Hidden in the undergrowth across the USA stand the forgotten ruins of remarkable historic homes. Once the playgrounds of high society, these estates are now crumbling shadows of their former selves with some pretty fascinating stories to tell. From tragic tales of heartbreak and haunting to a prince from outer space, click or scroll through as we reveal the curious past lives of some of America's most intriguing abandoned stately homes.

Dating back to 1838, this grand pre-Civil War estate was once a landmark home in Milledgeville, Georgia. The regal residence was built for Colonel Samuel Rockwell, an attorney and slaveholder. Captured by Leland Kent of Abandoned Southeast, these incredible images show the home's sad decline after it was abandoned back in 1969.

No expense was spared on the property's imposing design, with every piece of wood that went into the construction hand-cut with expert skill. The bill for the wrought-iron fence alone is said to have been around $2,600. The mysterious abandoned mansion isn't short of intriguing tales either and rumor has it that gold is buried somewhere on the land.

After Colonel Rockwell's death in 1841, the property passed through a number of hands across the years, including those of Georgia Governor Herschel Vespasian Johnson. Over the decades, the house is said to have been a hub for Midgeville's high society and looking at the impressive entrance, it's easy to imagine its grand former life.

While years of neglect have clearly taken a toll, the palatial property's ground floor has weathered the sands of time remarkably well. This light-filled sitting room is particularly charming, with its decorative fireplace and stunning sash windows. The estate's last resident, local dentist Dr Robert Watson, purchased the property in 1962 and lived there until one fateful day...

In 1969, as part of an ambitious renovation project, workers accidentally set fire to an upstairs bedroom while trying to remove paint with a blowtorch. While the damage was made good, signs of the devastation are still evident and the property was vacated soon after. Recently acquired by a team of investors intent on restoring Rockwell House, the historic residence's fortunes are now looking up.

Set amongst almost 50 acres of dense woodland, this huge abandoned castle is located in New York's Westchester County. The vast stone mansion was built and designed in the late 1920s by David Thomas Abercombie – the co-founder of clothing giant Abercrombie and Fitch – and his wife, Lucy Abbott Cate.

The property's title, Elda Castle, comprises the first letter of each of the couple's four children's names in birth order. Long abandoned, the home has lost the fight with Mother Nature, however, the 4,337-square-foot mansion is still undeniably enchanting. Once upon a time, this remote, romantic home must've been the perfect country retreat for the Abercrombie family. 

Rewind to the late 1920s and this weathered residence was no doubt an elegant estate, with its idyllic courtyards and grand sweeping driveway. Sadly, David Thomas Abercrombie's time at the property was short-lived, as he passed away in 1931 at the castle, just a few years after its completion.

Spread across a number of stories, the home features arched doorways, a cast-iron spiral staircase, bespoke leaded windows and an outdoor fireplace. There are a generous 25 rooms in total – plenty of space for a large family to stretch out.

While several subsequent owners have tried to bring the crumbling castle back from the brink over the years, none have been successful, creating something of a lore around the seemingly irreparable property. Here's hoping this fairytale estate gets the happy ending it deserves. 

Built in 1896 by property developer Robert Brinkley Snowden, this previously palatial home was originally known as Ashlar Hall after the Ashlar stone used in its construction. The 11,000-square-foot castle was placed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1983 and in the 1990s it acquired the title of Mongo's Castle when a rather eccentric new owner snapped the estate up.

Robert Hodges, also known as the self-appointed Prince Mongo, purchased the 19th-century property and transformed it into a nightclub. Millionaire Hodges claims to be a 333-year-old alien ambassador from the planet of Zambodia. Inside, the abandoned American castle shows signs of his extraterrestrial enterprise, with martini glasses still lingering on the bar.

Mongo ran his highly successful Memphis nightclub, The Castle, for years before it was closed down by the authorities due to overcrowding. In response, he reportedly moved partyers to the car park outside the venue and brought in 800 tons of sand to transform it into a beach. Not long after, the quirky property was abandoned for good.

Once an atmospheric building with sweeping staircases and stained-glass windows, the castle is now a shadow of its former self. Graffiti adorns the walls and the rooms are strewn with dusty belongings. In this abandoned office, flyers from Prince Mongo's unsuccessful bid for Memphis City Council litter the floor.

With a large pool to the rear of the property, we can just imagine late-night revelers spilling out onto the terrace here. Still desolate, the estate was snapped up by a new owner, Juan Montoya, in 2017, who has plans to renovate it in the near future. Until then, the former party pad remains void of life.

Straight out of a Brothers Grimm fairytale, construction on this fantastical castle on Red Mountain in Rougemont, North Carolina began in 2000. Its creator, architect and sculptor Robert Mihaly, built the fantastical structure to serve as his studio and home.

Though Mihaly managed to complete much of the exterior, including turrets and intricate pinnacles, work was put on hold a few years later and the promising self build project sadly descended into a state of disrepair.

With the interior spaces far from complete, the modern castle was reduced to ruins, but Mihaly recently decided to raise it from the ashes. A victim of vandalism and trespassing over the years, the castle is in dire need of rescue so the artist has his work cut out for him.

With the roof leaking and the windows broken and smashed, an extensive overhaul is needed to breathe new life into the forlorn structure. Still in the midst of renovations, Mihaly thinks the project will cost around $200,000, according to the Charlotte Observer.

Despite the hard work and expense, the tenacious architect has refused to throw in the towel. He's hoping to transform the formerly abandoned castle and get it ready to open up to the public in 2021, possibly as a unique events space.

One of the last things you'd expect to come across in Upstate New York, the dramatic ruins of a castle can be found on Pollepel Island, an islet in the Hudson River, not far from the town of Newburgh.

The islet was purchased in 1900 by Scottish immigrant Francis Bannerman VI, who bought the land to build an arsenal for his military surplus business. A year later, construction on his famed castle began.

Bannerman designed the warehouse himself, incorporating a host of medieval touches, including ramparts, stained-glass windows and romantic turrets. The idea was to create a wow-factor fortified building that would serve as a huge ad for his business.

The military surplus entrepreneur had a smaller castle-like building constructed next to the elaborate warehouse, where he resided for a number of years. But when he died in 1918, the grand home build wasn't quite finished.

In 1920, a massive explosion destroyed part of the structure and the building went into decline. By the 1950s, the complex was left vacant and in 1969, a fire gutted much of what was left. Now the property of New York State, only the ruins of Bannerman's Castle remain.

This romantic ruin may have a cheerful name, but its tragic history is anything but. In 1903, Kansas City businessman Robert McClure Snyder, Sr began purchasing land near Camdenton, Missouri, including the Ha Ha Tonka Lake, which means smiling waters in the local Native American language.

Construction began on an extravagant European-style pile that same year. Sadly, it wasn't meant to be. In 1906, Snyder, Sr, was killed in a car accident, making him one of America's first motoring fatalities, and the uncompleted castle passed to his sons.

Snyder's sons managed to finish the castle, albeit on a less lavish scale than their father envisaged, and used the property as a vacation home for a time until the family fortune was lost following the Stock Market Crash of 1929.

The castle was eventually leased out and converted into a hotel and lodge during the 1930s, but the business was only in operation for a few years. In 1942, a devastating fire completely destroyed the building.

For decades, the decimated castle remained largely forgotten. Thankfully, the state purchased the grounds in 1978 and shored up the ruins, creating Ha Ha Tonka State Park, and the site is now one of Missouri's most popular recreation areas.

Another abandoned mansion with a dark secret, this languishing neo-Gothic pile sits on a thousand acres of land deep in New York's Catskill Mountains and has been ominously dubbed the Castle of Sorrow.

The castle was commissioned by wealthy New Yorker Ralph Wurts-Dundas in the late 1910s but he died in 1921 before its scheduled completion. A year later, his widow Josephine was committed to an asylum and the half-finished property passed to the couple's daughter Muriel.

Dundas reportedly left a fortune of $40 million, but his daughter Muriel is said to have been duped out of the bulk of her inheritance by the castle caretakers. Construction ceased in 1924, leaving the castle in an unfinished state.

Muriel married, moved to England and ended up in a psychiatric hospital, like her mother. Following her death in 1949, Dundas Castle was bought by a group of freemasons and used as a retreat and vacation camp until the 1970s. It has lain empty ever since.

A melancholy place, Dundas Castle is said to be haunted by the ghost of Josephine Wurts-Dundas and, according to local legend, the water in the ponds on the estate turns into blood when the moon is full.

Located on picturesque Carleton Island in Upstate New York, this fine neo-Romanesque-meets-Tudor-Revival mansion was built in 1894 as a summer escape for typewriter tycoon William Wyckoff and his family.

Seemingly cursed, Wyckoff's wife reportedly passed away a month before he moved into the property in 1895. Bereft and broken-hearted, Wyckoff met the same fate – he's said to have died in his sleep from a heart attack during his first night in the villa.

The property passed to Wyckoff's son and remained in the family until the Great Depression, when the clan fell on hard times and sold the house to General Electric. The Second World War scuppered the company's plan to turn the mansion into a staff retreat and the property fell into serious disrepair.

Following the war, General Electric pretty much deserted the expensive abandoned mansion. Structurally unsound, the home's death-trap tower has been demolished as a safety precaution and the rest of the property has been encircled in barbed wire.

Wyckoff Villa has since been on the market for years but has failed to attract a buyer willing to part with millions of dollars to fund its renovation. If you're interested, the 11-bedroom wreck, which sits on almost seven acres, is listed with Howard Hanna for $495,000.

Steeped in faded grandeur, this ruined plantation mansion near the town of Lowndesboro, Alabama dates back to 1830 and was remodeled in a Greek Revival style during the 1850s.

The abandoned Alabama mansion passed through a couple of prominent Southern families and was bought in 1901 by Robert Dickson, who named it Dicksonia. Like many mansions in this round-up, Dicksonia was destroyed by fire.

In 1939, a catastrophic blaze completely destroyed the property and a replica mansion was built the following year. The architect bent over backwards to ensure the new structure was fireproof, but to no avail.

The second incarnation of the house burned to the ground in 1964. The foundations were so damaged, the Dickson family were unable to rebuild the once-regal residence and the ruins were more or less abandoned to nature.

In the 1990s, the ruins and grounds scored a new owner, who rather than rebuilding the grand home, has decided to preserve what remains. Over the past 20 years, the exterior of the photogenic home has featured in movies and fashion shoots, and the grounds are available to hire for weddings and other events.

Back in New York, which seems to have more than its fair share of abandoned stately homes, photographer Bryan Sansivero chanced upon this enigmatic abandoned mansion in 2016. Located a few miles outside of the Big Apple, he captured the creepy house in all its eerie glory.

The 57-room mansion, which dates from the 1930s, was abandoned in 1976 by its owner, who was reportedly known to snap up grand estates and bizarrely leave them to crumble. Like a horror movie set, the time-wrap home remains frozen in time. 

The bulk of the mansion's fixtures and furnishing were inexplicably left to rot, including the grand pianos, antique sofas, marble fire surround and crystal chandelier that adorn the cavernous drawing room.

Adding to the creepy vibe, vintage children's toys are littered around the house. Sansivero discovered this antique doll sitting menacingly on one of the mansion's discarded sofas.

Vandals have scrawled graffiti on some of the walls, the paintwork is peeling off and some of the windows are broken, letting the elements in, but the mansion is actually in pretty good shape, all things considered. You can see more of Bryan Sansivero's stunning photography on his Instagram account.

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