While some old, empty estates are open books, other derelict dwellings aren't quite as easy to decipher. From enigmatic former residents and ghostly goings-on to unexplained architecture and intriguing legends, America's most mysterious abandoned homes stand shrouded in secrecy.

Click or scroll on to take a tour of these perplexing properties across the US. If only walls could talk...

Perched high on a hill above the town of Chattanooga, Tennessee, this mystery mansion has seen its fair share of scandal. The brainchild of entertainment tycoon Billy Hull, the opulent home was completed in 1972 – but it wouldn't be his home for long. 

Decades later, photographer Leland Kent from Abandoned Southeast captured striking images of the mansion in all its derelict glory.

So, what caused Hull to desert his dream home just a year after it was built?

Club owner Billy Hull’s vision was for a sprawling, tiki-style mansion complete with luxury marble bathrooms, mirrored lounges and the crowning glory: a huge swimming pool with tiled tunnels leading to the opulent bedroom suites. 

He contracted architect Ed Ball to design the home, which took 14 months to build, and Billy celebrated its completion with an extravagant house party.

When the mansion was first built, this living space would have been impressive, with marble-clad walls framing grand floor-to-ceiling arched mirrors. 

Money was no object for Hull and he planned to build the most opulent home Chattanooga had ever seen, encompassing 5,600 square feet (520sqm), along with three bedrooms and four bathrooms.

The home was designed for entertaining and in the 12 months following its completion, the palatial property played host to numerous decadent celebrations.

Painted pastel pink with mirrored cabinets and gilded beams, the master bedroom had an Art Deco vibe, but despite the glitz and glamour, the space hid a sinister secret.

In May 1973, just a year after the house was finally finished, a man named Roland Hargis was killed as he left the Tradewinds Night Club in Chattanooga. Hargis had been allegedly having an affair with Billy’s wife, Gloria.

Larry Parker, a good friend of Billy’s, alleged that Hull had contracted him to carry out the revenge killing. Billy Hull was sentenced to 20 years in prison for his involvement. This was the first in a string of allegations, leading to Hull's eventual bankruptcy in the 1980s after a conviction for tax evasion. With no one left to run the party mansion, it fell into disrepair.

Sadly for the mysterious mansion, it proved to be as ill-fated as its former owner. While several families lived in the home after Hull was sent down, it was listed for sale in 2014 but no buyer could be found. The tiki palace, infamous and unwanted, fell into foreclosure and was eventually seized by the City of Chattanooga for unpaid taxes.

The fabled home was demolished in September 2017, but we wonder whether the ghost of Billy Hull – who died in 1989 – still wanders the site, dancing to music no one else can hear...

Deep in the wilds of Alabama's rural Mobile County once stood a Spanish Revival mansion with a fascinating tale to tell.

Dating back to 1914, the grand Outlaw House occupied a secluded spot away from the hustle and bustle – a detail that would've been particularly attractive to the residence's one-time owner. 

Before it was destroyed by a fire in 2021, Mother Nature had begun to encroach on the regal home's living spaces. However, it's clear to see from these images captured by Leland Kent how grand the property would've been back in its heyday.

Around 1925, George Cabell Outlaw is said to have acquired the house in a poker game, but the intrigue doesn't end there...

To the outside world, George was a lawyer and business tycoon, who perhaps held high-society soirées in these elegant checkerboard-tiled halls.

However, according to archive records from the then-newly formed FBI – known as the Bureau of Investigation at that time – G C Outlaw was formerly an agent based in nearby Mobile. 

While James Bond has gadgets and a catalogue of super-smart residences, Outlaw had his own state-of-the-art technology of the day – his house was the first in the area to have electricity, which was generated by a nearby dam.

It appears George moved into the property shortly after he left the FBI, but during his time with the Bureau, it seems he was on the frontlines of the fight against the Ku Klux Klan, investigating threats made by the white supremacist group.

Who knows what hushed secrets these walls were privy to. There was even rumoured to be an underground tunnel that connected the mansion to a structure across the street, though it's said to have since been filled in.

While many locals had hoped the grand old house would be restored, their dreams were dashed when a fire destroyed the upper floor in July 2021. The rest of the residence was damaged beyond repair and the Outlaw House, along with a neighbouring property, was demolished in December 2021.

After more than 100 years, this storied landmark home was irrevocably lost, but its fascinating history lives on.

An elegant estate left to languish, Lynnewood Hall is one of the most magnificent Gilded Age mansions still standing in America.

While the neoclassical house is defined by its turbulent, tragic past, it's also hiding one or two secrets that are sure to leave you scratching your head.

Located in Montgomery County, Pennsylvania, the sprawling 480-acre (194ha) property was completed at the turn of the 20th century for Peter A B Widener following the death of his wife, Hannah, who passed away on board the family's yacht, a tragedy that would come to sadly mirror itself in later generations of the Widener family.

Noted architect Horace Trumbauer undertook the elaborate design, which is staggering in its scale and includes a few unexpected surprises

The 70,000-square-foot (6,503sqm) limestone mansion, which encompasses a breathtaking 110 rooms, is thought to have cost Widener around $8 million to bring to life in 1900 – that would be about $300 million (£227m) today.

Aside from the 55 bedrooms and 20 bathrooms, the property's ballroom is said to be able to accommodate around 1,000 guests, while the double-height columned hall is nothing short of awe-inspiring.

Many of the home's original, ornate furnishings still adorn the dilapidated interior, including this regal guest room.

However, tragedy once again struck the palatial property. Peter A B Widener was an early investor in the HMS Titanic, and in a cruel twist of fate, his eldest son George and grandson Harry perished in the waves during the ship's ill-fated maiden voyage. 

While the estate's sad history has been well-documented, it still harbours secrets that are only just coming to light...

Photographer Leland Kent recently discovered a mysterious subterranean tunnel while he was touring the property. Delving deep underground beneath the mansion and branching off in a maze of passageways, it doesn't appear to have been recorded before and it's not clear exactly what it was used for.

Luckily for the grand old house, it was bought by the Lynnewood Hall Preservation Foundation in June 2023, after nearly a decade on the market. While the final sale price was not revealed, the Foundation said that they had raised $9.5 million (£7.2m) to cover the purchase, as well as urgent stabilisation works.

Once the major restorations have been undertaken, the house and its massive estate will open to the public as a "cultural art centre and event space", the Foundation's executive director, Edward Thome, revealed to US newspaper The Philadelphia Inquirer.

When it comes to peculiar properties, this empty mansion in California takes some beating. Once the home of Sarah Winchester, the heir to weapons manufacturing empire Winchester Repeating Arms, renovations on the property began in the late 19th century, though they were never completed.

However, the home's origins are much more humble than the extensive estate we see today.

Following her husband's death, Sarah bought up a modest farmhouse in San Jose and set about extending the residence in an altogether unusual way.

The home swelled to mammoth proportions in the decades leading up to her death in 1922, growing to seven storeys and encompassing an eye-watering 160 rooms, including this magnificent ballroom with its parquet floors and ornately carved organ.

During the mansion's redesign, which was a continuous 36-year project, Sarah reportedly became obsessed with the number 13. She incorporated it in groupings throughout the house, from the number of treads on the staircase to the arms of the chandeliers and even the quantity of wood panels adorning the walls.

However, that's the least of the home's perplexing features...

Sarah's renovations became nonsensical, from labyrinthine passageways that meet dead ends to staircases to nowhere, the mansion's architecture is a riddle. In fact, when illusionist Harry Houdini visited in 1924, he declared it 'The Mystery House'.

But why go to these baffling lengths? According to legend, Sarah may have been haunted by the ghosts of those killed by the weapons her family produced. The chaotic corridors and false doors were reportedly intended to confuse the spirits that pursued her. In total, the house is said to have 2,000 doors. 

Possibly the strangest house in America, one of the mansion's most extreme features is a door on one of the upper storeys that opens out onto an eight-foot-high (2.4m) drop, while elsewhere there's a room with a window set into the floor and even a room without a floor altogether.

Whether the house was a never-ending project to quell her heartache after her husband's passing or a maze to confuse malevolent spirits, we'll never know for sure.

At first glance, this neo-Gothic structure looks like something straight out of a fairytale, with its towering turrets, lancet windows, battlements and sweeping archways.

However, shrouded in intrigue and ghostly goings-on, there's no happily ever after to be found at this unsettling estate, known locally as the Castle of Sorrow.

Tucked away on a thousand acres in New York's scenic Catskill Mountains, the medieval-inspired mansion was the lifelong dream of wealthy heir Ralph Wurts-Dundas.

Sadly, he passed away in 1921 before the project was finished and never saw the castle he'd dreamt of since childhood brought to life.

A year after his death, Ralph's wife, Josephine, was committed to a psychiatric hospital and in 1924, construction ceased on the partially built property, though some of the grand spaces look to have been near completion, like this room with its carved hearth – captured here by photographer Walter Arnold, who documented the castle in all its faded grandeur on his YouTube channel.

After ownership passed to the couple's daughter, Muriel, the castle's bad luck still seemed to follow the family and she was later committed to a psychiatric hospital too. 

After Muriel's death in 1949, a branch of Freemasons moved in and the castle is thought to have been used as a retreat of sorts by the secretive group.

Abandoned since the 1970s, the once elaborate spread is a shell of its former grandeur, with crumbling plaster, encroaching damp and debris-strewn floors. However, the influence of the family is still said to linger across the estate...

According to local legend, the ghost of Josephine Wurts-Dundas is rumoured to wander the castle and its grounds. 

Whatever the truth behind the tragic tale of this abandoned stately home, we can't say we'd want to hang around for long.

The origins of this once-grand Arlington estate in Natchez, Mississippi – captured here by Abandoned Southeast – are somewhat murky. It may may have been designed by John Hampton White of New Jersey for his wife Jane sometime between 1816 and 1821. Or Jane or her father, a French immigrant, might be behind the imposing design.

What we do know it that the mysterious mansion became the marital home of John and Jane, although only for a short time...

Unfortunately, John never got to enjoy his new home. In 1819, around the year the house was completed, John Hampton White died of yellow fever. Sadly the bad luck continued and Jane's gravestone shows that she died just six years later, at the age of 38.

Inside, it's clear to see how much damage the mansion has suffered over the years, as we can see from this once-grand entryway.

Despite her short time in the house, Jane didn't hold back when it came to decorating the space. Her 'golden drawing room' is said to have contained French mirrors framed in gold leaf, wallpaper decorated with gold flowers and satin damask curtains.

Upon Jane's death, the property was inherited by her sister Mrs Bingaman before it was bought by Mississippi Supreme Court Judge Samuel Stillman Boyd at sometime in the mid-19th century.

The home was eventually purchased and lived in by generations of the Vaughan family and it has remained in the family ever since. 

However, blighted by bad luck, the mansion was partially destroyed by fire in September 2002. Here we can see Natchez firefighters Todd Rymer and David Hugg working to contain the blaze, but despite their efforts almost three-quarters of the building was lost.

Members of the Historic Natchez Foundation worked to save and store the many books, antiques and paintings damaged by the fire – they even replaced the roof. Sadly, the rest of the home and its once impressive gardens haven't been so lucky.

Legal proceedings began in 2021 with the City of Natchez officials taking action to restore the estate and recover the renovation costs from the owner through fines. Arlington was among a list of 26 blighted properties Natchez Mayor Dan Gibson and the Board of Aldermen voted to take action against.

It was rumoured in local press that a Florida couple with a passion for historic homes launched a fundraising campaign to purchase and restore the home. It's not yet known if their efforts were successful... 

Back in 1838, when the quaint town of Milledgeville served as the capital of Georgia, Rockwell House was built for Colonel Samuel Rockwell. A prominent attorney, owner of enslaved people and a veteran of the Creek Indian War, he spared no expense on the grand mansion.

However, in hindsight, he may well have wished he'd been thriftier. Rockwell commissioned an elaborate wrought iron fence to wrap around the property, which still stands today. But when he was presented with the astronomical bill of $2,600 – around $88,000 (£67k) today – it's said he had a heart attack! Rockwell died in 1841 and the home became the summer retreat of Georgia Governor Herschel Vespasian Johnson.

Following Johnson's death in 1880, the house passed through a succession of wealthy merchants and farmers. 

Stepping through this elegant entryway whisks you back in time. The delicate glass windows and intricately carved doorframes give us an idea of life in a forgotten era, as well as the refined former owners of the home.

Leland Kent photographed the mansion back in 2019 and beautifully captured its faded glory – and hints at the disaster that struck the property back in 1969.

The then-owner, a dentist named Dr Watson, was attempting remove paint with a blowtorch while renovating his new home when he accidentally set it on fire! The extensive damage to the upper floor was repaired, but severe water damage suffered following the fire is still evident, as we can see.

It's worth noting that there's a hoard of gold buried beneath the house – at least, there is according to local legend. While no one knows why the treasure was secreted away or by whom, some believe it's hiding within Rockwell's foundations.

Inside, while there are some signs of wear and tear, the essentials – like the large sash windows, striking fireplace and elegant woodwork – still survive. With light flooding into the beautifully proportioned room, it's easy to imagine how it might be restored and put to a new use...

Thankfully, that's exactly what happened. Rockwell got a new lease of life when it was bought by investors in 2019 for just $319,500 (£243k) and faithfully resorted to its original splendour. 

In March 2024, the elegant mansion sold again – this time for $850,000 (£646k). Today, Rockwell House is available to rent out as a holiday home and you can also get married there, making it the perfect place to step back in time and experience life inside a Georgia landmark.

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