When you first drove up Hopkins Hill Road from Rt. 3 in the 60's, you would think you had left the congestion and noise of the city behind. Houses started to thin out as you headed toward Lake Misnoock . On one of these trips to lake Mishnock, I saw over the trees, what looked to be a chimney? It took several more weeks before I had the courage to drive just off the road onto what was once a driveway and now fully-grown over with brush and wild shrubs.

As I made my way to the back of the house I could hear hissing sounds coming from within and saw that all the windows were covered with plywood. I decided at that point I would not venture into the house without my husband. A few more weeks went by and my husband and I just could not stand the suspense anymore of wondering what sort of architecture and moldings this house might have. We had always loved to tour the houses at Sturbridge and Strawberry Bank and marvel at the workmanship these old houses posessed.

As we pulled back the plywood that covered the doorway we heard that hissing sound again. My husband knocked on the floor with a stick and it stopped. We cautiously ventured into what seemed to have been the kitchen.. The walls had bits of black on them from a long ago fire.

We latter learned that something on the stove caught fire and the woman that had lived in the house had been burned, and later died as a result. Through another doorway from the kitchen to a large room, a single light bulb covered with cobwebs swayed from the center of the ceiling. There were no outlets visible on the walls. In the middle of the room in the center of the house was a massive fireplace with a delapeted beehive oven just off to its right. The pintels were still in the granite which had some supported a huge crane.

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