I see things like that and wonder what the story was. Why did a charming old place end up in such a state?
The same way that beautiful ancestral homes here where I live go to rack and ruin.
1). The people that live in the house get old and have bigger issues to deal with in their lives than keeping the place maintained.
2) They finally pass away. They often have no will, or maybe they leave it equally to their heirs.
3). None of their heirs even live in the area any more, or if they do, no one has the money to fix the roof, upgrade the heating and plumbing, etc.
4). So one or more of the heirs sues to force a partition sale, so they can realize and liquidate their share of the estate. But they don't all agree on that, so someone countersues to somehow keep it in the family.
5). This drags on for years, while the kudzu, borer bees, squirrels, groundhogs, and
weather do their thing.
As Kipling's Iggulden said "Housen are like teeth. Let 'em go too far, and there's nothing to be done...."
Lannis