The houses opposite.

Here could be your story:

"... The houses I see from my balcony, behind them you can see the dark hills of the Spessart in the distance, didn't exist back then. As children, we played down there. Our paradise. It was all meadows, except for a single old half-timbered house that was half-ruined and completely overgrown, standing empty. There, a group of us children, even though we weren't allowed to, spent every free minute hanging around..."