The Richardsons rich?

I always found it odd that the house had been abandoned, even  written reports of tuberculosis in the 60s did not equate to over 30 years of abandonment, or could it have it been? The floors disintegrating  and dirty syringes from squatters lay strewn. We did not even consider the dangers as we rummaged through debris with finds of papers so valuable in age, we had come from a minimalistic environments so each and every part of precious history here was facinating and intrinsically shown in each document found.