12 abandoned houses that were once worth millions of dollars

The Carleton Island Villa, a dilapidated manor house on an island in Cape Vincent, New York, has not been inhabited for 70 years.

The eleven-bedroom house was built around 1895 for William O. Wyckoff, who made his fortune with the Remington company (firearms and typewriters). During the Second World War, construction workers removed the interior, doors and windows.

The house is now for sale for $ 495,000 – whoever buys it will surely have to spend a lot more on repairs and restoration.

Halcyon Hall in Millbrook, New York, was built as a luxury hotel in 1893 and part of Bennett College in 1907. The women’s college was closed in 1978.

The now neglected building was bought in 2014. The plan is to tear it down and replace it with a park.e

In August 2016, however, the owners stated that the house would remain like this for “a few years” until the property rights had been clarified.

The Swannanoa mansion in Lyndhurst, Virginia, was built in 1912 by the railroad millionaire James H. Dooley, who allegedly commissioned it for his wife.

When the couple passed away, the house with 52 rooms was used as a country club for a while. Then a couple of scientists leased the house, converted it into a museum, and lived there until his death. Nobody lives in the house since 1988.

The villa is occasionally still accessible for weddings and other public events. The local residents, however, complain about the poor administration and the miserable condition of the property.

The Cambusnethan House in North Lanarkshire, Scotland is one of the last Gothic manor houses in the country that is still preserved.

In 1819 it was built to replace a house from the early 17th century that burned down in 1810. In the 1970s, the house was used for re-enacted medieval banquets until it was again damaged by fire in the 1980s.

The centuries-old Lynnewood Hall Palace has 110 rooms and dates from the Golden Age. It stands near Philadelphia and was designed by Horace Trumbauer in the late 1890s.

The construction cost an estimated $ 200 million in today’s terms. Restoring the palace to its former glory, although in relatively good condition, could cost up to $ 40 million, according to David B. Rowland, president of the Old York Road Historical Society.

Despite the dilapidated condition, Lynnewood Hall is still worth millions – the property market is trading at $ 15.5 million.

Pidhirtsi Castle in the Lviv region of Ukraine was built between 1635 and 1640 by the Italian architect Andrea dell’Aqua as a resort for a high-ranking Polish military commander.

The building had enjoyed great popularity for years, but in the 19th century it was taken over and neglected by new owners, so that it had already deteriorated considerably at the end of the Second World War.

Fire and floods have damaged Pidhirtsi over the years. The Lviv Art Gallery Foundation wants to restore the castle, but it lacks funds. While local students volunteer to help repair the property, the foundation also invites investors to help with the restoration.

On the Delaware River in New Jersey is the McNeal mansion, built in 1890 by industrialist Andrew McNeal, who previously founded a pipe mill and foundry.

The U.S. company Pipe bought the property in 1899 and used it as headquarters until 1953. After that, it was abandoned.

In 2016, the city bought the property and approved a refurbishment plan that is considering restoring the Victorian house. However, the project has stalled since then and the house is still empty.

The “Swingers Tici Palace”, as it was called by a photographer, is located in Tennessee. It was built in 1972 by the strip club mogul Billy Hull as the ultimate party palace.

Since Hull was arrested for tax evasion, the property has been decaying. The now orphaned facility is known for its Playboy Bunny Pool and its dramatic history.

The owner was sentenced to 20 years in prison and the villa, including the empty pool, is now home to numerous graffiti.

The Villa de Vecchi, known as the “spirit house” of Italy, was built between 1854 and 1857 and was supposed to be the summer home of the count and chief of the National Guard Felix De Vecchi. The house had all the modern conveniences of the time, including heating pipes inside and a large fountain.

But it became the home of a mysterious family tragedy: the count committed suicide in 1862 when he found his wife murdered at home and his daughter was missing. Relatives lived in the villa until World War II, but the house has been empty since the 1960s. A “ghostly creature” is said to be playing on the grand piano at night.

An avalanche destroyed nearby houses in 2002, but the once pompous and now battered “ghost villa” is still standing.

These ruins, which resemble an old European castle, are located just outside of Kansas City in Missouri. They are the remains of the dream of businessman Robert Snyder, who wanted to build a European-style castle in Missouri.

Snyder started construction in 1905, but was killed in a car accident the next year and did not see the completion. His sons took over the construction and lived there until the family ran out of money over several land rights suits for possession of the castle.

After the youngest brother was forced to leave the house in poverty, it was converted into a hotel until 1942, which was then destroyed by fire. In the 1970s, the state of Missouri bought the property and did some restoration work, but the former mansion is still largely in ruins.

Bannerman Castle is located on Pollepel Island in New York’s Hudson River. It was founded in 1901 by the Scottish entrepreneur Francis

However, Bannerman did not use the castle as a home, but as a warehouse for his military weapons business.

After the powder house exploded in 1920, the condition of the castle deteriorated. It was eventually bought from the Hudson Highlands State Park Reserve.

In 1992 the Bannerman Castle Trust was founded to restore the ruin. Since then, over a million dollars have been raised to renovate the castle, which can be visited today.