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 fascinating stories to tell.

From tragic tales of heartbreak and hauntings to a prince from outer space, click or scroll 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 owner of enslaved people.

Captured by Leland Kent of Abandoned Southeast, these incredible images show the home's sad decline after it was abandoned 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 £2,000 ($2.6k), which is around £66,000 ($86k) in today's money, and £75 ($100) more than Colonel Rockwell paid for the house itself.

This is said to have given the Colonel a heart attack, if stories are to be believed. The mysterious abandoned mansion isn't short of other intriguing rumours either, including 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.

After years of neglect, the local dentist attempted to revive the property in the 1960s until a fire broke out in 1969 causing extensive damage. The house then languished in a state of disrepair until 2019 when it was purchased by a group of investors.

They restored the elegant building to its former glory, as seen here in one of its tasteful bedrooms. 

The house has been painstakingly restored to replicate its original aesthetic as far as possible, although the exterior is white rather than the traditional yellow of the period, ready for its reincarnation as a popular wedding venue.

Don’t look for the dining room, with its black marble mantel and plaster cornices, however. In an attempt to raise funds for repairs following the fire, it was sold to the Winterthur Museum in Delaware and is still on display today.

Built in 1896 by property developer and Memphis royalty Robert Brinkley Snowden, this once palatial home was originally known as Ashlar Hall after the Ashlar stone used in its construction.

The 11,000-square-foot (3,352sqm) castle, seen here in a series of images from Abandoned Southeast, was placed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1983 and in the 1990s, a rather eccentric new owner snapped up the estate…

Robert Hodges purchased the 19th-century abandoned American castle in 1990 and transformed it into a restaurant and nightclub.

The eccentric millionaire, who claims to be a 333-year-old alien ambassador from the planet of Zambodia, lured in patrons by the dozen with his late-night parties. Sadly, in 1992, two teenagers driving home from the club were killed in a car accident.

Although no charges were ever filed against Hodges for any responsibility, reports British newspaper The Mirror, the so-called Castle nightclub, with its grand and imposing rooms, was eventually closed down by the authorities due to overcrowding.

The self-proclaimed 'Prince' moved party-goers to the car park outside the venue and brought in 800 tonnes of sand to transform it into a beach in response. But soon after, the quirky property was abandoned and fell into disrepair.

Once an atmospheric building with sweeping staircases and stained-glass windows imported from Italy, the castle is now a shadow of its former self.

Hodges, who is infamous for his many unsuccessful bids to become mayor of Memphis, gave away the building to a friend, who turned it into a non-profit for veterans. But today, it’s a sorry sight with graffiti on the walls and the rooms strewn with rubbish.

Luckily, help was at hand. In 2016, real estate contractor and investor Juan Montoya purchased the derelict property for £45,000 ($59k) according to website Commerical Appeal. After a few false starts, the renovation is almost completed, as you can see from its pristine exterior.

Montoya has spent around £760,000 ($1m) on renovations so far but hopes to reinvent the property as an events space. The future is finally looking brighter for this storied building. If walls could talk!

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 name Pollepel came from a legend about a young girl named Polly Pell who was romantically rescued from the breaking river ice and landed on the island shore. According to the tale, told on the Bannerman Island website, Polly married her rescuer.

Once an uninhabited place, accessible only by boat, it was considered haunted by some of the local Native American tribes. Sailors also told spooky tales of the place. But not everyone was put off by them...

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 advert for his business.

Although Frank Bannerman was a munitions dealer, he described himself as a man of peace. Some of his writings revealed that he hoped that his collection of arms would someday be known as 'The Museum of the Lost Arts', according to the Bannerman Castle website. 

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. They 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. The site is now one of Missouri's most popular recreation areas.

Another abandoned mansion with a dark secret, this neo-Gothic pile sits on a thousand acres of land deep in New York's Catskill Mountains. Also known as Craig-e-Clair, it has been ominously dubbed the 'Castle of Sorrow'.

The castle is captured here by photographer Walter Arnold, who documented the castle in all its faded grandeur on his YouTube channel.

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 sent to an asylum and the half-finished property passed to the couple's daughter, Muriel.

Dundas reportedly left a fortune of £31 million ($40m), 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 sadly 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 red when the moon is full.

Considered one of the greatest surviving Gilded Age mansions in America, Lynnewood Hall is an estate born of tragedy. Streetcar tycoon and art collector Peter Arrell Browne Widener decided to build the spectacular neo-classical revival masterpiece following the untimely death of his wife Hannah on the family’s yacht in 1896.

In an attempt to channel his grief, he commissioned renowned architect Horace Trumbauer to build the 70,000-square-foot (6,500sqm) limestone mansion in Elkins Park in Pennsylvania.

Now recognised as one of the richest Americans in the country’s history, Widener’s wealth and immaculate tastes are reflected in the glorious design of his former home.

It is thought to have cost £6.1 million ($8m) to build and has 110 rooms, of which 55 are bedrooms and 20 are bathrooms. In addition, there is an art gallery and this spectacular grand entrance hall with its Renaissance-style columns and centralised staircase.

Widener and his family lived at Lynnewood Hall from 1900 until his death in November 1915. His funeral, pictured here, was held in his favourite room, the Van Dyck Gallery. His eldest son, George, should have inherited the property but tragically died on the Titanic just three years earlier.

George's wife Eleanor survived. Peter, who had been an investor in the building of the Titanic, decided not to join his son and their family on its maiden voyage due to his advanced years.

The one-time bedroom of George and Eleanor Widener, if these walls could talk, would no doubt reflect the anguish of Eleanor when she returned home after losing her husband and son in the sinking of the Titanic.

Today, its peeling paintwork and crumbling plaster are a haunting reminder of the sadness that lay within the mansion’s opulent rooms. Despite having suffered such tragedy, Eleanor is said to have gone on to live a vibrant and philanthropic life.

In the following years, the library was turned into an extravagant ballroom, as seen here. Peter Widener’s only surviving son, Joseph, continued to reside in the house until his own passing in 1943, after which the property began to decay.

It changed hands several times over the years, but officially became the property of the Lynnewood Hall Preservation Foundation in June 2023, who have now prepped the house for a massive restoration and renovation to ensure its future.

Often referred to as the most haunted house in Ohio, Victorian-style Franklin Castle was the scene of several mysterious deaths and a dark and sinister history.

German immigrant Johannes Tiedemann bought the imposing mansion for his wife Luise and their two children August and Emma in 1865. He set about embellishing it with a tower, a series of underground passageways and some menacing gargoyles.

The 20-room house, designed by architect firm Cudell and Robertson, was initially a happy home until several family deaths, including that of Johannes’ 15-year-old daughter Emma and his mother Wiebeka, led people to suspect the house might be cursed.

His wife is said to have used the tunnels her husband had installed to escape his foul temper, until her death in 1895 aged 57, amidst rumours of his love affairs and trysts.

Johannes sold the house soon after and it eventually fell into the hands of the German Socialist Party in 1913.

The house was left to decay until it was purchased by the Romano family in 1968, who dreamed of turning the property into a restaurant before strange goings-on put paid to their plans.

The four Romano children reported seeing a girl, believed to be the ghost of Emma Tiedemann, crying in a top-floor bedroom. Furthermore, reports of mysterious footsteps, organ music and screams led the family to engage a paranormal investigator and even a priest to perform an exorcism.

To add to the myth surrounding the house, its next owner, Sam Muscatello, claimed he had found human bones in a closet as told by ghostsofohio.org.

The property was briefly owned by Michael DeVinko, the fifth and final husband of actress Judy Garland. But these days, owners Oh Dear! Productions have embraced the property’s creepy past, offering castle tours and events at the site.

They have carried out stylish renovations, highlighting its rich and haunting history, and have refashioned what they believe are the Tiedemanns’ original quarters, which are available for overnight stays… if you dare!

Rumoured to be the most haunted house in New York State, this crumbling Victorian mansion was built in the mid-1800s by wealthy brickworks tycoon Balthasar Kreischer.

So prolific was Kreischer’s financial influence that soon after his arrival to Staten Island, the area came to be known as ‘Kreischerville,’ while the plot of land on which the mansion stands was dubbed Kreischer Hill.

The home was originally one of a pair commissioned by Kreischer for his two sons. However, the family fortunes took a dramatic turn for the worse just a year after the homes were completed, when Balthasar passed away. 

The family brick factory burned to the ground, leading to the collapse of the family fortunes and the suicide of the eldest brother in the remaining two houses.

While the second house was destroyed during the Great Depression, this tragic Victorian villa remained standing to this day and countless rumours surrounding its dark history have spiralled into a belief that the building is haunted.

While it has never been fully abandoned, no business entity or individual has occupied the premises for long…

As if its more distant history weren’t enough of a deterrent, the home also lies at the heart of a far more recent tragedy. In 2005, the caretaker of the empty home was paid thousands of dollars by a well-known mafia boss to carry out a hit on the site.

In 1968, the City of New York designated the Kreischer Mansion a national landmark for its quintessential Queen Anne architecture and copious stick-style ornamentation. Stick style is a late-19th-century American architectural method of overlaying wooden boards on the outside walls to mimic an exposed half-timbered frame.

Despite its rather macabre history, the home is also slated for development, with planning permissions granted for 48 condominiums in 11 new buildings on the 3.8-acre property by the Landmarks Preservation Commission.

Located on picturesque Carleton Island in Upstate New York, this fine neo-Romanesque-meets-Tudor Revival mansion was built in 1895 as a summer escape for typewriter tycoon William Wyckoff and his family.

The Wyckoff’s chose the tip of Carleton Island for their summer home. They enlisted the help of architect William Henry Miller, known for his work on Cornell University, to design their mansion. It would have views of the peaceful water from every window.

The four-story mansion featured a 111-foot (34m) tower, which was connected to the main house by two bridges, while an observatory room at the top afforded extensive views of the surrounding area.

The property held tragedy within its walls, however, when Wyckoff's wife Frances passed away a month before he moved into the property in 1895. William met a similar fate soon after, when he is said to have died in his sleep from a heart attack during his first night in the villa according to the Carleton Villa website.

While few photographs of the interior remain, this image shows the great fireplace in the library. Beyond, the great hall's ceiling is supported by 40 Corinthian columns and surrounded by a gallery resting on Doric columns.

The 64-room mansion included cellars where a refrigerator had room for a ton or more of ice, as well as a gas room, which powered lights in every room. 

The property passed to Wyckoff's son Clarence and remained in the family until the Great Depression, when the clan fell on hard times. William's older brother, Edward G. Wyckoff, began selling some of the estate's land. Shortly after that the property was put up for sale but it wasn't until 1928 that the Wyckoff Villa sold at auction for around £11,000 ($15k) to an Ithaca bank.

When the Second World War scuppered plans to turn the mansion into a staff retreat, the property fell into serious disrepair. The structurally unsound tower was demolished after the war and the expensive abandoned mansion was encircled in barbed wire and left to the elements.

On and off the market for years since then, Wyckoff Villa was finally snapped up by developer Ron Clapp in August 2022 for a mere £226,000 ($300k) according to website Priceypads.com.

New owner Ron Clapp has plans to breathe new life into the home. He has teamed up with Aubertine and Currier architects, who restored the nearby Boldt Castle, to transform Carleton Villa into a stylish hotel and restaurant as announced on the architects' website. A bright future for a previously lost landmark.

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