolition crew sometime in the near future...that's when someone took it upon himself to capture the insides while it was still around. It looks like it dates back possibly to the late 1800s, with a crumbling Michigan basement and the usual leftover debris...
Abandoned Farmhouse in Flanders
MORE ABANDONED MICHIGAN:
Abandoned Trailers in Northern Michigan
Abandoned U.P. Ramshackle House
Abandoned Kennedy/Northern Elementary School, Manistee
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