So it was all the more surprising that historian Louise Carter found items worth saving for the Eustis Historical Museum and Preservation Society.
The most extraordinary find was a large wooden chest from 1898, lined with meta. It had been a storage chest for a workman's vital tools, Carter said
"The owner would have been a builder or carpenter or plumber and his tools were stored inside here," she theorized. "Their livelihood was in this box."
Visitors to the society's Citrus Museum can view the tool chest and other antiques retrieved from the abandoned home.
The city won ownership of the house following years of neglect and countless code-enforcement violations. Its original owner had died long ago and the owner's son lived there for a while, only to walk away and never return.
Outdoors, the yards became overgrown, requiring city officials to mow it, city code-enforcement supervisor Eric Martin said. Fines accumulated as the building continued to deteriorate, until the city had enough liens for a foreclosure case, he said.
Inside, the house was in terrible shape, he said.
"There was a rat's colony that had moved in and the place smelled really bad," he said.
Still, some of the personal belongings seemed worth saving as possible antiques.
Carter and Martin ventured into the home to assess the belongings and she found several items worth salvaging. There was an antique clock, a quilt, massive ceramic crocks, a flat iron, a massive Mason jar and a hack saw circa 1910. Still being identified are finds such as a trio of cypress knees, carved like small Indian totems.
Some items dated to the World War II era, when a family member had fought. The museum now has that property — patches, artillery medals, coins and paper money from Germany, Belgium, Switzerland and England, as well as a collection of handwritten letters, bound together with a ribbon.
Carter also took several antique pieces of glass, dating to before the 1900s or 1920s, which still need a thorough cleaning.
"It has a coating of oil and grease from being in a house without air conditioning for years," she said.
Most of the items aren't ready for display yet because of necessary restoration or cleaning, she said.
However, museum visitors can already see the massive chest, which will be displayed along with the various citrus tools from the era.
"I can imagine it with heavy chisels and tools stored inside, and secured with extra locks," Carter said. "It would have taken four men to carry it."
City officials are still in the process of cleaning out the house, which may be turned over to another organization for further restoration, Martin said.
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