On page 241 of The Literary World of San Francisco & its Environs I mention in passing the old Gaylord farmhouse outside Auburn, California, where Clark Ashton Smith was born January 13, 1893.
Recent chatter spread the word that the place has fallen into severe disrepair. Tom Krabacher made a run up from his lair in Woodside, camera or cell phone in hand, to document the moment.
Tom reports, “I did get up to Auburn to poke around in CAS’s deteriorating birth place. It’s completely unsalvageable. Undoubtedly going to be torn down to make way for a McMansion in the near future; they’re creeping ever closer down the hill.”
If Tom found the right building, yeah, it looks doomed — but it isn’t the only one falling into ruin in the immediate vicinity.
