10 abandoned mansions around the world that likely used to be worth millions
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The Carleton Island Villa, a dilapidated mansion that sits on an island in Cape Vincent, New York, hasn't been inhabited for 70 years.
Source: Realtor.com
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The 11-bedroom mansion was constructed around 1895 for William O. Wyckoff, who made his fortune from the Remington firearm and typewriter company. Around the World War II Era, contractors went in and removed the interior and doors and windows.
Source: Realtor.com, Curbed
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The mansion is now for sale for $495,000 — but whoever buys it will certainly need to spend much more than that on repairs and restoration.
Source: Realtor.com
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Halcyon Hall in Millbrook, New York was built as a luxury hotel in 1893 and became part of Bennett College in 1907. The women's college closed down in 1978.
Source: Untapped Cities
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The now-decrepit mansion was purchased in 2014 with plans to demolish it and replace it with a park.
Source: Poughkeepsie Journal
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But in August 2016, the owners reported that the mansion would stay standing for "a few years" while they untangled property rights issues.
Source: The Millbrook Independent
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The Swannanoa mansion in Lyndhurst, Virginia, was built in 1912 by railroad millionaire James H. Dooley, who reportedly built it for his wife.
Source: Atlas Obscura
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When the couple passed away, the 52-room house was used as a country club for a time. Then, a scientist couple leased the mansion and turned it into a museum while continuing to live there until their deaths. Nobody has lived in the house since 1988.
Source: Atlas Obscura
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The mansion is occasionally still open to the public for weddings and other events, but local residents have complained that the estate has been mismanaged and that its condition is deteriorating.
Source: News Leader
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The Cambusnethan House in North Lanarkshire, Scotland, is one of the last remaining Gothic mansions in the country.
Source: Register for Scotland
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The mansion was built in 1819 to replace an early 17th-century house that burned down in 1810. In the 1970s, the house was used for mock medieval banquets, but it was further damaged by fire in the 1980s.
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Cambusnethan House is on Scotland's Buildings at Risk Register at a "critical" risk level. A group called "Friends of Cambusnethan Priory" was established in 2014 to try to save the building from any further deterioration.
Source: Canmore National Record of the Historic Environment, Friends of Cambusnethan Priory
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Lynnewood Hall, a 110-room, century-old Gilded Age palace just outside of Philadelphia, was designed by Horace Trumbauer in the late 1890s.
Source: Curbed
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It cost an estimated $200 million to build in today's dollars. Although it's still in relatively good condition, it could cost up to $40 million to restore the hall and its grounds to their former glory, according to David B. Rowland, president of the Old York Road Historical Society.
Source: Terrain.org
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Despite its state of disrepair, Lynnewood Hall is actually still worth millions — it's on the market for $15.5 million.
Source: Fox & Roach Realtors
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Pidhirtsi Castle in the Lviv region of Ukraine was built as a leisure home for a high-ranking Polish military commander between 1635 and 1640 by Italian architect Andrea dell'Aqua.
Source: World Monuments Fund
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The mansion prospered for years, but in the 19th century, new owners took over and neglected the castle, so that by the end of World War II, it had massively deteriorated.
Source: World Monuments Fund
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Pidhirtsi Castle has been damaged by fire and flooding over the years. The Lviv Art Gallery foundation aims to restore the mansion, but a lack of funds seems to have hampered progress. The foundation is calling for investors to help with the restoration while local students volunteer their time to try to repair the estate.
Source: The Vintage News
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The McNeal mansion, which sits along the Delaware River in New Jersey, was built by industrialist Andrew McNeal in 1890 after he founded a pipe plant and foundry.
Source: Burlington County Times
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U.S. Pipe bought property in 1899 and used it as its headquarters until 1953, after which it was abandoned.
Source: Burlington County Times
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In 2016, the city bought the property and approved a redevelopment plan for the mansion that might include a restoration of the Victorian home, but the plan has since stalled and the home continues to sit empty.
Source: Burlington County Times
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This "Swingers Tiki Palace," as it was dubbed by one photographer, in Chattanooga, Tennessee, was built in 1972 by strip-club tycoon Billy Hull to be the ultimate party palace.
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The unique structure felt into decay after Hull was arrested for tax evasion. The now-abandoned mansion is known for its Playboy bunny pool and its dramatic history.
Source: Abandoned Southeast
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The owner got 20 years in prison, and the mansion, including an empty pool, is also now home to graffiti.
Source: The New York Post
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The Villa de Vecchi, known as the "Ghost Mansion" of Italy, was built between 1854 and 1857, meant to be the summer home of a Count named Felix De Vecchi, who was head of the Italian National Guard. The home had all the modern amenities of the time, including indoor heating pipes and a large pressurized fountain.
Source: Atlas Obscura
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But it was home to a mysterious family tragedy. In 1862, the Count killed himself after he came home and found his wife murdered and his daughter missing. Relatives continued to live at the mansion until World War II, but the mansion was left uninhabited by the 1960s. The home's grand piano is said to be played at night by "a ghostly entity."
Source: Atlas Obscura
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A 2002 avalanche destroyed nearby homes, but the once-lavish and now battered "Ghost Mansion" remains standing.
Source: Atlas Obscura
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These ruins that resemble an ancient European castle actually sit just outside of Kansas City, Missouri, and are the results of a dream of businessman Robert Snyder, who wanted to build a European-style castle in Missouri.
Source: Atlas Obscura
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Snyder started building in 1905, but the next year he was killed in a car accident and never saw it finished. His sons took over construction and lived there until the family ran out of money because of several lands rights lawsuits surrounding the castle’s property.
Source: Atlas Obscura
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After the youngest brother was forced to leave the home in poverty, it was turned into a hotel until 1942, when it was destroyed by a fire. In the 1970s, the state of Missouri bought the property and did some restoration work, but the former mansion remains largely in ruins.
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