the house , built by marie claudette before the beginning of the century , was built on a thumb of land jutting into the river , and sometime around 1896 it became clear that the river was determined to take this thumb of land everything was tried , but nothing could be done the levee had to be built behind the house and finally the house had to be abandoned , the ground around the house was slowly flooded , then one night the house itself collapsed into the marsh , and within a week it was gone altogether , as if it had never been there .