MovieChat Forums > The Trip to Bountiful (1986) Discussion > Do farmhouses like this really exist in ...

Do farmhouses like this really exist in Texas???


Or did they??

I''d LOVE to get photos of farms/farmhouses such as these in the film. Anyone know where and if I could find any??


"Some laughed. He let them. His own heart laughed, and that was enough."
-A Christmas Carol

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Oh, yes, yes they do! The one in the movie is near Waxahachie, but there are abandoned and even inhabited houses like this all over the Texas countryside. They are haunting. My great-grandparents had one near Hillsboro, which is very close to Waxahachie. In fact, there is a building trend in a lot of suburbs in Texas to build brand new houses just like the old style farmhouses.

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'In fact, there is a building trend in a lot of suburbs in Texas to build brand new houses just like the old style farmhouses.'

Wow, really?! That's so awesome! Maybe my dream to live (at least half the year) in a house like the one we all saw in this film isn't just a dream!

Thanks so much for your post.


"You're safe from pain in the dream domain.
A soul set free to fly."

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You bet they do. Waxahatchie and Lockhart feature some of the most beautiful Texas farm houses around. They're built to last and can be restored. I know, cause I live in one!


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Just to be clear, rural depopulation is a factor just about everywhere, but definitely in that whole midwest, from Texas to North Dakota area, and into the Canadian prairies.

National Geograhic magazine had an article some time ago (within last 2 years or so?) about depopulation and farm and town abandonment in North Dakota. The article and pictures were positively haunting.

If anything, however, the actually farmyards are disappearing, I guess being plowed under and reclaimed as farms get bigger and more corporate.

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When I moved to Oklahoma in the 1970s, a drive in the countryside would take you past many old broken down homes like the one in Bountiful. In this case, most had been abandoned in the Dust Bowl days.

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Many states have them. My home state of IOWA, also. Once the big corporations started buying up the small farmsteds, they had no use for them. Just the land. In most cases, immigrant labor used them during the harvest season. They then were left abandoned till the next planting or harvesting season.
You can truly feel the life in them when you stand there in silence and look around.
We visited my familys old farmsted in the late 70's. It was actually dangerous as the home was falling down and the wood was rotten. I recall my dad telling me you could always tell which bedroom belonged to the boys because the window screens were always rusted..... they never bothered to walk all the way out to the outhouse at night!

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You can find many abandoned houses on YouTube. Here's a link to some:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mBizq4-B-xY

Look to the right and there's a long list of videos of more abandoned houses, perhaps some in Texas. But as film-collector said, many (if not all) states have some. I live in the countryside of New York state and we occasionally pass by abandoned farmhouses and I always wonder what happened to the families who once owned them.

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a few.

looks like this movie is on tcm tonight! 



🎄Season's Greetings!🎄

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Posted Feb 13, 2007 by fiatlux-1
"Do farmhouses like this really exist in Texas???
Or did they??"

Of course they do! Are you 12 years old? I don't mean to sound harsh, but all you have to do is drive on a rural road 30 or 40 miles OUTSIDE THE CITY YOU LIVE IN to see any number of dilapidated farm houses and out buildings.
Your post is 10 years old, so I hope you've taken that drive by now...

____________________________
"We in it shall be remembered;
We few, we happy few,
We Band of Brothers"
~ Shakespeare

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My father's uncle lived in a house like the one in the movie until he died in 1987. It was in Iowa, Louisiana, though, not in Texas.

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Old farm houses, many of them abandoned, exist in every state. There are many here in California.

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