Seirer_170322_3629.jpgHome on the Range Although it lacks occupants, maintenance and paint, this abandoned, two-story farmhouse still commands attention, and a bit of mystique, on Kansas Highway 14 just south of Lovewell Lake. The once-grand house is believed to have been built in the 1890s, according to Alva Tyler, who remembered growing up there during the Dust Bowl days of the 1930s. The house with five gables and three bedrooms sits next to a pond in a picturesque Jewell County valley quite a distance from today’s highway. Long gone are the barn, garage, hen house and outhouse. The house never knew indoor plumbing, and Tyler told a writer that, to his recollection, it was never painted. John E. Price Sr., who bought the farmhouse and land in 1988 from the Tyler family, said it was the family’s wish that the house not be painted. He’s not only complied with that request, he’s played along to nurture the eeriness of the place known locally as “Casper’s House.” At Halloween, he places ghost images in the windows.

Although it lacks occupants, maintenance and paint, this abandoned, two-story farmhouse still commands attention, and a bit of mystique, on Kansas Highway 14 just south of Lovewell Lake. The once-grand house is believed to have been built in the 1890s, according to Alva Tyler, who remembered growing up there during the Dust Bowl days of the 1930s. The house with five gables and three bedrooms sits next to a pond in a picturesque Jewell County valley quite a distance from today’s highway. Long gone are the barn, garage, hen house and outhouse. The house never knew indoor plumbing, and Tyler told a writer that, to his recollection, it was never painted. John E. Price Sr., who bought the farmhouse and land in 1988 from the Tyler family, said it was the family’s wish that the house not be painted. He’s not only complied with that request, he’s played along to nurture the eeriness of the place known locally as “Casper’s House.” At Halloween, he places ghost images in the windows.