Trip 1

This abandoned house I had first come across in February while taking a shortcut through to Wellington. Now, fast forward to a certain Friday in September: We were sitting around bored when somebody suggested to go check the houses out. So we had Jerry, Citizen-X, Boner, and myself… we were missing Flea and Boner, but they came for the second expedition. Anyway, we get to this run-down dead end section of Waterloo St. where it comes to a stop at the river, going partway through the old Victoria Hospital campus. The street is in incredibly bad shape, and is surrounded by thin woods, the other side of which is a parking lot. At the very end of the street is a small dirt area, which looks as if it could have been a parking lot at one time as well. At it’s back there’s a rutted dirt road leading up to the hospital Medical Waste Management Center. Behind that is more woods and bush and then the river. Of 4 houses on that small dead end section, only one is actually inhabited, although it too is in bad shape. But in any case it’s set well back from our targets and with a small barrier of dense bush between them. Now, upon inspection of the houses we find they are quite old, I’d say about 1900s-1920s vintage. All except one appeared to be in decent shape from the outside, and were heavily boarded up…. As far as I know these have been boarded up for years. Our hopes of getting in were seemingly let down when we discovered the boards to be quite sturdy and nobody had a crowbar. However, we did discover one of the basement windows of number 73 had the grating ripped off which would provide easy enough entry. Nobody had a flashlight though, and we were left to peer into the musty basement in disappointment.

Trip 2

This time we were better prepared, and certain that this time, 73 Waterloo St. would be conquered. Our crew consisted of Citizen-X, Boner, Flea, and myself. Jerry was off dorking around with his girlfriend or something and couldn’t make it. As well, this time we brought flashlights: One small pocket light, a normal 2D-cell light, and my big 6V lantern. I had stupidly forgotten my maglight at home. We went directly to the side of the house where we took a look at the basement through the window. A scan of the main room through the opening with flashlights revealed that a good portion of the ceiling had partially collapsed about two feet in and to the right of the window opening. Only one rotting plank and some loose-looking wires appeared to be supporting the collapsed section. Not safe in the slightest. There was however a (rotting) chair propped under the window. After some debate, Citizen-X said he’d go in, since everyone else including myself was too concerned with bumping part of the ceiling on the way in and causing another collapse. So in he went with the video camera and the lantern. The basement appeared to have a rather simple layout: one main room, a hallway, and a few smaller rooms leading off of that. On the floor of the main room was about 3 or 4 inches of general dust, rotting wood pieces from the ceiling, and other miscellaneous debris. Of interest was the 1920s-era oven, which sat by the doorway into the hall. There was also a couple glass light-fixture globes, a squeegee, a large spaghetti-strainer, and an unbroken window in its original wooden frame leaning against the wall. There was an open door into the hallway, which contained the other small rooms. There was what appeared to be a bedroom, with an incredibly rank and dirty mattress and some random pieces of clothing as well as more rotting wood and general debris. The furnace room, for some mind-boggling reason, had an old rust-stained bathtub in it, and lots of wood planks piled up on the floor. The other room appeared to be some kind of kitchen or storage space. It contained a row of old cupboards and what appeared to be some kind of an old dresser or chest of drawers. Again, it was also filled with a few inches of dust and debris on the floor. Then the bathroom, which contained an old, oddly styled toilet. He didn’t see any entrance to the upstairs either, although one of the rooms contained a closed door, which he didn’t try to open. Now, due to the fact he was alone in there and we were all waiting for him at the side of the house in broad daylight in the middle of the afternoon, Citizen-X just skimmed through these rooms and a lot of the first video is shaky and out of focus. Another expedition is planned where hopefully we can get the rest (or at least a few more) of the crew in without further collapsing the ceiling… as well as make a more thorough examination of the rooms and find a way upstairs.

Trip 3

Indeed, this was yet another trip to good ol' 73 Waterloo St. We went back this time in order to find a way into the upstairs and get better video... unfortunatly, we discovered that this was, in fact, a bachelor apartment and there is no inside acces to the upper floor at all. To make a long story short, the mysterious "door" was actually just an oddly-panelled section of the wall and didn't open to anywhere. As well, an old sign was found nailed up near the ceiling which stated "ABSOLUTLY NO FISHING". As for the video, well, it turned out bad again due to a lack of flashlights (we only had two this trip). Another semi-interesting thing was the fact that some type of truck (security?) pulled into the dirt area at the end of the road just as everyone was coming out of the basement... the dude in the truck gave me a funny look, and then after sitting there for a while, it pulled away and went on up the street. Anyway, we may make another trip to get a good video, or maybe not.

- Capone

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