An abandoned and neglected home in Bay Shore was knocked to the ground Wednesday morning, to the relief of the surrounding neighborhood.

Several neighbors came to see an excavator knock down the home at what was supposed to be part of Island Woods, a nine-lot subdivision that was approved back in 2002, according to the Town of Islip.

"I'm really happy to see it because you know it's been an eyesore," said neighbor Charles W. Jones. He said he came to see the demolition for himself after watching for two decades of getting his hopes up.

"Every day I'd ride by, I'd look at it and I would think, 'Wow!' It looked like a few times they were going to do something, then it stalled," Jones said. "So I said I'm just going to take a wait-and-see attitude, and the waiting turned out to be infinite."

The developers filed for bankruptcy in 2009, and it sat in disrepair for a decade before being deemed unsafe in March 2020, which paved the way for demolition.

"It really is such a detriment for the community. It's not only a nuisance visually, bringing property values down, but these structures wind up being hazardous and often times attract illegal activity," said Town of Islip Supervisor Angie Carpenter.

Neighbors already knew the threat it posed before that, thanks to issues with trespassers and a fire at one point. And property value concerns were involved as well.

"During storms, you see people half coming out of windows, you know trying to break out windows in the middle of the night. Sleeping in there," says neighbor Dolores Hawthorne. "You don't know who's in there, what's going on because we are sleeping, living right there."

The town says there are no plans for its future, but neighbors have ideas.

"Hopefully it leads to some type of affordable housing or something because it's a nice piece of property, it's a nice neighborhood, and there's a lot of land here that's just sitting here. It's been sitting here for 10 years," Jones said.

But there is still work to be done. The house next to it comes down next week.

The property owners will take out foundations for two other homes, while another will remain up for now.