Not far from Orlando lies a long-forsaken Mediterranean-style villa that has belonged to a string of intriguing owners, from the co-inventor of Jell-O to the man who founded Tupperware, not to mention a convicted fraudster. The property's most headline-grabbing former owner, however, is a scion of a mega-wealthy Saudi construction dynasty and half-brother of infamous 9-11 mastermind Osama bin Laden. Click or scroll through to take a tour of this fascinating mansion and get the lowdown on its motley crew of past residents.
Nestled on the edge of the bass-filled Johns Lake around 20 miles from Disney World, the Mediterranean-style mansion was photographed in all its faded glory back in 2016 and again in 2023 by Leland Kent of Abandoned Southeast. Approaching the main 17-acre property, you can see that the residence is made up of two sprawling structures, spanning an impressive 5,854 square feet in total. The estate also includes a guesthouse, a carriage house and stables.
The house is reported to have been built as a holiday home for a New York chemist called William Pratt, who is said to have had a hand in inventing Jell-O, according to Abandoned Southeast. Consequently, it's often dubbed the Pratt House. Access to the property is via a pergola that connects the two main buildings. The concrete stucco mansion was built in 1928 when the Mediterranean Revival style, which nods to the traditional homes of Spain and Italy, was all the rage. As you can see, while the exterior appears rundown, it isn't crumbling, a testament to its robust construction.
The next notable purported owner of the sprawling property was none other than Earl Tupper, the inventor of Tupperware. Whether Tupper knew fellow inventor Pratt is unclear, but it appears Tupper acquired the property in the 1950s after his burgeoning business had relocated to the Sunshine State from Massachusetts. After falling out with Tupperware's vice president Brownie Wise, Tupper sold the company in the late 1950s, left the Florida home and bought a private island off the coast of Costa Rica. The company Tupper created has since fallen on hard times and is now reportedly teetering on the brink of collapse.
Three decades after Earl Tupper's tenure, the property was snapped up in 1980 for $1.6 million (£1.3m), which is $5.9 million (£4.7m) in today's money. The buyer was Khalil bin Laden, one of Osama bin Laden's half-brothers. Long before their family name became synonymous with the horrifying terrorist attacks on New York, the bin Ladens were a large family that travelled and lived in many Western countries, including Sweden where this picture was taken in 1971. Osama stands second from the right, but it's unknown if Khalil is pictured. Their father, Mohammed bin Awad bin Laden, a construction magnate, left behind 54 children when he unexpectedly passed away in 1967 in a plane crash.
Khalil reportedly bought the property through his company, Desert Bear, as a wedding gift for his Brazilian wife Isabel Cristina Castanheira Bayma. In the days following 9-11, two dozen members of the bin Laden family were evacuated from the United States to Saudi Arabia to ensure their safety from retaliation. Osama bin Laden had been estranged from the rest of his family since the 1990s and had his Saudi Arabian citizenship revoked after he was caught smuggling weapons from Yemen. According to a CBS report from 2001, Saudi ruler King Fahd urged his embassy in Washington to protect the "bin Laden children all over America", who were studying, living and working with no contact with their brother. Multiple properties were abandoned or put up for sale, including a $22 million pink mansion in Bel Air owned by another half-brother, Ibrahim bin Laden.
The family used the property as a holiday home and glimmers of its past grandeur are still visible. Note the characterful three-headed lamppost, which looks like may date from the 1920s. Architectural gems such as the rustic roof titles and grand arched windows are all in reasonable shape, plus there's also a terrace atop the main entrance. This photo is among those taken back in 2016 by Leland Kent. At the time, the space was being used as the home's main living room by the looks of it and appeared very homely despite its grandeur. Antique pieces of furniture and a wrought-iron chandelier added an almost regal ambience to the cavernous space.
Nowadays, the house has been stripped of its furnishings and lies empty and abandoned. The entrance hall boasts several delightful original features, including plasterwork crests above two doorways, a Mediterranean-style tiled floor and a corner fountain.
Moving on from the entrance hall, we come to this grand space, which may have been the original dining room, given its location next to the kitchen. One of the windows is covered with boarding but the rest of the room looks to be in a good state of repair. There's an attractive arched alcove with shelving in the corner, while the ceiling features attractive wood beams and a wrought-iron chandelier.
As you can see, the ground floor of the property is open-plan and airy, with archways connecting the rooms, but whether the interior was initially designed in this way is uncertain. That said, this sort of layout would have been advantageous in the days before air conditioning was standard to ensure a free flow of air through the living spaces.
Sitting adjacent to what may have been the dining room is what remains of the mansion's old-fashion kitchen. The space is 1990s in design and one of the telltale signs that the property hasn't been properly lived in for decades. Be that as it may, the oven looks like it may be a more modern addition by the last owners.
While the space is bathed in natural light thanks to its many windows, the fabric of the kitchen, including the wood on the central island, looks like it's seen better days. Like the other living areas that make up the lower level of the mansion, the kitchen features faux-Mediterranean design features, including textured walls and terracotta-style floor tiles.
This impressive space, with its stunning vaulted beamed ceiling, must have surely won him over. Perfect for entertaining, the ballroom-sized hall likely hosted its fair share of parties in its heyday. A floor-to-ceiling stone fireplace creates a bold focal point at one end of the room, but it's unlikely it would have gotten a lot of use in the fierce Florida heat.
Looking at the double-height room from the opposite side, you can see that there's a mezzanine above its trio of arched entrances. Lining both aspects of the vast room, arched leaded windows and French doors add a grand touch and bathe the wonderful space in light. This is most definitely the room realtors must have focused on when showing the property to prospective buyers.
While a much smaller scale than the grand hall, this other reception room has characterful touches, such as exposed brickwork, polished wood beams and handsome wood floors. Perhaps this sizeable space functioned as a family room for Khalil, his wife Isabel and their son Sultan during their tenure.
Moving on, the upper level of the mansion is reached via a handsome curved staircase, complete with an ornate wrought-iron bannister. Another sign that the property was built in the days before air conditioning is the transom window opposite the staircase, which would have ensured good cross-ventilation.
Littered with what looks to be packing materials and remnants from a house move, this space is likely to have served as Khalil and Isabel's principal bedroom. In total, the mansion features five bedrooms, each generously proportioned. The master is the most spacious of the five and connects to an ensuite bathroom that appears to have been frozen in another era.
Looking very old-fashioned these days, the room is kitted out with beige tiles and has a built-in spa-style bathtub. Perhaps a relic of the 1980s, the bathroom is replete with wood veneer panelling across the ceiling, though it appears to be breaking away in places. Khalil and his family no doubt enjoyed plenty of sun-kissed holidays at the property. That is until 11 September 2001.
The bathroom's multi-level design and enclosed built-in shower are evident in this shot. Khalil was staying at the Florida property when it was revealed that his brother, Osama bin Laden, was the mastermind behind America's worst terrorist atrocity. On 19 September 2001, Khalil, who feared for his family's safety, requested a police escort to transport him and his family to Orlando International Airport. They were joined by Isabel's sister Maria and boarded a private jet bound for Saudi Arabia.
Khalil was questioned by the FBI three times before he departed the US for good, according to declassified FBI documents. However, US authorities concluded Khalil had zero connection to his half-brother's heinous activities. Here's one last picture of that time-warp bathroom. Swathes of grid-style windows frame the elevated tub, drawing picturesque views of the grounds inside.
Moving on, here is another of the mansion's bedrooms, fitted with more handsome wood floors. Osama bin Laden was disowned by the bin Laden family in 1994 and Khalil reportedly denounced his sibling as a "crazy terrorist fanatic”. There's little indication that the half-brothers had any form of a relationship since they were born to different mothers and would have grown up in different circumstances.
The mansion's grounds are indicative of the home's faded grandeur. This once-inviting verandah faces the glistening waters of Johns Lake. After Khalil fled the US with his family, the mansion was effectively abandoned. The property stayed empty for a lengthy five years before it was acquired by developer Aleem Hussain for around $4 million (£3.2m) in 2006. But he didn't hold on to it for long.
In 2007, Hussain was sentenced to seven years in prison for running a $9 million (£7.2m) real estate scam. Needless to say, the property went into foreclosure. According to Leland Kent, it was then bagged by a local investment group for a bargain $1.7 million (£1.4m). From this angle on the verandah, you can make out the mansion's swimming pool. The home's next notable owner, poker player and paralegal John LeClair, says the pool had been installed on the property's grounds in the 1920s and later filled in, before he uncovered it decades later.
LeClair recounted the story of how he discovered traces of it when a Vice journalist paid a visit to the mansion in December 2012. LeClair was removing pine trees from the grounds when he uncovered a mysterious staircase. Thinking he'd stumbled upon “bin Laden's vault” as he called it, LeClair enlisted his friends to dig deeper, but he eventually realised the steps were part of the original pool.
Here's what the pool looked like when the home was occupied back in 2016. LeClair had made a lease-purchase agreement with the local investment group that had bought the foreclosed property. He rented out the main house for weddings and other functions and lived in a carriage house on the grounds. However, LeClair struggled to keep up with payments and ended up going AWOL with over $37,000 (£30k) in deposits from unsuspecting clients. He was subsequently sued by the State of Florida and ordered to pay back the stolen money but according to Leland Kent, LeClair's victims never saw a dime in restitution.
Exploring the untamed grounds, there's a number of curious artefacts, including an antique cannon, which is randomly placed in the middle of the lawn. In 2014, the property was bought for $2 million (£1.6m) by Gary and Dana English. According to Leland Kent, the enterprising couple planned to restore the mansion, even setting up a Change.org petition to further their cause, and intended to fund the project by selling off 11 acres to a firm called LIV Development.
The plan was for LIV Development to build a 242-unit apartment and townhome complex but neighbouring residents objected and local officials voted to reject the proposal. Sadly, Gary and Dana English went bankrupt and lost the property in 2019. The estate was then bought by developer Property Investment Brokers (PIB) and eventually sold in 2021 to Florida-based company Cornerstone Group Development for $7.7 million (£6.2m).
Now it appears plans could be afoot to demolish the bin Laden house and replace it with a development called Johns Lake Point. According to Bobby Luthra, director of operations at PIB, prior to the 2021 sale, a new project was formulated for the site for commercial properties, 195 assisted and independent-living apartment units and eight large lakeside homes.
There's even talk that a Marriott hotel could be built on the site instead of the apartments. Whatever shape the redevelopment takes, it looks like the bin Laden house, with its evocative 1920s Mediterranean Revival architecture and motley crew of past owners, could finally bite the dust after years of languishing empty. It seems a sorry end to such a storied estate...
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