The house that we’re currently living in here in Ellsworth is
part of a development called Tinker Farm Estates. Or, as it’s not-so-affectionately referred to in town
as “The Condos”.
Development of the neighborhood began 8 years ago on a 28-acre piece of land one mile south of the center of town. The property was formerly known as Tinker Hill Farm and stretches from Route 230 (Bayside Road) all the way down to the Union River with more than 2700 feet of frontage on the river itself. A dozen units were built in 2007, and 78 more were planned, but the bottom fell out of the economy in 2008 and the developer went bankrupt. Leaving nothing but the 12 units (only half of which are occupied), a few piles of rotted lumber, and two dozen light posts strewn about an otherwise vacant field.
It’s rather eerie, and more than a little depressing, walking around and seeing this neighborhood that never was. Future service connections (water, power, etc) sit like tombstones in the tall grass. Marking the place where houses should have been. Gravel roads slowly being reclaimed by the meadow. With bushes growing up where kids should have been riding their big-wheels. And, lonely light posts standing quietly in the pasture. Hoping someday to shed light on a couple taking an evening stroll down a sidewalk.
What makes the neighborhood even creepier is that on a small rise, near the western edge of the property, there is an actual graveyard. The Old Tinker Farm Cemetery where, presumably, Old Farm-uh Tinker and the Missus are buried. I haven’t actually poked around up there. Kinda gives me the willies thinking about it.
Of course, on the other hand, it is rather fitting to think that our little “ghost town” on the hill comes with its own celestial caretakers!
Development of the neighborhood began 8 years ago on a 28-acre piece of land one mile south of the center of town. The property was formerly known as Tinker Hill Farm and stretches from Route 230 (Bayside Road) all the way down to the Union River with more than 2700 feet of frontage on the river itself. A dozen units were built in 2007, and 78 more were planned, but the bottom fell out of the economy in 2008 and the developer went bankrupt. Leaving nothing but the 12 units (only half of which are occupied), a few piles of rotted lumber, and two dozen light posts strewn about an otherwise vacant field.
It’s rather eerie, and more than a little depressing, walking around and seeing this neighborhood that never was. Future service connections (water, power, etc) sit like tombstones in the tall grass. Marking the place where houses should have been. Gravel roads slowly being reclaimed by the meadow. With bushes growing up where kids should have been riding their big-wheels. And, lonely light posts standing quietly in the pasture. Hoping someday to shed light on a couple taking an evening stroll down a sidewalk.
What makes the neighborhood even creepier is that on a small rise, near the western edge of the property, there is an actual graveyard. The Old Tinker Farm Cemetery where, presumably, Old Farm-uh Tinker and the Missus are buried. I haven’t actually poked around up there. Kinda gives me the willies thinking about it.
Of course, on the other hand, it is rather fitting to think that our little “ghost town” on the hill comes with its own celestial caretakers!
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