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Photo from 1953 shows the house that collapsed into the water last weekend. (A. Aubrey Bodine, Baltimore Sun)

Holland Island was once five miles long. It was home to a fishing community of 250 to 360 people, with more than 60 homes, a church and other buildings. But erosion forced the residents to leave — with the last fleeing in 1922 — and for decades now the island has been receding into the bay and only one abandoned home remained, threatened by the bay.