by Leta Currie Marshall

A Lopez landmark vanished last Wednesday when a backhoe demolished the dilapidated house at the jog in Fisherman Bay Road, just north of Lopez Village.

The absentee property owner, Nicholas Padvorac, was on hand to watch. As the backhoe chewed what was left of a wall and deposited it on a pile of rubble, Padvorac said the chimney had started to collapse, the roof was caving in, and he was worried about someone getting hurt in the house, particularly children.

Stories about the house abound, including that it was haunted. One story, new to Padvorac, was that a woman who’d once lived there, the “Rat Lady,” trapped and killed rats, dressed them up in little clothes, and mailed them to people.

Padvorac’s wife’s family bought the house in the 1950s, but she never lived there. He said the house was occupied until the 1960s or 1970s, and when it stood empty after that, hippies often camped in it. Although a County Commissioner who lived in the house across the road complained, deputies did not manage to keep people out of the house, and the “No Trespassing” signs Padvorac repeatedly placed on the property always disappeared.