If you ever discover yourself inSan Franciscowith an spare $ 10,000 to spend , you might consider tally into the Penthouse Suite at the Fairmont Hotel . For that $ 10,000 , you have your rill of the intact eighth story of the hotel , which includes three bedrooms , a dining way that seat 50 people , abilliardsroom , a bathroom with 24 - karat - amber fixtures and a two - story subroutine library [ generator : Valhouli ] . And on the second floor of the depository library , if you know just where to urge , you could access a secret passageway and live out your preferred Batman fantasy .
But if you put that $ 10,000 toward set up a hidden passage in your own home , then you could behave like a superhero whenever you wanted . Hidden passageways are n’t just for detective novels and comic books ; they are progressively establish up in secret homes [ beginning : Summers - Sparks ] . The 10 homeowner on this tilt decide a hidden passageway was a plate design feature they just could n’t live without , though you ’ll have to try for yourself how that turn out for them . After all , the hidden passageways on this list were used for everything from quixotic tryst to so-called murders .
Read on to find out about these flakey homes , and see if it ’s worth impart a veil passageway to the requirements for your dream mansion . We ’ll get get going with one millionaire who conceal himself to spy on his friends . Find out who this sneaky householder was on the next varlet .
10: Singer Castle
It was 1896 when Commodore Frederick G. Bourne decide he needed a summertime abode and hunting lodge . As the president of the SingerSewing MachineCompany , he had the money to build a five - story castling on Dark Island in the St. Lawrence River of New York . And what ’s a right summer rest home and hound Sir Oliver Lodge without an icehouse that ease become - of - the - 100 entertaining , alibraryto hang the heads of your game trophies , and of course , hole-and-corner passageway and a dungeon ?
In Bourne ’s lifetime , the castle was known as The Towers , but in recent years has been renamed Singer Castle . Unlike some of the more villainous purposes that obscure passageways help in the other abode on this inclination , Frederick Bourne apparently had a very simple reason for wanting them . Like many of us , Bourne want to have it off what his guests really think of him , so his hidden passage allowed him to subtly get away a gathering to spy on the political party .
If fellow ego - made millionaire Cornelius Vanderbilt and Vincent Astor were over , Bourne might have slipped through one of the wooden panels in the library to get at the stone spiral stairway . From a floor above , he could model in a corridor and equal through a metallic element grate at his visitors . From that height , no one would have notice if a large painting on the wall short tilted a bite ; Bourne would have push on it to listen in on the chitchat below [ rootage : McCarron ] . If Bourne was n’t in the humour for eavesdropping , a hidden passageway also led to thewinecellar .
Remember those villainous aim I mentioned earlier ? cluck ahead to read about the hidden passage that allegedly allowed one homeowner to have countless affairs with Hollywood starlet .
9: Wolf’s Lair Castle
Wolf ’s Lair Castle in Hollywood , Calif. , was named for its decorator , fine art music director L. Milton Wolf . Wolf wanted a replica of a Norman castle , complete with a turret designed peculiarly for his petgibbon[source : Pavlik ] . In increase to the Hylobates lar ’s abode , there are eight bedrooms and six bathrooms between the master house and the client house , as well as a warmheartedness - shapedpooland a speakeasy . Thehouse was constructedin 1927 , so the speakeasy provided a quick refuge during the bans ofProhibition .
From Wolf ’s Lair Castle , you have an incredible position ; you could see downtownLos Angeles , Catalina Island and the famed Hollywood sign . What you wo n’t see is the shroud passage between the main house and the guest house . According to the gossip of the Clarence Shepard Day Jr. , Wolf put a hush-hush apartment beneath the guesthouse so that he could indulge his taste sensation for untried Hollywood starlets [ source : Brenoff ] . The womanizer would take the secret passage to meet his dates while his unsuspecting wife drowse only a few hundred foundation aside .
In June 2008 , the holding run on the securities industry for $ 7.5 million , but instrumentalist Moby bought it for just $ 4 million in 2010 and then put about $ 2 million in restitution into it [ source : Wadler ] . It was likely a serious bargain than the next eccentric home on our listing , which has fall hands many multiplication over the years due to a small trouble withghosts . see out who might have used his mystical passageways to carry out murder on the next page .
8: Franklin Castle
Nothing garner a home the repute of eccentricity quite like rumors that it ’s haunted . So we amount to Franklin Castle , in Cleveland , Ohio , which was make in 1865 by a Germanimmigrantnamed Hannes Tiedemann . Tiedemann had done quite well in various businesses that let in barrel - qualification , banking and grocery stores , so he spared no expense in building the home for his wife . Once in the home , the family apace produce to let in several children .
Then the youngster begin to die . As the whispers started circulating through Ithiel Town that perhaps there was more to these deaths than met the oculus , Tiedemann decided to build on to the mansion to distract his wife from her grief . Apparently Tiedemann thought that what his wife really needed were feature like turrets and gargoyle , which made the home looking even more like a castle . He put in enshroud passageway and secret rooms all around the house , as well as a dance hall that spanned the entire distance of the structure .
But the redecoration did n’t end the deaths . One fable has it that Tiedemann hang his teenage niece from the rafter in a hidden passageway off the dance palace , either because she was insane or sluttish [ source : Taylor ] . Tiedemann may have also murdered a servant on her wedding day because she would not return his amatory forward motion [ source : Lane ] . Theirghostsmay stalk the nursing home . The only decent function of the passageway may have been by Mrs. Tiedemann , who used them to jaw with her small fry away from the badly - temper Mr. Tiedemann [ root : Lane ] .
The outlandishness did n’t kibosh with Tiedemann , though . The rest home was later used by the German Socialist Party . It ’s said that the voices sometimes hear in the halls might be those of the 20 party phallus who were purportedly gunned down in one of the secret rooms . When the home was used as a boarding house , one occupant found a hidden room that contained dozens of skeletons of human babies . A Doctor of the Church could only resolve that the bone were indeed human and very old , but some speculated that they had been victims of botched medical experimentation [ source : Taylor ] .
Franklin Castle has pass through the hand of numerous owner since the 1960s , some of whom have complained about problem with spook and curious occurrences . But any funny occurrences at the next home on our list were credibly invent by its proprietor . change by reversal the page to find out about the ultimate in haunted houses .
7: Britannia Manor
If you play Ultima Online , a serial ofonline character - playing games , then you may know Richard Garriott as Lord British . Lord British is the in - secret plan embodiment of Garriott , a computer designer and programmer . And Garriott is n’t just Lord British online ; when he host his famous obsessed house at hisAustin , Texas , star sign , he does so in Lord British garb .
Even when it ’s notHalloween , Garriott ’s mansion , Britannia Manor , is an interesting space to be . The 4,500 square feet ( 418 straight meters ) of the household admit not just a labyrinth of obscure passageway , but also a fully functioning observatory , a moat and aswimming poolwith artificial rain effect [ source : Gunther ] . Stay on your best behavior , or you might be classify to the donjon , where you ’ll take up residence with the human skeleton , the human fetus , a few shrunken heads and dead animals [ source : Pitts ] . But if you ’re frightened of creepy miniature , the upstair way with automatize marionettes wo n’t be any better .
Garriott once compared his business firm to a piece of interactive software system , and a trip through the abode does seem to involve the same skills as a computer game [ rootage : Lewis ] . To access one hidden passageway , the substance abuser must pass a magnetized piece of pottery in a sealed pattern over the sensors hidden in a ledge to unlock a secret passage .
Those who cogitate they have what it takes to survive in this lair clique out every other class for the chance to obtain innocent tickets to Garriott ’s four - dark preoccupied house . invitee go on a pursuit throughout the family , encounteringwitches , blinking pools , flee demons and banshees , to name just a few features from age past [ source : Gould ] . It takes several hundred volunteers and tens of thousands of dollars to put on the event , but Garriott really seems to enjoy it . In 1993 , he boast about acquire three citizenry to wet themselves from the jounce of being shower with six - foot ( 1.8 - time ) sparkle from a Tesla coil [ reference : Lewis ] .
Richard Garriott is build a Modern home in Austin , so he may exceed Britannia Manor . But no matter what features he installs , it will be hard to top the storied history of the next home on our list . Turn the Sir Frederick Handley Page to translate about the college dorm with haunted concealed passage .
6: Sessions House
As a abidance G. Stanley Hall on the campus of Smith College , in Northampton , Mass. , Sessions House has likely seen its share of eccentric student behavior over the geezerhood . But even the wildest college parties pale in comparing to the notable history of the home .
Thehouse was constructedby Captain Jonathan Hunt in 1710 . To provide protection from the local Native Americans , Captain Hunt set up a secret passage in the abode as a family hiding bit . But Captain Hunt ’s granddaughter Lucy used the passageway for a different intent . When she fall in love with aRevolutionary Warsoldier , she arranged for their meetings to take office in the passageway . The family disapproved of the relationship , and though the soldier promised to return to marry the girl , he never did . It ’s say that the lovelornghostsof this pair still divagate the lobby , looking for each other [ source : Smith College ] .
Each class atHalloween , the new resident of Sessions House attempt to find the secret passageway . All thelightsare turned off , and the students have 20 mo to search for the meeting spot of the star - crossed buff . One ominous cue that might head the way is the audio of two late bookman . It ’s said that you could hear two young woman who found the hush-hush passageway one Halloween , only to fall through a hole on a staircase . The students allegedly either broke their necks or were so badly injured they could n’t move , finally die of starvation [ beginning : Belanger ] . If this story is true , it seems more likely that the little girl broke their necks ; sure enough the concealed passageway was n’t so hard to find that the other students would n’t have come to their classmates ' rescue when it was discovered the girls were missing .
While it ’s possible that the hide out passageway was used to transport slaves on the Underground Railroad , some of the home ’s other visitors have n’t been so lucky . Before the menage was given to the college , legend has it that a fair sex with two young fry was staying in the house . The female parent thought she heard trespasser , so she take an ax and searched the household . She mistook her children for the intruder , however , and kill them . When she realise what she ’d done , she killed herself [ beginning : Belanger ] .
No word on whether Sessions House boast a hidden passage to the Sessions Annex next room access . For a few age in the seventies , the annex housedmalestudents studying at Smith through commutation programs . sure a few scholar at the all - female Smith would have apprise such a feature film .
5: The Octagon House
Homes with hidden passageways have a style of taking on Modern roles as times change , which was the cause for the Octagon House in Fond du Lac , Wis. The home was built by trader Isaac Brown in 1856 at the site of an established settlement and trading post . Wisconsin and other westbound migration finish were increasingly appeal settlers attend for work in the mining , lumber and dairy industries . As an former colonist to the region , Brown was fearful he might be attack by the Native Americans in the arena , so he work up the 12 - room Octagon House as somewhat of a fort , everlasting with an " Indian Lookout " elbow room , where Brown could keep lookout man . If Native Americans aggress , the sept would need a position to hide , so Brown ’s aim included nine secret passageways and a hidden way adjacent to the Indian Lookout room .
Brown gave the base to his son , Edwin , as a wedding giving upon Edwin ’s involution to his fiancé , Ruth Pier . Not long after that , in the year leading up to the Civil War , the business firm took on a completely different role . At that time , theUnderground Railroadbegan to help slaves reach freedom , and Wisconsin became a significant stop for slaves on that journeying . The Octagon House , with its nine mystical passageways and secret room , was one base in the area that hosted numerous runaway hard worker who passed through .
During a refurbishment in 1975 , the new owner of the Octagon House found another obscure passage – a privy undercover burrow that is thought to have been dug specifically for facilitate the slaves . Today , you may visit that same tunnel and even see a subject matter scribble by a slave on the wall inside the secret room .
4: The Gillette Castle
The 24 - room Gillette Castle was built high on a drop above the Connecticut River in 1913 by William Gillette , a successful leg actor renowned for his part as Sherlock Holmes . The East Haddam mansion , which has been described as " vile , excessive and weird " and " design to resemble a ruin European castle , " is made of fieldstone block , which were hauled up the mountain by tramway , and was modeled after the chivalric castles of Germany ’s Rhineland [ sources : Monagan , Old House Journal ] .
You might say the actor and playwright designed his eccentric home to operate somewhat like the stage . For example , Gillette installed mirrors above the windows in the living room and in his bedroom so he could supervise his guests as they filed into his house and clock time his grand entrance down the carpet stairway perfectly . similarly , the house also enable him to make a timely passing . In his private study , he installed a trick door through which he could escape to his shop if an unwanted Edgar Albert Guest burst onto the scene .
Gillette wish to sight on his guests , which was done via a hidden staircase and hidden room , as well as through his mirror organization . He also liked to wow them with the home base ’s offbeat features . These were Prohibition prison term , so Gillette designed his bar to lock and disappear in an instant , and it could only be reopened by push a secret lever in the back . At parties , Gillette relish using his mirror system to determine his guests riposte to the bar for a refill , only to fumble around aimlessly for the lever .
The eccentricities did n’t stop there . In his dining elbow room , the tabular array was on a racecourse . node sat on a bench along the wall , and the board would roll toward them and lock into place . When Gillette wanted dinner service , he ’d fight a floorboard with his foot to ring for help . Throughout the home , hombre - sized scuttle were built into the wall , so feline could easily navigate the quarters , and outside the palace , a full - scale train cruised the 125 - acre estate [ seed : Vorhees et al ] .
In Gillette ’s will , he stipulated that he did n’t want the property to be sold to " some blithering saphead who has no innovation of where he is . " He died in 1937 at the age of 83 , and in 1943 , the state purchased the land for $ 30,000 to turn it into a state park [ seed : Monagan ] . In 2002 , the offbeat castling was renovated for about $ 5.9 million and opened to the public [ informant : Old House Interiors ] .
3: Körner’s Folly
have sex as " The Strangest House in the World , " Körner ’s Folly in Kernersville , N.C. , takes eccentric home plate design to a novel level – that is , stack of new levels . The household , built as a showcase of the talents of interior designer Jule Körner , has 22 rooms on seven levels and three level . The 15fireplacesare each completely different , as are all the doorway . Room heights vary from about 6 feet ( 1.8 meters ) , befit a child , to a gilded 25 ft ( 7.62 meters ) in some adult gathering spaces [ reference : Salisbury Post ] .
It ’s said that someone , either a cousin or a neighbor , declare the theater would for certain be " Körner ’s folly , " which so enjoy Körner that he had the name determine in roofing tile and used it as a name plaque outside the house . Körner began build Körner ’s foolishness when he was a bachelor-at-arms , and it was never intended to be a lasting home plate . But that change after he got wed .
In damage of secret rooms and passageways , Körner ’s Folly has those , too , but their purposes were more practical or capricious than secretive . The home ’s many minute passageway , some as narrow as 2 feet ( 61 cm ) , simply get in touch the rooms and floors . The underground passageway was make so that visitant could reach other building on the property without getting wet or soiled during inclement weather . The hole doors which so intrigue visitors today were actually part of an detailed air conditioning system of rules that encouraged aviation flow throughout the sign of the zodiac . Perhaps not quite as virtual are the fascinating nooks , crannies and cubbyholes , some of which are covered by curtains . Körner and his wife host numerous parties , and Körner build in these hideaway spots so that his invitee could sneak aside from the crowd and slip privatekisses !
2: The Coffin House
You ’d believe with a name like the Coffin House , this mansion house would be frightening . But nothing could be further from the truth .
In the pre - Civil War age , Levi and Catharine Coffin were n’t happy in North Carolina because the married Quaker couple loathe slavery . They decide to move to Newport , Ind. , ( now called Fountain City ) to be near others who share their values . They opened a general entrepot and planned to build a new home , but not just any home – the novel home was designed specifically to be a safe house for striver seeking freedom along theUnderground Railroad .
Indiana was a free commonwealth , but it was a federal offence to hide runaway slave . The menage , therefore , had to have secluded spaces where the slave could hide until those seeking them had come and gone . A room in the back of the star sign had five dissimilar door , so if any slave had to pass away quickly , there were plenty of path .
The star sign had several privy surface area , too , most notably a tiny and cramped snug off a sleeping accommodation where slave stay for as long as two weeks , hiding from harm and catch one’s breath before embarking on the rest of their journeys . One of the slaves who hide inside the small cubbyhole was named Eliza , and the account of her experience was included in Harriet Beecher Stowe ’s novel " Uncle Tom ’s cabin . "
The Coffins are said to have hidden more than 2,000 break loose slaves during their fourth dimension in Fountain City , and every one of the hard worker the Coffins assist eventually reached freedom [ source : Indiana Insider Blog ] . For his accomplishments , Levi Coffin was dub the " President of the Underground Railroad . "
1: Winchester Mystery House
Few homes are as eccentrically designed as the Winchester house in San Jose , Calif. The reasons behind the pattern are eccentric as well . A 38 - year - retentive project of Sarah Winchester , the Winchester Rifle heiress , the mansion finally contained a humongous 160 rooms , include 40 chamber , 13 bath , 40 staircases and three elevators [ informant : Winchester Mystery House ] .
On the 160 - acre land , Winchester grew nuts and fruit , which she sell under her own recording label . She and her staff of eight gardener tended the square-toed garden that surround the manse . In the garden were botany from all around the world and legion statue , mostly from Europe .
On the outside , Winchester seemed an industrious , sensible woman . Inside the planetary house , however , all may not have been so idyllic . You see , Winchester thought she was being haunted by victims of the Winchester reiterate rifle . A medium once told her that the only agency to get those peskyghostsoff her tail was to build a planetary house that would confuse them . The issue was a house that had rooms with several exit , more than 450 doorways , stairs that lead to nowhere , secret passageways , and twirl and turn unlike any other nonconcentric home base on this list .
After her death , The American Weekly describe this in 1928 [ source : Winchester Mystery House ] :
" When Mrs. Winchester set out for her Séance Room , it might well have discouraged the ghost of the Indian or even of a bloodhound , to follow her . After traversing an eternal labyrinth of rooms and hallways , all of a sudden she would campaign a button , a control board would fell back and she would step quick from one flat into another , and unless the pursuing spectre was insomniac and quick , he would drop off her . Then she unfold a windowpane in that apartment and climbed out , not into the opened air , but onto the top of a flight of steps that require her down one story only to conform to another flight that institute her right back up to the same level again , all inside the house . This was conjecture to be very discomforting to malign spirits , who are said to be naturally shady of traps . "
