Exploring a CULT'S Abandoned Mansion | Everything Still Inside

i find abandoned areas incredibly fascinating. its always so cool to get a small glimpse into the past, even if its been destroyed with time.

This place is gorgeous. So many places go to waste and rot to the ground. Yet we have so many people living in tents. Just a shame. Thank you so much BigBanks. Keep on being AWESOME! ✌️

“Exploring a house owned by a CULT!” “Actually I couldn’t find any info on the cult, but it was a wedding venue” 😂

This is the kind of property I would love to live on with my adult children. Each house having a personality of its own. That would have been amazing in the day.

This stately Georgian Colonial was erected in local brick in 1910 so as to maximize views of its elongated Hudson River shoreline and distant prospects of the Berkshire Mountains. Wedding Present Farm (73± acres) is set amongst a string of storied Manor Houses and River Estate Farms south of Albany that articulated life for prominent families. It borders conserved land including the 330 acre working farm at its northern border. It and its Manor House were once owned by the notable lawyer, merchant and agronomist Edward Townsent Reed. The Hudson River House with Cupola at southern border was owned by the proprietor of Knickerbocker Ice. The house proudly displays classical architecture in over-sized and high-ceilinged Public Rooms admitting light at both ends, centered on delicately carved fireplaces and enjoying oak floors. Exterior Porched Entrances are of classical Grecian styling and columned iteration, either with hand-carved volutes or Corinthian capitals. The River Doorway, Foyer and Staircase are of an equal prominence as the Front Entrance. The bookcased Living Room (29'x 17') yields through french doors on each side of the carved fireplace to a large columned South Porch with a brick breastworked fireplace that connects to the Postern. Above it, a large roofed Terrace is accessed by french doors from a Bed Room. The Dining Room (29'x 17') is expressed by high paneled wainscotting, a carved fireplace mantel and oak floors. The adjoining Kitchen Dining Room ((19'x 17') is fireplaced and is open to the Kitchen (24'x 12') and Butler's Pantry with marble countertops. Second story Bed Rooms, Baths and hallways are amply proportioned. The Master Bed Room is 31'x 17'. The Third Story Ball Room (40'x25') has two facing fireplaces and wide board floors. Ancient and stately specimen deciduous and nondeciduous trees grace the grounds, including the massive tuliptree near the South Porch. Ancillary dwellings include a 3400 s.f. Tudor-styled Guest House and two other three bedroomed Guest Houses. These are supported by three barns, garages and fields. The long elegant and gated gravel driveway is curvilinear and penetrates Entrance Woods from River Road, is graced by two naturally delineated Entrance Ponds and meanders through woods past set piece Guest Houses and Carriage Barns to an utterly private Wedding Present Farm. An inground Pool and Shelter are north of the Main House North Porch. A long serpentine driveway descends from the house to the steel bridge over the Bennekill tributary of the Hudson to the 42 acre Shad Island included in the estate, comprised of woods, fields, trails and extended Hudson River frontage. It directly faces on the Hudson River eastern shore the pristine wooded shoreline of the 1052 acre Schodack Island State Park and Boat Launch. Wedding Present Farm is handy to Albany, the NYS Throughway, the Mass Pike, skiing, and numerous shore Towns. Wedding Present Farm was erected as a summer home by Edward & Martha V. A. (Van Antwerp) Easton, on land conveyed as a wedding present by neighbor and close friend Edward Townsend Reed in 1907. Reed and Easton were prominent Albany attorneys, Yale men and mercantilists, Reed in seed; Easton as a lumber baron. Martha's son-in-law Ten Eyck Powell, upon marriage to her daughter Kate V.A. Easton, joined the household and they raised their family there. Ten Eyck Powell was scion of the original Coeymans family, which owned Powell & Minnock Brick Co., which later exclusively supplied all the brick to Co-op City and at whose yard the 145th Street Bridge was assembled.

I don’t understand why anybody would leave that Beautiful house. It could be a blessing to so many.

It’s just insane to me how beautiful the first and last house is. And more insane it’s abandoned. How could someone just abandon these beautiful houses?! And the whole yard is just beautiful. I love it. I would fix it up and make it a family home 🫶🏼

The “doors like windows” are called French doors. Also, you came in the back door. Front doors on houses like that always face the main staircase. It is ornate and opens on a foyer. Definitely the front door. Thanks for sharing your visit!

The living room: those “windows” are French Doors. The glass door immediately next to it is called a “storm door” or “storm window” which are used in the winter to cut the drafts and cold from the exterior. Typically these are traded for “screen doors” for the summer…so you can keep the French Doors open for a breeze but the screens will keep out the flies and mosquitos

Lots of people probably live there. Go to town and find someone old and they will tell you everything about that house.

So sad to see a once magestic home fall to rot. It amazes me what people will leave behind when they vacate a place! Thank you for this fascinating tour.

Very late 70's, early 80's. Love it. As a kid, lived in a 1980 Parade of homes model (Dutch Colonial) that had those identical intercoms.

Anytime I see videos like this, it really hits hard how fast time goes by and how things can change in an instant. It's sad in ways but it's life so have to cherish every moment. I wonder if anyone who has lived in any of these homes youve been to has seen your videos! That'd be something.

When I seen all of that stuff packed in the newspaper, I was hoping that you would check on the date. It would be cool to know what year it was abandoned. It sure is beautiful houses. That main one is amazing! The smaller ones are really nice places as well. I am surprised at what good shape that they all are in. It really is a shame that they are empty. Could you imagine all of the people that could live there together!

I used to live not too far from here. It never belonged to a cult. Don't remember it being used as a wedding venue. It was and is still known as Wedding Present Farm. It was for sale but see it's now listed as being off market so maybe it was sold?

It’s so wild to me that so much is destroyed & than other things look as if it hasn’t been touched since the day the place was abandoned.

It's amazing how quickly mother nature starts to take things back after the humans leave and aren't there to beat it back.

I love that unmistakable sound of a distant motorway (highway) in the background, also the gloomy overcast weather makes it eerily beautiful.

Thanks, B.B. I really enjoy your videos. I've just discovered this type of videos recently. So glad I have. I think you're my favorite presenters so far! 🙂

old school houses were so beautiful and elegantly built with such detail