abandoned house

Sold – Abandoned House For Sale By Owner in the The Monongahela Ghost Town of Brownsville, PA $10K

I don’t know about you, but I am addicted to true crime stories and am fascinated by abandoned houses and ghost towns. This OHU50K listing involves all three.

1024 Water St, Brownsville, PA         $10,000 Sold

OHU50K NOTES

Please contact the seller through the Facebook Marketplace link below.

*Build date 1913
*Google Map
*Listing/Contact

 

SELLER COMMENTS

Historical Fixer upper for sale. As is. Needs work. Roof fixed. Floors fixed. Smoke damage. Please no trespassing. Can drive by and look. Light industrial zoning. Easily changed to commercial 1913 built. Update. Since so many of you are interested here’s what we’re going to do. I will be getting pictures after work today around 6pm I will be accepting offers on the house starting at 10k today October 25. Highest offer wins. That’s fair to all of you. November 1st. Will be the deadline for the offers. I’m not ignoring all of your messages. There’s just so many coming through.

Brownsville Ghost Town

 

Situated along the Monongahela River about 40 miles south of Pittsburgh is the virtual ghost town of Brownsville, Pennsylvania. The town was founded by Thomas Brown around the end of the American Revolution, and by the 19th century had a thriving steamboat-building industry. As the city’s population reached 10,000 residents, a railroad yard, huge national banks, hotels, a brewery, hospital, large homes and so much more were constructed.

The Great Depression brought economic hardship to the area, but Brownsville sprang back and by 1940 still boasted a population of more that 8,000. By the 1970s, however, Brownsville, along with the rest of the Rust Belt, suffered a huge decline, and today the population is 2,190 and continues to decline. Banks, the railroad station, the brewery, stores and commercial buildings, homes and even churches lie abandoned, relegating the town to virtual ghost town status.

 

1024 Water Street History

It appears that this home was originally part of the brewery complex. We can still see the Ice Plant and Boiler Room signs on the buildings behind the house, and it is my guess that the house may have been built for the superintendent of the brewery.

In any event, by the 1960s, the grand home on water street had been divided into two apartments. Mabel and Frank Harsh lived in the first floor apartment, and Ida Long and her 15-year-old son Billy lived in the upstairs apartment.

 

 

 

 

 

The Crime

 

On June 8, 1963, 5:30 a.m., nine bullets were pumped into Frank Harsh as he was while asleep in his bedroom. His wife, Mabel, claimed that an unknown assailant  had entered the home, critically injuring her husband while she was able to run out of the house.

 

 

Two days later, Mabel Harsh admitted to shooting her husband Frank and was arrested and charged with felonious shooting and intent to kill.

 

 

 

 

 

Frank lived another year, while Mabel lived until 1981. Curiously, their two adult daughters had the couple buried together. It is amazing what we discover about some of these old houses under $50K.

 

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