Clutter Farm for sale? Holcomb, Kansas (Atchison: apartment, crime, big home)

[ShabbyChick]

This is a question for those of you in or around Holcomb...I read online that the Clutter farm was for sale, but I can't find it anywhere. Has it already sold?

[hydigger]

Who would want it?

[Samantha S]

Originally Posted by hydigger

Who would want it?

Are you kidding? Capote made it a famous historical landmark.

If I had any interest in living in that area, I'd buy it. I'd also probably have to pay more than it would be worth otherwise to own it.

[ShabbyChick]

Actually it's a beautiful home, built by Herb Clutter himself. It is very sad what happened in the house, but with the right owners to respect the home and it's history (not just those out to make a buck) it would make a wonderful home. Is it still for sale?

[hydigger]

Good luck with that, the only people who would even know about it would be the morbid seekers who would want to stay or visit because of its history. You would either not want it because you would want peace or want it because it is a morbid reminder of what happened. Unless you are going to make some kind of ghost bed and breakfast out of it, it would not be desirable. Unless you get a woody from rape and death being comitted in your home. In the case of the latter why not fix up Sobibor?
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[Samantha S]

Originally Posted by hydigger

Good luck with that, the only people who would even know about it would be the morbid seekers who would want to stay or visit because of its history. You would either not want it because you would want peace or want it because it is a morbid reminder of what happened. Unless you are going to make some kind of ghost bed and breakfast out of it, it would not be desirable. Unless you get a woody from rape and death being comitted in your home. In the case of the latter why not fix up Sobibor?
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I disagree with you.

The right owner could keep the house in good (hopefully fairly original) condition thereby preserving the history as well as respecting the family and the community.

I doubt any kind of commercial venture would work in Holcomb. The area is too remote. In a town like Atchison or someplace with a decent city draw you might be able to capitalize on the history.

But if I owned the property as it is, I would try to do as I described above.

[TinaMcG]

There is no way you could even get me to set foot on that property. I remember reading the book when I was about 13 or 14, and I had horrible nightmares for weeks afterwards.

[hydigger]

Originally Posted by Samantha S

I disagree with you.

The right owner could keep the house in good (hopefully fairly original) condition thereby preserving the history as well as respecting the family and the community.

I doubt any kind of commercial venture would work in Holcomb. The area is too remote. In a town like Atchison or someplace with a decent city draw you might be able to capitalize on the history.

But if I owned the property as it is, I would try to do as I described above.

preserve the history? It does not have the following that Lizzy Borden has, and if you preserve it you are boarding on making a shrine of something horrible and may need help. They tore down Jeff Dahmer's apartment building, no one kept it for the history.

I think that there are several factors that work on something like this. First if the act has enough of a following, or it has a weird type of crime act, like Liz Borden and her parents murders, with an unsolved crime. Time, is if far enough away from the present to give people a sense of historical prospective or is it too close to the present. Is it really historical or is it just a horrible crime? The clutter event does not meet any real test, it is just a senseless crime on an innocent family, one that happens every day somewhere. It is not of any historical importance, and it is not a particularly interesting happening. Capote was the more interesting character in the recent movies rather than the story he was working on.

So to preserve this shows some obsession you may have with this particular act, but the public would not share it with you. It is a big home built for a family that works on a remote farm that was murdered by habitual criminals. Dahmer as sick of a person as he was had weird obsession of turning people into sex zombies then eating them, by drilling holes in their head, so sick and bizarre one cannot turn away. The Clutter story is not that particularly strange to us and the home if no one could forget it would have to be torn down because who would live in a remote area with no work unless you were obsessed with the story? There are many homes that are trying to pray on this with little success.

There are many places for sale, recently the Ramsey home was for sale where the murder took place, the Tate Polanski home has been up for sale on and off over the years. But the Ramsey home has the element of unsolved crime and may move into the realm of the Borden crime, and the Tate home has the everlasting Manson connection, but the Clutter home is fading in the minds of many people and the only historical connection is for those that are obsessed with it.

[Samantha S]

Originally Posted by hydigger

preserve the history?

<In my best Western Kansas drawl:> Ya ain't from 'round here, are ya son?


You are certainly entitled to your opinion, of course. I just disagree with you - on many counts.

I don't think one would have to be "obsessed" with the murders or the gore in order to have an interest in the historical significance of the property.

I believe there is a historical significance to the property. It's remote location prevents any kind of tourism associated with it and this, IMO, is a good thing. I would not want to see the property turned into a sideshow.

Personally, I think any home from a bygone era should be preserved in as close to original condition as reasonable. But I am kind of a history buff in general and have a particular interest in the history of my home state. So if I lived in the area and had an opportunity to preserve the Clutter home, I would do it.

I think such a preservation, done with respect to the family and the community would be a tribute to the Clutter family as well as to Kansas in general.

You may think that's nuts, but I don't and here's why: Herb Clutter came from modest beginnings and became a very successful Kansas farmer. This aspect of the man resonates throughout the state. The family suffered a terrible tragedy. While this particular type of tragedy is uncommon, tragedy in general in the Kansas farming communities over the last 150+ years is not at all uncommon.

Stop by the cemetery of just about any small KS town and see for yourself. Look to see how many families lost children and young adults over the years. Sometimes several within a short period due to flu epidemics. Hardship and tragedy are a part of the framework of Kansas' History.

But an incredible quality of the Kansas farmer is that life goes on. The family, the community and farm live on - the work must be done. This spirit of perseverance is also a way of life in the small farming towns of Kansas.

So, to continue that spirit by keeping the Clutter family home a family home and the farm a working farm would be a tribute IMHO.

[Modron]

I was born in western Kansas a year after the Clutter murders. I remember being able to see the house from the road when we traveled ... to I can't remember where. It was really stark, if only because of the terriblness of what went on there. I'm sure it would have been quite admired, otherwise. There was always some awe and sadness and scariness going past it. It became kind of a big thing again when Capote wrote the book. I remember hearing stories that the killings were being researched. (And, I'm sure the comments included comments about the "*****" writer.)

It certainly is a part of my history just for driving past the house. But, whether or how that history should be preserved seems like a difficult question to me.

As for the life of the Kansas farmer, I remember as a kid farm families going on forever as the land was passed down through the generations. Nowadays, I dunno. Lots of farm families are giving it up. The children of our old family friends who inherited land from great-grandparents are moving off the farms. Towns are shrinking. School districts have to be consolidated to accommodate the declining populations.

I did have friends, though, who had the family cemetary plot on their home place. We used to go for walks and wind up there. It's true, you do see the history of perserverence through illness and hard times etched on headstones that become more a part of the land with every passing season. Someday that land will be sold off. I wonder what they'll do with the graves?