The 10 Most Unsettling Abandoned Mansions

Pennsylvania’s Elkins Park, Lynnewood Hall

The owner of the well-known Instagram page @mansionsofthegildedage, Gary Lawrance, calls this 1897 residence “perhaps the most magnificent mansion still standing and falling apart.” The 110-room home was constructed in a Philadelphia suburb by architect Horace Trumbauer for businessman Peter A.B. Widener, but it is currently empty and belongs to the First Korean Church of New York. The 34-acre estate is up for sale for $15.5 million, so it might be yours.

Bennett College’s Halcyon Hall is located in Millbrook, New York

This 200-room facility was constructed in 1893 as a high-end hotel and changed into Bennett College’s main building in 1907. The women’s college was shut down in 1978 due to financial ruin. After buying the property in 2014, the new owners intended to demolish Halcyon Hall and transform a portion of the 27.5-acre property into a park. Yet as of August 2016, the deteriorated structure was still standing.

Wyckoff Villa, New York’s Thousand Islands

The Wyckoff Mansion was constructed in 1894 for William Wyckoff, who made his fortune selling Remington typewriters and is situated on an island in the St. Lawrence River in upstate New York. A month after his wife’s death from cancer, Wyckoff tragically passed unexpectedly from a heart attack during his first night at the house. Despite the fact that Wyckoff gave his son the house, it has been vacant for at least 60 years.

China’s Beijing, Chaonei No. 81

This mansion, known as Chaonei No. 81, was allegedly constructed in 1910 by the Qing imperial family as a chapel for British citizens living in Beijing. A high-ranking Nationalist officer who was residing there is reported to have forsaken his wife (or possibly his concubine) and escaped to Taiwan in 1949 after the Communists beat the Nationalists in the civil war. Locals think that the woman’s ghost has been haunting the abandoned house ever since she committed herself by hanging herself from the rafters of the three-story mansion because she was so distraught.

Château Miranda, Belgium’s Celles

The Chaonei No. 81 home was supposedly built in 1910 as a chapel for British residents of Beijing by the Qing royal dynasty. After the Communists defeated the Nationalists in the civil war, a high-ranking Nationalist officer who was living there is said to have abandoned his wife (or possibly his concubine) and fled to Taiwan in 1949. Locals believe that since the woman committed suicide by hanging herself from the rafters of the three-story home because she was so distressed, her ghost has been haunting the abandoned house.

Celles of Château Miranda, Belgium

This home also has a depressing history. In the 1800s, Count Felix de Vecchi hired architect Alessandro Sidoli to build a family residence for him in the mountains above Lake Como. Sidoli passed away a year before the building was finished, and after de Vecchi and his family had moved there, the nobleman returned home one day to discover his wife had been murdered and his daughter had gone missing. After failing to find his daughter, he committed suicide. The mansion then went to his brother, but it has been vacant for many years.

Elda Castle, Ossining, New York

Elda Castle was constructed in 1927 on roughly 50 acres by Abercrombie & Fitch founder David T. Abercrombie, who was inspired by the vision of his wife, architect Lucy Abbott Cate. There were once 25 rooms totaling 4,337 square feet, including servants’ quarters. Once the couple passed away, the house stood uninhabited for a while before suffering “damage from vandals, including fires and paint thrown on the marble floors,” according to Country Living. Nevertheless, buyer beware: the description warns that the castle “is in need of major refurbishment” before it can be purchased for $3.5 million.

Wyndclyffe Castle, New York’s Rhinebeck

This 24-room home was built by Edith Wharton’s aunt in 1853, and because it had an impact on later nearby estates, the saying “keeping up with the Joneses” is said to have originated from it. It was abandoned in the 1950s, purchased in 2003, and then sold for only $120,000 at an auction in 2016. The house, which formerly had nine bedrooms and a Tiffany skylight, is now in ruins. There is a huge hole in one side where entire pieces of it have collapsed.

Taiwan’s Liu Family Mansion

This three-story baroque palace, also called the Mnxióng Ghost House, was constructed in 1929. Its owners, the Liu family, purportedly left it in the 1950s because a distraught maid who drowned herself in the well began haunting the house. Another myth holds that it is haunted by soldiers from the Japanese Imperial Army who died during combat there.

Pollepel Island, New York’s Bannerman Castle

The castle, which is situated on a small island in the Hudson River about 60 miles north of Manhattan, was built by an arms merchant of Scottish descent who purchased the island in 1900 to keep his armory of weapons. Two years after Francis Bannerman’s passing, in 1920, 200 tons of ammunition exploded, causing damage to the mansion that included broken windows. Although abandoned in 1950, the island is now accessible for tours.