Growing up in the 80s there seemed to be devil worshippers everywhere. Each small town had some abandoned building where children were forbidden to wander, because that was where the devil worshippers gathered to make sacrifices to the dark lord of hell. That place in my area is known as the Novitiate.
Now it is just an old abandoned mansion, but it has a history of opulence, grandeur and violence. I’m a bit rushed, so I will quote some extant sources.
Wikipedia: (the Brothers mentioned are the Alexian Brothers, a Catholic ministry)
Early history
Original mansion left, monastery addition right.
The Novitiate was originally a home for New York widow, Jennie Peters and her disabled child in 1939. Mrs. Peters was wife to Frank M. Peters, an inventor and former executive of the National Biscuit Company.[4] The home was a Georgian style mansion with a two-story stone portico, large windows, thirty-five rooms, servants’ quarters, and a second story balcony overlooking Freeborn Falls on the Red River. Her daughter would not live to see the home completed. The structure had been built with the intention that it eventually be donated to the Brothers, as Frank Peters had formed a strong connection to them in his youth in Chicago.[5]
In 1948, Mrs. Peters returned to New York and the building was turned over to the Brothers, with the final acquisition occurring in 1950 and in 1951 would begin admitting novices. The area encompassed approximately 232 acres. This building was expanded in 1954 to include new dormitories, a cloister, chapel, and other facilities. More land was also purchased in 1955, to provide a farm to feed the novices. Further updates to the property were made so that the novitiate would become self-sufficient.[6]
Following the reforms of the Second Vatican Council, the Brothers ultimately decided to move their operations to Chicago, putting the novitiate building up for sale in 1969, with the last brothers moving out in 1972, with only a caretaker staying behind. Attempts to sell the property stalled for several years, until 1974, when the property was offered to a group of Native Americans from Green Bay for an unknown “nominal cost” with the intent of converting it into an alcohol rehabilitation center.[7] However, the seizure of the Novitiate in 1975 ended this potential deal.
Seizure of the Novitiate
On January 1, 1975, an armed group from the Menominee Tribe, called the Menominee Warrior Society, seized the property and took the caretaker and his family hostage. The independent group was
inspired by similar takeovers done by the American Indian Movement (AIM) at Alcatraz and Wounded Knee. They demanded that the Novitiate and property be turned over to the Menominee Reservation, claiming that federal law allowed them to retake the land once it was no longer used for religious purposes.[8] Tensions ran high as shots were occasionally exchanged and negotiations largely stalled. Three days into the standoff, the warriors attempted to negotiate a ceasefire, as they had secretly run out of ammo. However, no deal was reached. Local law enforcement cut off power to the novitiate, which resulted in pipes freezing, causing extensive damage to the property.[9] The National Guard moved into the area and sealed it off behind
several checkpoints.[10] Negotiations went nowhere in January, as the Brothers refused to hand over the deed except for a reasonable price and the Menominee Warrior Society demanded it be turned over free, as they felt it already belonged to them. Complicating this further, some people in Menominee, Gresham and the nearby city of Shawano sympathized with the Society and others didn’t wish for the National Guard to be there. Vigilante activity was common, as groups of armed locals would access the property on snowmobiles to fire on the novitiate. The surrounding woods and riverside allowed for both vigilantes and members of the warriors society to bypass the guard units, making security a difficult task .[11]
Although they were not involved with the planning of the takeover, several AIM leaders travelled to the Gresham to offer support and help with negotiations.[8] The presence of AIM also brought the actor and Native American rights advocate, Marlon Brando, to the scene to support the Warriors Society.[12] The arrival of outside supporters upset many of the locals who feared the seizure would launch a larger movement in the region.[8]
On February 2, 1975, the standoff ended with a deal between the Brothers and the Society.[13] Fearing that the incident would end like similar situations at Kent State and Attica Prison, the Brothers instead chose to sell the property to the Menominee Reservation for one dollar. The standoff ended and the 39 members of the Menominee Warrior Society were arrested.[14] The month-long standoff resulted in no fatalities or major injuries.
Recent history
Since the standoff, the Novitiate has struggled to find a purpose in the area. The Menominee Reservation was unable to maintain the building and surrendered their claim to the property within a few months. In October 1975, a fire severely damaged the building.[15] In November, the Brothers turned the area over to Crossroads Academy, based out of Milwaukee.
Here is Marlon Brando talking about it in an interview from the January 1979 issue of Playboy Magazine:
PLAYBOY:Then, in 1975, you joined a group of Menominee Indians who had taken over a monk’s abbey in Gresham, Wisconsin, in their attempt to get back the deed for land that had once been theirs. Didn’t that turn into violence?
brando: they were shooting bullets twice a day, in the afternoon and at night. dog soldiers came and they were fighting it out for over a month. one guy was shot, a white guy. i was in there for about a week, with father groppi and some other priests. it was unbelievable, people going out with guns and ammunition, lying in the snow and firing at 2:30 in the morning; everybody sleeping, huddled, trying to get warm, bullets flying around. i was up on the roof one time and bullets started sizzling by me, whheew, whheww—sounds very funny. the bullets come by before you hear the gun.
PLAYBOY:Were you scared?
brando: no. the indians were determined that they should get that deed to the land. it was previously indian land that had just been grabbed. the church wasn’t using it, it was just sitting around in a catholic bank book. there were contingent plans to go in with percussion bombs and gas. that would have killed a lot of people, because the indians wouldn’t have surrendered; the expression they had on their arm bands was deed or death. they finally got the deed. and then those goddamn alexian brothers, the group of priests who owned the property, took it back after everything died down. those lying bastards! i was right there in the room when they were negotiating. they gave their word that the [abbey] should go to the indians for a hospital and that the land should be returned to the menominee reservation. they subsequently, arbitrarily, took it back, broke their word. after the indians were arrested, they said, “we didn’t mean that.” there was no noise about it then. and some indians are still sitting in jail.
The property was sold to a new owner in 2020. I’m not quite sure what plans they have for it. When the sale was upcoming the Green Bay Press-Gazette did an article that has some more in depth information if you care to learn more.
Random, but interesting.
🙂
That is the best 3 word descriptor of this website, so far.
That’s probably a good descriptor for most of the Gliberati as well.
Can confirm.
If only they’d thought to put a casino in there.
Strange days.
Really interesting.
I can’t believe whoever bought it is gonna renovate that thing.
The Menominee Reservation was unable to maintain the building and surrendered their claim to the property within a few months.
No whey!
That was entirely predictable, those old estates are expensive as hell to maintain.
Yes. One of my favorite real estate sites is Old House Dreams.
You can buy some beauties for next to nothing, but you better have a big bank account for reno and maintenance.
Local news was just talking about one suburb that’s selling some properties it’s acquired through the years. Among them are two century homes. I shudder to think of the condition of those houses after being maintained by the city for several years.
Why did the city acquire them at all?
FYTW?
Serious answer:
The city acquired five former student rental properties in a 2016 land swap with developer DiGeronimo Group.
It’s a college-ish town (Baldwin Wallace) , with a lot of student rental properties in it.
DiGeronimo? Isn’t he that crying Italian indian from the trash commercials ?
I know the local university tends to acquire properties that are campus adjacent as they come up for sale, in the event that they want to use the land for expansion at a later date. They they have an auction, and the winner has to remove the physical buildings within a week.
Me thinks a scam is afoot!
This works if the buildings contain something of worth.
There is some nice stuff in there. I really dig the home in Alabama.
So you’re saying it’s a sweet home?
Damn you.
You’re welcome.
“The Novitiate was originally a home for New York widow, Jennie Peters and her disabled child in 1939.”
I’ve seen that movie setup a few times.
Rule 34?
Usually it’s the setup for a ghost story, but people are into what they are into.
Sugarfree your mind.
He fixed the cable?
Bill Gates should buy that place and turn it into an exclusive retreat for Davos Man and all his courtiers and sycophants.
Totally awesome. In my little town, we had The Abandoned Juvenal Hall. Tucked back behind the county hospital, it stood empty since Self Determination, and by the point we were old enough, it had been broken into a thousand times at least. There were old cells, broken furniture, and graffiti everywhere, including the phrase that has stuck to me my entire life:
YOU SUCK GREEN DONKEY DICK!
LOL Reminds me of the phrase graffitied onto a wall at our own local “haunted mansion”: “YOU ARE A DRIED UP OLD PIECE OF FUCK”
Two thumbs up!
I grew up in a suburb that had Lake Erie to the north. Among the coastline, there were some abandoned and collapsed houses that had been reclaimed by nature to become (nearly) vacant lots. You could see the outline of the old floor, and some sections where walls used to stand. Back through that property, there was a path down to reach the lake (the rest of the area was mostly rocky cliffs). It was the general hangout of teen ne’er do wells back in the day. There was no legal way to the area, but there was also no easy way for the cops to get down there. Rarely people would start up a bonfire down there (doing that would usually guarantee a response from some authorities). There were always tales of minor injuries, but surprisingly, never any of serious injury/death (as would be expected for a teenage hangout area).
There were a couple places like that around town, not many as it was 30K people by the time I was a tween, but the all were bought up when the city played shenanigans to get the property values to skyrocket. At that point they were either restored or torn down and the space condo’d.
No serious injuries/deaths at a teenage hangout area with a big lake and rocky cliffs? That really is surprising.
Last couple of times I went through the area, it looks like all of that has gotten rehabbed and developed into houses. This is the best Google Maps picture I could find to show the drop off. That area is directly behind the Police Station/City Hall/Fire Department and is a little park.
🙄
I’ve frequently become fascinated by grand old buildings, and I hate to see them fall into disrepair. Here in Dayton, there was a grand old mansion, abandoned home of some local industrialist, that I’d see from the interstate, especially in winter when the surrounding trees were bare. Happily, the property was acquired by the Salvation Army with funding from the Kroc Foundation (i.e Big Mac money) and turned into a lovely community center in a part of town that certainly needed one.
Seemed like Ohio was just full of interesting old mansions and large farmhouses out in the middle of nowhere.
If you make it up here to the CLE, do not go to look at Millionaires’ Row as it now exists. If you must, make sure you’re carrying protection, and it’s daytime.
Sounds like Delaware Ave. in Buffalo except many of the grand houses still exist (but are usually institutions now) and the neighborhood is still nice.
I think there’s maybe a dozen houses that are still standing and in good repair. Most of them are now part of CSU or the Cleveland Clinic at this point.
You’re not going to reference our lovely local castles ?
We’ve got a couple buildings like that. One that I drive by frequently is the Franklin Castle.
Menominee
Doo doo, doo doo doo
(Someone was bound to.)
heh
Just never gets old.
The Satanic Church in Louisville was supposedly somewhere near the Pope Lick Trestle. Under which the Pope Lick Monster dwells.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pope_Lick_Monster
I seent that on the tee vee
STEVE SMITH NO BELIEVE IN POPE LICK MONSTER. THAT SILLY.
Some meddling kids solved the mystery.
https://youtu.be/hTq6nwO4oJU
So stupid not even the Ninth Circus can justify it
A federal appeals court on Monday overturned Berkeley, California’s first-in-the-nation ban on natural gas in new construction, agreeing with restaurant owners who argued the city bypassed federal energy regulations when it approved the ordinance.
The measure, which took effect in 2020 to cheers from environmentalists, was intended to reduce emissions of greenhouse gasses that contribute to global warming. With some exceptions, it banned new residential and commercial buildings from installing natural gas piping in favor of electrical lines.
——-
Matt Vespa, a senior attorney with the nonprofit Earthjustice, called the decision misguided.
“As we face a climate and air quality crisis from coast to coast, it is vital that cities and states maintain all legal pathways to protect public health, cut climate emissions, and increase safety by addressing pollution from buildings, and we’ll continue to fight to ensure this authority is preserved,” Vespa said in a statement.
Nobody wants to take your gas stoves away.
Matt Vespa’s twitter feed tells me he is working on dismantling the fossil fuel industry, and he wants to electrify everything. He also recently took a break from twitter (by announcing on twitter, with pictures) to take in the Basque culture. I assume his electric jet airplane got him there.
Vespa = 🐝.
Wasp, not Bumble Bee.
Ill tempered little fuckers
https://gizmodo.com/simpsons-assassins-sneakers-shoes-real-buy-retro-price-1850347722
LOL!
We went hiking recently and came across these cool ruins:
https://www.atlasobscura.com/places/walker-mansion-ruins
You can’t really see from the pics, but the views are amazing.
The town where I live is home to The Gates of Hell.
Well, Squire’s Castle was a general meeting point for picnics, cookouts, and hiking.
I know the one of the authors of Weird Ohio
All about Yellow Springs?
Yellow Springs is weird, but fun. It seems mostly harmless, but I’m sure Antioch is pushing out future commies left and right.
The town is a fun place to visit for the crunchy groovy little shops. The college has been on life support for several years now and still seems to be hanging on by an organically-grown, responsibly-sourced cotton thread.* I have friends there, but my impression of the citizenry as a whole is that they tend to have a superiority complex (and an often amusing love/hate relationship with local yokel Dave Chappelle.)
*I found this data about the current student body amusing and not at all surprisingly: https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Antioch_College#Student_body
So you’re saying it’s a clown college?
🤣😂
The latest M/F enrollment breakdown suggests the Fs might have a good reason to be L. (Not to mention the number of the number of Ms who are G.) https://www.usnews.com/best-colleges/antioch-college-8795/student-life
Wrong. The Gates of Hell are in the Bay Area. https://maps.roadtrippers.com/us/antioch-ca/attractions/the-gates-of-hell
No need to fight about this. I have no doubt in my mind that Satan has entrances to the mortal realm in both San Francisco AND New Jersey. Although I heard he has his main residence in DC now since it’s closer to being hell than the actual hell.
“With his land above Mount Falcon, he constructed a craftsman-style chalet in 1909. The home was built by stonemasons from Italy and included 10 bedrooms, eight fireplaces, a music room, an observation deck, library, and servants quarters.”
*drool*
“In 1916, John’s wife, Ethel Walker died. Two years later, lightning struck the Walker home and destroyed the structure.”
I’ve never heard of a kiloton-level lightning strike.
Even REI couldn’t take it…
REI to close only Portland store, citing break-ins, theft
… and expiring lease on building that they’d outgrown and had unrepaired problems.
More fun
https://www.wweek.com/news/city/2023/04/17/allegation-of-drug-use-by-contractors-at-countys-behavioral-health-center-contributed-to-closure/
I’m all too familiar with this boondoggle. The already awful area is getting worse. A couple of months ago it was trending better with the city’s whitewash campaign to keep trash picked up and push the bums out. It didn’t last.
Scuttlebutt in the comments is the city refused to allow REI to place bollards to prevent this sort of thing
https://www.oregonlive.com/crime/2022/11/smash-and-grab-strikes-rei-in-portlands-pearl-district-as-retailers-worries-worsen.html
Not just a five finger discount.
When do these places become no longer insurable?
STEVE SMITH INSURE THINGS BETTER WHEN CASCADIA INDEPENDENT! HIM TAKE CARE OF CRIMINAL HOOMANS. BY TAKE CARE OF, MEAN RAPE.
FREE CASCADIA!
It was decided that bollards would clash with the charming local scenery of tents and trash piles.
Don’t forget the zombies in their heroin hunch.
You’d think if any retailer would be progressive enough to deal with Portland it would be REI.
Bullshit, Cody. Even if they get arrested, your fuckwit DA’s office spins them right out again.
Whole Foods, REI… what’s the next virtue signaler to drop?
Starbucks’s has already closed stores “temporarily”.
As teens we would drink beer and walk through the golf course behind the then-abandoned (and rumored to be haunted) Biltmore Hotel in Miami. It was an imposing sight at night. It was later restored, and is now a five star hotel again.
Damn lying dog faced pony soldiers!
An ex used to live near an abandoned hospital so I went to go take some photos. I ended up getting harassed by some guy who lived opposite who kept grilling me about what I was doing and why I was doing it. It turns out he was convinced that I was affiliated with/working for some protestors I knew nothing about, but he wouldn’t leave me alone so in the end I didn’t get much of a chance to take any photos. I don’t think I ever got that roll of film developed anyway. Sad. I remember his elderly neighbor was out there giving me the hairy eyeball too and it turns out the “protestors” were some group who were opposed to it being torn down as they wanted to preserve it for historical significance. I don’t know what happened. I think it got torn down for new houses.
Ps – that’s take photos from outside. No “urbex” trespassing from young limey.
The company said its theft problem came to a head last November, when a car crashed through the glass front doors of REI’s Pearl District store on Black Friday. It was the store’s third break-in in a week.
After the Black Friday incident, REI spokesperson Megan Behrbaum said, the company’s chief commercial officer and Pearl District store manager met with Mayor Ted Wheeler’s office and the Portland Police Bureau to share their “concerns for the safety of our employees, members, and customers.”
Cody Bowman, spokesperson for Wheeler’s office, said the mayor’s staff and PPB worked directly with REI to find ways to address crime in the Pearl District, including more police patrols in the area and focused efforts on designated days to intercept and arrest shoplifters.
Just lie back and relax. Think of it as ad hoc reparations.
“focused efforts on designated days”
You wouldn’t think arresting shoplifters would require focussed efforts to start with, much less only on (occasional, I am sure) designated days.
The Menominee Reservation was unable to maintain the building and surrendered their claim to the property within a few months.
I was completely not surprised by this sentence.
Why do I assume Portland cops would laugh right in my face if I suggested they should actually be arresting shoplifters?
Fuck the ATF.
Embarrassing.
honk honk
So he’s an idiot and a seat warmer.
No, just a political weasel. He knows if he gave a definition, the Dems might be held to it, and not be able to label basically everything as an “assault weapon”.
“I’m not a firearms expert.”
That’s not important, but he’s not black. He’s not even pretending to be a woman. How in the world did he get a high profile job in the Biden administration?
Ten percent for the Big Guy.
“Guns are icky”
They could only find a cracker for such a distasteful position.
More Portlandia
https://www.oregonlive.com/crime/2023/04/some-portland-officers-responded-to-lgbtq-training-with-racist-feedback-report-says.html
Unquoted feedback is racist and white sumpremacy. Pull the other one, dickhead.
OFFS!
The new and improved Miranda
https://youtu.be/xibUoGUcjc4
“The individual’s pronouns are “criminal/suspect”.
We honeymooned on Sea Island (GA) and then went there for our anniversaries until the batch of kids got big enough that we switched to super-cheap state park beach campgrounds. Well, Jekyll Island (yes that one) is just up the coast, and on our first anniversary we stopped by there on the way home. Well, at that point, a whole lot of the houses that had been the “millionaire’s colony” were basically wide open and only semi-decrepit, so we spent a whole afternoon poking through empty Gilded Age mansions.
Before we got married, Mrs. Tree lived in Aiken (SC), which was where the horsey Yankees came for their winters (beachy Yankees went to Jekyll, bird-shooty Yankees went to Thomasville). So Aiken is loaded with old mansions also, and we’d find the ones right there in town that were unoccupied and go explore the grounds.
I mentioned it in the morning thread, but here is Ding frozen up. The announcers are freaking out.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=q9DguHrGHzA
Anish Giri is pleading for Ding to just make any move.
Bobby Fischer is spinning in his grave.
Woops
https://ussanews.com/2023/04/17/first-german-leopard-2a4-tank-destroyed-by-ukrainian-soldiers/
That’s covered under warranty, right?
Just duct tape it back on, good as new.
Get the car jack, Jethro. We’ll have that turret back in place in a jiffy!
It’ll buff out.
Who knows if that’s a legit pic but those things won’t last long regardless.
Article says they fell off a hill. I suppose that would explain the turret separation from the hull.