By: Olivia Fang

The house at the end of Broadmoor Row has been uninhabited for the last 17 years.

When the house was first built in the spring of 1988, 35 years ago, it held no resemblance of what it looks like today. It was a sizeable place, surrounded by a wrought iron fence, which complemented its gray exterior. The walls were coated in a thin layer of navy blue, matching the color of the stairs. The many windows in the house allowed for bountiful amounts of sunlight to shine in, yet they were mostly kept covered by the curtains.

For the first few years after its construction, the house was a rental property. There were a multitude of residents that passed through the house, none of which stayed for more than a few months. But in the summer of 1992, the house received its most memorable owners.

The Millers were newlyweds with a baby on the way, and it seemed to be the perfect idea to move into a secure area like Broadmoor Row. Mr. and Mrs. Miller were both pleasant yet quiet people. It appeared that their neighbors were rather private people, much to the relief of the young couple.

The couple quickly began renovating their house. They repainted the exterior walls to a dark burgundy color, replaced the dark iron fence with a white picket fence, and turned their backyard into a small garden. The Millers then began to build their nursery; painting the walls a soft baby blue, assembling the crib, and crafting wooden toys for the future baby to play with. On December 31st, 1992, the couple welcomed their son, Aiden, 2 minutes before the new year.

It seemed as though Aiden Miller’s arrival had flipped a switch in the minds of the Broadmoor Row residents. Baby Aiden was an incredibly cheerful baby boy, his musical giggle being a regular sound heard throughout the Miller household. Suddenly, the once aloof neighborhood was simply delighted to meet Aiden, regularly stopping by to greet the couple and their newborn.

As Aiden grew up, the house did as well. The crib was replaced with a queen-sized bed, and the walls were stripped of their blue, exchanged for a more mature olive green. Nevertheless, the bonds between the family and the rest of Broadmoor Row seemed to stay the same.

But alas, all good things must come to an end sooner or later.

During Aiden’s senior year of high school, Mr. Miller’s father was diagnosed with stage 3 leukemia. The family decided to move back to be closer to the rest of their family, saying goodbye to the community they had grown to love.

After the Millers moved away, their house simply sat on the corner, remaining untouched by the other inhabitants of the neighborhood. As the years wore on, the house began to fall apart. The burgundy paint faded, the wood from the fence had rotted away from the rain, and the lawn was far too overgrown from years of neglect.

Nowadays, the house sits at the edge of Broadmoor Row, nothing more than a decrepit mess, a far cry from its former glory.