10/29/17: Today, I thought Halloween season needed a haunted house! Okay, no, it’s not really haunted, but it’s still creepy as hell!

This mansion, in a New York City suburb (I was unable to discover which one, damnit), sits on six… let’s call them natural acres, and sports amenities like an enclosed tennis court. Built in the 1930s and abandoned since the 1970s, the 57-room mansion looks like the inhabitants just winked out of existence. Clothes and shoes are still in the closets, toys sit forgotten, pianos wait in vain for someone to play them, and drop cloths and other construction detritus stand as if everyone, contractors included, abruptly fled the building, never to return. Creeped out yet?

Rumor has it that the manse was commissioned by an owner notorious for building extravagant mansions, then leaving them to rot. What an ass. It does seem that someone lived in it, at least for a time. Featuring a bowling alley, two bars, a ballroom, a library, this place would be the perfect house for big, days-long parties. Makes me very sad to think of it sitting alone all those years with no one to love it. And although there’s a little graffiti, considering how long it’s been sitting there, it’s pretty minimal. Wonder what scared them away…

The photographer, Sansivero, is a little obsessed with abandoned sites (as am I), and he really did the magnificent, magnificently tragic property justice.

You can follow Sansivero on his website and on Instagram.

All photos property of Brian Sansivero.