In the outskirts of Massachusetts, hidden
away in the vast American landscape, lies an abandoned home once bustling with life. Built in the 19th century, this
house was home to the Crowley family, a typical farming family of that era. With a large family of boys, most of the
Crowley sons ventured to the big cities seeking employment and new opportunities,
leaving behind their rural roots. However, James, the youngest, had a deep
passion for farming and chose to stay, working alongside his father, and later,
continuing the farming legacy alone. As we explore the house, we find photographs
of James with children, but there's no clear indication that he ever had a wife. The fate of
James remains a mystery, but we do know that the house was abandoned around 2008. It's unclear
how old James might have been at that time. Delving deeper into the house, we uncover
letters revealing that James owed substantial debts to various lenders, banks, and even his own
family members, some of whom tried to sue him. Join us on this captivating journey
as we unravel the life of James, and the secrets hidden
within the crawley homestead. Hey, welcome back everybody to another episode on
the Bros of Decay. Let me latch this up real quick because we're entering the barn of Mr. James. I'm
Lesley, behind the camera is Danny like usual, and we're exploring another magnificent
place in the United States, in the state of Massachusetts. Yet again, another
state, yet again another place in the United States where we're going
to show you how the people lived, like how James led his life inside of this
farm that he inherited from his parents. A wonderful place! I think we just ended up in
the garage or some sort, or the barn where they stored some general things like the barbecue
for the nice summer evenings and summer days, and the general stuff to attend the garden. Oh Danny, I love the saws that they have
here on the wall, have a look at that! They are operated by two people and they would cut
down very big trees with these kinds of saws. Even James's bicycle is still lying down there.
This house has been abandoned since the year 2008, we believe, and everything is still left
inside of here. We've got to be a bit careful because it's slowly starting to fall apart. It's
a house from the 1900s, it's more than 100 years old, and in America, these places deteriorate very
fast if they are not up kept and not maintained. Okay, we see one of the first artifacts left in
this place, and this looks like some sort of a wagon or a scale for the farm that he had. I think
maybe to weigh the grain and everything, and the corn that he would farm. I'm not sure, it looks
like a scale. Yeah, definitely a scale, right? Okay, we've got to be very careful in this room
because it's falling apart over there. The whole floor is caving in, and if we walk over there,
we will definitely fall into the basement. So, we definitely don't want that to happen.
There's also a stove standing here. Cast iron stove, the intricate designs on there.
On the side, it says "The Scoff Oven 6303." Wow! Okay, we're gonna be careful. We're gonna go
over here, we have to stick to the right side. You good, Danny? Yep, okay. Yeah,
be very careful, be very careful. Okay, there is a stairway over here as well
that leads to the top floor, to the bedrooms. We're not gonna take this one first, we're gonna
show you the downstairs area where James used to live. In the end, I don't know if James passed
away, that's a part of the story that I'm not sure about. In the pictures that we're going to see
throughout this place, he still looks very young, but he somehow left his house behind and
never returned, which is very strange to us. So we ended up in this very primitive kitchen,
as I would say. Not a lot to see in here, a very small dining table with two ordinary
chairs around it. You can see he was a smoker; there are still some cigarettes left on the
table from him. The time that he passed away, his kitchen untouched, like the day he left
it behind. The dishes are still in here, the last knives and forks and spoons and everything he
used. He had pots and pans, the last cooked in it. Also, adore the wallpaper we have over here, the golden bear and everything.
There's something for you on the wall, Portugal. Is that a place close to you? No,
it's on the south of Portugal. It's the beach line of Portugal. Wow, that seems like an
amazing place, like from the thing that I see over here. Next time we are in Portugal,
we definitely have to visit that place. Yeah, but we're planning to go to the south
as well, to explore over there. Yeah, but that's south-south, that's like literally
at the end. Yeah, almost in Morocco. Yeah, it's the end of Portugal. Oh yeah, but I
definitely want to go there. Let's do it, man! I love this old scale that we have over here. It's
in ounces, of course, I cannot understand any of that. But there would be a plate on top of here
to measure everything, but now the plate is gone. Coffee and sugar jars back there, and then
of course, not to miss in an American house, you need to have the American stove. And
I love the brown color of this one. Here's the oven compartment down there, and up there
we've got the complete stove compartment. Oh, very sturdy with time, these and everything.
And I love the tiles that we have on here. But now you're gonna say, Lesley, you're crazy! The electricity still functions in this
place after all these years of abandonment. What I'm curious about is if the fridge is still
on because if it's on, I didn't hear it yet. It's halfway open, it's not. Okay, they turned
this off, maybe the sockets are turned off. Yeah, we'll find that out. Yeah, we got one of the
first pictures, Danny. Oh no, this was not James, no. This man is way too young to be James, I
think. Which year is this picture? Can you see it on there? Uh, no, no, there's no date on it,
but this man, for me, seems to also not look like James. We're going to see more pictures throughout
the house, but I don't think that was James. Okay, before I move out of this kitchen,
I just want to point out how every single house that we have explored so far is
so different from each other. Like, I love the doorways in here and how they're
constructed with the beams above there. You can see the color of the door at one
point used to be blue, it has been painted white afterwards. With built-in cabinets
we have over here that you don't see in the South but you do see in the north of the United
States. So, every single place in this country, or every single state, has its own unique
houses. Okay, I'm sorry, let's go further. And we're entering now into James's downstairs
bedroom, and I believe this is where he slept. He lived alone in this house. This was the only
room, probably only used the downstairs area and the upstairs area was completely unused.
Oh, the bed is still made, the sheet is still on there. I love the little seat that we have in
front of here, a very unique piece of furniture. It's like a bench where you
can sit, put on your clothes. Wallpaper is slowly peeling off after those
14 years of abandonment. That's about the time that wallpaper starts to slowly peel
off the walls, about a decade it takes, and then other things start to fall apart,
the ceilings start to collapse. Oh my God, the alarm clock is still functioning, it's at
2:45. What? Yeah, it's the right time, I think. Yeah, yeah, sorry, this is European time, but it's
14:52, that's only eight minutes of difference. Wow, only eight minutes of difference, that's
crazy. Have you seen what's on top of here, Danny? Yeah, what? Oh, it looks like a piece of
gold jewelry, NRA award, 50 feet. Oh, this is for sports shooting. So, they shoot at targets and
he probably won this for the 50 feet distance. I was looking at the downstairs; this is a
Mercedes car key. At the end of the exploration, we're going to go outside, and there's a car
outside. I haven't checked out the car yet, but this might be the key to that car. That's
crazy, right? Okay, what do we have down here? Artificial Insemination Corporation, Artificial
Insemination Training Course, James Crowley. What's artificial insemination? Does this have
something to do with the bearing of children? Uh, insemination, I would say, is like artificially
creating a child without having intercourse. That's what I think, but I will clarify it later.
Even the candle is still here, half burned, pretty insane. And I think this is
his closet where all his clothes, indeed, are still left behind. Every time
we see it, every time it just blows my mind. The library with all his books still
in there, that he loved to read. This shortening of his name is on there: James, but Jim. Yeah, I think
he might have been called Jim. Okay, a little rack where you put down
lots of clothing and stuff like that, not very important. But over here, we got the
calendar of the house. This is one of the last calendars, 2008. And of course, the man that
he was, the farmer, he had a farming calendar. Trespassing prohibited, wildlife.
This is such an American sign; Americans usually have it everywhere. In Europe, you don't see trespassing signs that much,
as we also don't have that much private land. Oh yeah, some of the first pictures that we are
seeing. I don't know if this is James, but there's also nothing on the back. They're probably one
of the brothers that lived inside of the house. It's for a knife. Oh, this looks like
a knife, or is this just a holster? It seems like it. Fishing rod on the
three days; he loved to go fishing. Let's see, and there are also all the clothes
still left in the drawers. Absolutely fascinating. Noodle soup, cup noodles. Definitely a man
on his own, didn't like to cook. After he went out for farming, he just made some
noodles, and everything was okay for him. Pictures of a woman and a dog together. This one is from... again, no date on there. Now,
it's just some time codes. And oh, he also played the lottery from time to time. Maybe he won the
jackpot and went out to the Caribbean or some sort and left the house behind forever. Let's
hope that's the story, and he didn't pass away. Peeling paint on the door over here. Isn't that
just fascinating to see how symmetrically it peels off the walls, peels off the doorway?
I absolutely enjoy that. And now, everybody, I want to show you this room, and this room, for
me, is one of the best rooms inside of this house. Everything is still perfectly set up, like
how James left it behind in the year 2008. I absolutely enjoy the table over here with the
cloth still on there, the fake fruit, and even the tea kettle there at the end. But what's most
interesting about this table is the picture of the cow over here. That's there for this church, just
the occupation of James and what he loved to do in life. Oh, everything is still on top of here.
You can even see this Sharp calculator left here, and this even prints out all your
calculations. Still some calculations on there. Right next to here, in the room, we have this sort
of display cabinet. Or, this is a display cabinet, Leslie, and all the glasses and everything,
all the knickknacks, are still in there. I think we got a photo. Hold on, mini album, wait. Oh, this is from travels. Ah, he made these
pictures on a vacation. This looks like Australia. This is all Australia. Yeah, he probably went
on a vacation to Australia. Oh, that's amazing. It's absolutely amazing. Even the
Christmas card left on top of here. Happy Mother's Day, May 12, 1805. And this
card is for Nemo, for a big smooch. Love, Jamie, Laura, and Jim. Jim is definitely the
acronym for James. This might have been the name that his friends and family gave
him, just a shorter name for his name. This over here is sort of a secretary desk, but
it looks different from the ones we normally find. The word only has one hinge left.
There's not really something of interest in here except for this bill. Maybe it is
a bill that they sent out to James. Okay, that's for the vehicle that he owns, probably
for the Mercedes that's still standing outside. A lovely window setup over here with the
DVD players, the radio in the corner, and everything's on the left here. Look at all these
cables down here, geez, there are a lot of cables, and a couple of telephones also still left here.
The electricity is still working in the house, though. Nah, this one's not. Sure, it's not
connected. Oh, it's not even plugged in. No, I'm not going to plug it in, but it's
very interesting. Well, this is a speaker. Left the casing around it. Then, another little display
setup here. This cat pillow, geez, some other things down there. Ow, and
also some newspapers in here as well. They always reveal the dates. This is 1998, way
before the place got abandoned, but they have been sent. They have been directed to James
A. Crowley, so he also had like a second name that's not displayed in here. And of course, the
newspapers are based around farming. The Grower, that's the name of the newspaper, and
they talk about corn in this article. Oh. Always put things back nicely. Besides his
farming life, he also loved to do other things. You can see some baseball gloves here, and of
course, we saw already fishing rods everywhere, but over here are more fishing rods left behind.
Oh, would look hot on the wall. Oh my god, did I just throw it? Yeah, put a piece down
there. This is always completely cracking up. Okay, what do we got over here? Missouri
Highway Control, Highway Patrol. Oh, there's a folder of pictures. Oh, and
this is definitely James in his younger years, most definitely. There are a lot of pictures
in here. Okay, this is from farming. Look at this big stack that we have in here. Huh, oh,
there's a deer. I thought it was a kangaroo. That's because I just saw the pictures from
Australia. Yeah, these were the three boys that lived in this house. One of the three is James.
I cannot exactly say which one of the three. Okay, oh, we got a gravestone over here. And of
course, the farm, they took pictures of the farm, of the animals over there, of the cows. Super
interesting. Okay, lovely box. And then we go, still got this side. This has like this drawer
set up over there, but also some lovely pictures on the top. A broken up group photo, these ladies,
and there's one man in between. One lucky man. Back here, you've got this picture. I think it's
James and somebody else on a fishing trip. You can see he's holding a fishing rod over here,
and they're enjoying themselves on the lake. This is literally the smallest
cassette I've ever seen in my life. This is for a sort of a band recorder,
right? Like some sort of a recorder. Hmm, okay. And then, not to forget, in American
houses, there always has to be a rocking chair, otherwise the place is not complete. "Liberty and
Independence," it says on the top of it. Americans love their freedom. Wow, super interesting.
And now it's time for the next room, that's the living space. Welcome inside. This, actually, for us, we were looking at
it, and it looks very modern in comparison to the 19th-century house that we're standing in
right now. This leather couch over here looks completely out of place. But yeah, James probably
was a farmer, probably not the wealthiest person, so he had to do with what he had. This
computer setup is also still left here, and that's super interesting because it's
exactly how you would be sitting here, smoking his cigarettes to the side. Everything
is still on here. He even has a picture of him with a child up here, maybe a niece of some
sort. I don't believe he had children himself. No, the screen doesn't turn on anymore.
So cool how it's all left over here, exactly how James left it behind.
Piano in the corner there. Electric piano. Look at this, that's a pretty
vintage picture, I would say. Baseball bat. I'm just trying everything right now. Yes, I got the TV working. Switch to channel... Is there something hooked up
to it? Probably not. Oh no, the cable is not connected. It's not connected.
So cool when you get a television to work in an abandoned place. It has been abandoned for
14 years, they just turn it on and it works. America keeps surprising me.
Everybody still keeps saying, like, it's crazy that in Belgium and in Europe
the power still works in abandoned places, but it happens way more often in the United States,
way more often, and that just blows my mind. And then, to end it off in this room,
we also have this drawer over here, the sort of vanity slash drawer setup. Lovely
lady with a calf over there. I think she might be the same lady as we see over there, same facial
features, I would say. Yeah, oh, look at this, the card of two cats, completely handwritten.
"Sweet James, oh, I love you. You're smart, hardworking, handsome, funny man. No, I miss you."
This is a love letter that James got from a lady, from Debbie, it says over here. "Love to curl up
with you, James," she wrote over there. James, you were popular with the girls! I absolutely love
it. Wow, these are really nice finds. Absolutely, James, yeah, he was the man. Even some socks and
everything. So yeah, they left all of their hours. He lived over this whole downstairs area, I would
say. Okay, now it's time to take you upstairs, and we believe upstairs he hadn't lived for a
long time. Upstairs looks way, way more older than the downstairs area. Okay, lovely
hallway over here, the lantern in the middle, the nice stairway. Oh, there's one
thing I gotta show you down here. And those I found, these are directed
to Crowley James, so that's James, and they're from the year 2002, and there
are X-ray pictures of his ankle, we believe. And that's what it also says over there. I think
it's not a life-threatening medical disease or something, but definitely had some problems
with his health and with his body. Okay, it's time to make our way up this
lovely stairway to the top floor. They absolutely adore the wallpaper they had
over here. The feeling you get when you walk these upper floors... I'm looking at everything in
here. We're definitely coming into a part of the house that's way older and that hasn't been used
in a long, long time. Have a look, for example, at the bedroom I'm seeing here in front of me. The
bed frame definitely from the time period that the parents started to live here, probably has been
in the family all their life. Lovely antique bed frame. It's a very unique design. It's in the
design of a bed like I've not seen it before. Love that the bedsheet is laying
on there, halfway over the years. And even the lamp there in the corner,
Danny, it's absolutely fantastic. Sort of a vase shape at the bottom,
and then if you lift this up, it looks like there's an oil lamp mechanism
in there, but it's actually electric, standing on this lovely table as well. And what
you would think is a normal chair is actually a rocking chair over there in the corner.
Americans, I just don't know why or how, but they just love their rocking chairs everywhere.
Let's see if the lights don't function anymore. Oh, it looks like it burned down to this
side. Is the whole wall... is this mold or no, this is fire that happened in the air. You
think this is the chimney? Yeah, I think so, because this ends up in the living space,
and there was sort of a chimney down there. Maybe over the years, it burned down a little
bit over the years, but I'm not sure. And here, we can really start to see that this place is
aging. Maybe this was the reason that James moved out. Maybe the house needed renovations, and he
didn't have the money for it, and he moved to a smaller place. Those are all possibilities.
We're walking into a lovely old bedroom. I just saw this book over here, "Partners
of the Art Trail," and it has the name Paul on the side of it. So Paul might have also
been somebody who lived in this household. Lovely lamp, love the carriage
on there, horse carriage. Come down here, very intricately
designed. Some more books over here, "Tumbleweeds." Tumbleweeds, do you know what
a tumbleweed is, Danny? The things you see in the old western movies, like when this ball of hay
moves across the street. Oh, that's a tumbleweed. But you only can see them down in Texas and
Arizona and stuff like that. So that's for later, during the job. Lovely little bedroom. You can see
Maria is protecting the person that used to sleep in this bed over here. I also really enjoy the
wallpaper, lovely purple and blue color on there. Am I seeing this right? Is this a reclining upholstery chair? Oh, oh no, the back moves. Oh, just the back. Oh, this is a fantastic chair. Wow, I've
never seen something like this before. Wow. You would never find something like this in
Europe. So, the Americans took their inspiration from Europe for their furniture, and then they
added American convenience into that furniture. In Europe, people would never even think of
making a chair like that, but over here, they just like their convenience in combination with
nice style, and that's the end product of that. Okay, oh, a lovely lamp here on the wall as
well, and that brings us into the next room. Just seeing if I can turn it on, but it doesn't
want to function anymore. That brings us into the next room over here. This is actually
one of the most pristine bathrooms. Wow, everything is still perfect in here. I don't
think James used to sleep in this bedroom; this might have been a bedroom from the former
times. Everything is still neatly set up in here, the bed is still made, and there's
also a doll figure on top of the bed. After the lovely design on the air, You've got a suitcase standing
next to the bed that's empty, a very small one though. Turn it this way around. Then a lovely desk as well over
here, with Jesus Christ above there, protecting the person that slept in this room. Religious statues, the people that lived here,
James, probably his parents as well, they were very religious. And you still see it in these
parts of America. People are still very religious. In America, in general, is way more religious,
in my opinion, than the European Union is now. Oh, this is a dried-up rose, Danny. Wow, that's
been lying between this book but only forever. And then, on this side of the room,
there are a couple more things. Lovely little drawer here. I always love to see
these newspapers; this one was from '94. And what I always do is, I look at the advertisements
in there. It's Netflix for a lawnmower; this is an advertisement for a basement
hatch, something very American. Okay, oh, on this side we've got Maria, of
course, she also has to be inside of the house. No, it doesn't work like that. Yeah,
you already see what I was doing, right? I was checking if this one was also a
reclining chair, but it isn't. But it's also very nicely designed, a lovely upholstery chair,
but it needs some work on there. It's been falling apart over those years that it's been abandoned.
I think this upstairs floor might be abandoned for way longer, way, way longer. A typical
American vacuum is standing there as well. And then, of course, not to
forget, we have this enormous chest inside of here. Look at that! I always love
when there are these depictions inside of here. And then, of course, it's
completely filled with blankets. It seems like a blanket is completely sewn
together. Yes, this is a piece of cloth, and then they sewed them all together to make a cheap
blanket, I would say. Or why would they do it? It's colorful, and it's colorful.
That's true as well. Okay. What an enormous chest. I actually want
to go through that door to the next room. So, I have a leaf. Yeah, it connects through. It's
like a cabinet in between or a closet in between, and then you can push that open and come back
into the hallway. That's a nifty walkthrough. So, you come out of your bathroom, you dress
up, and you're immediately in the hallway. Okay, let's close this up. Let's continue further
over here, standing on the mirror. Mirror, yes, be careful. Yeah, I don't want to break it. Not
a bad room. Probably one of the boys that used to sleep here, uh, left here was in this bedroom.
Curious about this device that we have over here, and this is an eagle.
I'm not sure what this used to do, but it seems something maybe for the
farm or something like that. Okay, this room is not very interesting, as you can
see. It just used to be a bathroom of somebody. Yeah, just a closet space. And then, the one and only
bathroom inside of the entire house is up here. So, I think James still used to use
this bathroom when he lived here. See the bathtub, the toilet, and everything is still left
in here, all the cleaning products and everything. Even a book that he used to read
when he was on the toilet is still there. This last shaver/towel... curious
if the water still functions. No. The light's still burst though. And then, of course, the bathtub itself
as well. Everything's still in there. There's one last section over here. I'm not
sure what this room used to be used for when the people still lived here, but you can see there's
a laundry setup over here. So, I think the mother of the house, when she still lived here, might
have used it to iron the clothes and just do her things and do her laundry. There's a lovely dress
that's left over here. Wow, love the style of it, and with the ironing board and everything,
and the sewing machine even still down here. Seeing a sewing machine, but this
is kind of more of a newer model than the ones we normally see. Not a lovely
upholstery chair in the corner over there. Somebody was also musically driven in this
place. What kind of musical instrument would have been? Acoustic guitar? Because was
it that big? Yeah, really. Wow. I'm not somebody who plays musical instruments.
I have no musical taste at all, so uh... Oh, what's this? It's just, oh yeah, it's just
a broom, something. Yeah, sweeper, it says on there. Yeah, sweeper. Yeah, sweeper. Okay, a
lot of junk over here, as you can see. But let's head over there. We can see the top of the barn
that we were just inside, just on top of. Okay, I'm gonna come over here, then I will close this
for you and just do this side. There are a couple of things that might be of interest.
You got this enormous chest over here. There's nothing in there, unfortunately. Okay,
it's just a couple of pieces of furniture up here, a lovely board. Okay, then I think it's
time to head outside and show you the outside of the house and see maybe
if we can find that Mercedes car and everything that's left over there.
I think it's down this stairway, and then we can go down this very steep
stairway. Okay, but let me try this out. Oh! [Music] Me and Danny were just connecting some dots.
We briefly mentioned this before, but here it says "Christmas trees," and we think James on the
side might have also sold Christmas trees in the winter time because we saw the huge saws down in
the barn. Now it's time to go outside. I'm going to take you outside and show you the outside
of the house, but literally, we are constantly connecting dots while going throughout this
place. Oh, then we can go out here if you want. This door also opens up. Okay, the back
door of the house. There you go. Oh, you're outside! It's way nicer, way nicer.
Look at this, at the moment it's 41 degrees Fahrenheit today. There's no Celsius on this,
so not made for European people like us. Okay, the porch is falling apart. Wow, you put
these chairs outside here to just enjoy himself on the outside days. I think there should
be a stairway at some point. There's... Oh, yeah, that's what I was talking about, the car
over there. A little curious if it's the Mercedes or not. I don't think it is. I don't think it is
either. Yeah, it looks like some sort of a truck. It's, uh... yeah, yeah. So, somebody who loved
basically cycling around. This is a very strange car, I would say, with all the windows back
there. Jesus, I don't know which brand this is. It doesn't say anything. It's a Volkswagen! It's
a Volkswagen. This is a Volkswagen, really? Yeah, I would have never guessed that
this was a Volkswagen. Oh, yeah, yeah, it's in big letters right here. Oh, wow, that's a Volkswagen. I wouldn't have guessed it,
never seen something like that. But you can make it into a camper, I would say. Yeah, and this was
James's backyard. Here we can get a glimpse of his house. It's actually enormous, I would say,
like with the barn attachment and everything. Look at the trees that have slowly
fallen on there over the years. It's literally falling apart and breaking into
pieces. I absolutely enjoyed exploring this one. Let's have one last look at the front
of the house before we sign off for today. Lovely wood on the outside. Ah, being outside,
it's way better. Yeah, you were freezing on the inside. Yeah, I don't like the cold. Beautiful
front of the house. Absolutely enjoyed exploring this one. Okay, with the sun in my face and
James's former house being explored, I'm still wondering what happened to this man, why he's not
here anymore. I don't believe this person already passed away, but it's a mystery to us. It was an
amazing place to explore. I was really surprised that electricity still worked and everything,
literally everything, was still inside of it. I want to thank you all so much for
watching this week's video. If you liked it, please like the video, subscribe to the
channel if you're new here, and write a nice comment down in the comment section. There's
also a link in the description for Patreon, where you can help support us and go around the
world to explore these amazing places. I will see you all next week in another amazing episode.
And thank you very much. Bye-bye, I love you! [Music]
