A spite house is a building constructed—or sometimes substantially modified—by an aggrieved person who is ticked off at their neighbors for some reason, either real or imagined. Spite houses are pretty much exactly what they sound like in that term: buildings built out of spite! They are often not meant to be lived in or even really livable at all. But they are built in very strange ways and usually turn out to be quite impractical structures specifically for annoying a nasty neighbor or lobbing a volley in an ongoing feud over a piece of land.
Sounds pretty weird, right? But as you’ll discover while reading through this list of ten spite houses, the stories behind these buildings are both highly amusing and incredibly hard to believe. Below are ten tales of neighbors getting into vicious (and sometimes years-long) feuds and then turning around and not-so-subtly building wacky structures in a bid to win their battles. “You shall love your neighbor as yourself,” the Bible once infamously cautioned. Clearly, these people didn’t listen to that counsel!
Related: 10 Disturbing Cases Of Neighbors From Hell
Veh-Antiok-Xusrō
Forget about a spite house for a moment; let’s start with an entire spite city! The Roman city of Antioch was completely destroyed by an earthquake in AD 526. The emperor Justin and his heir, as well as Caesar Justinian, then put up tons of money and substantial resources to rebuild it.
By 541, the Iranian king Khosrow I and his men successfully carried out a siege and overtook Antioch for their own holdings. They populated it and a nearby city named Ctesiphon with Roman prisoners of war and other slaves. They then went to work building it up to their own liking.
Eventually, Khosrow emptied out Antioch and deported everybody who lived there under his forceful rule to a new city known as Veh-Antiok-Xusrō. The Iranian king modeled the new town exactly after Antioch, recreated it in as much of a parallel as he could, and then bragged about how his version was better. And then he made Roman prisoners and slaves live in it!
Veh-Antiok-Xusrō literally translates to “Better than Antioch, Khosrow built this.” The ultimate display of power—and the ultimate show of spite. [1]
Old Spite House (Marblehead, MA)
Nobody is quite sure why the so-called “Old Spite House” in Marblehead, Massachusetts, looks the way it does. The house is tall, thin, and long, and two partitioned sections within it are separated and account for basically separate living quarters. It was first built in 1716 by a local sailmaker named Thomas Wood.
One legend has it that two brothers lived in the house together. However, they had a long-standing feud and refused to speak to each other, so one lived in one half of the long and weirdly shaped house while the other resided in the other half. A second explanation for the house’s strange long and narrow shape is that it was built at an angle and in such a way as to block the view of two other houses looking down Orne Street in Marblehead.
A third legend claims Wood built the house for its eventual owner on a tiny spit of land and in a strange construction because the resident was pissed off after receiving only a very tiny share of his father’s estate. So he wanted to block his brothers’ views from their homes with his monstrosity.
Spite or not—or whatever of those spiteful reasons is actually correct—the house is still standing today. And yes, it is still very much occupied. That alone is proof that spite can last a long, long time! [2]
The McCobb House (Rockport, ME)
In 1806, Thomas McCobb returned home to Phippsburg, Maine, after years away working in business. McCobb was the rightful heir to his father’s land holdings and shipbuilding business in Phippsburg, and he expected to get quite the inheritance when he showed up.
There was just one problem: his beloved childhood home, known by the family as their “Mansion in the Wilderness,” was inherited by Thomas’s stepbrother Mark. And Mark didn’t want to give it up, sell it, or move out.
Enraged, Thomas decided to build an even bigger, better, and more ornate mansion out of spite, right next door! The new McCobb mansion was much bigger than the family’s “Mansion in the Wilderness.”
The rooms were better and newer, the fixtures were modern and expensive, and the home was built in an expansive estate spread out right next to the Mansion in the Wilderness. If Thomas couldn’t live in his boyhood home, well, he wanted to elbow out his stepbrother and make his life there as unbearable as possible.
In 1925, the National Park Service had the McCobb Spite House moved from Phippsburg to Rockport. There, it was listed on the National Register of Historic Places and lives on today as an incredibly ornate example of early 19th-century architecture in America. [3]
Tyler Spite House (Frederick, MD)
In 1814, John Tyler (not the president) lived in Frederick, Maryland. One day, he learned that the city wanted to extend Record Street near Courthouse Square. That was a problem for John because he owned the land in the path of the proposed street.
Tyler found a loophole: The city was not allowed to build a road if work was already in progress on a “substantial building” in the path of the proposed street. To spite the city, Tyler hurriedly assembled a few men and poured out a building foundation late one night.
The next morning, city workers found Tyler’s new foundation laid right in its path. The city was powerless to stop him, Record Street’s extension was scrapped, and today, Tyler’s spite house still sits at the dead end of that street’s southernmost terminus. [4]
Schilling Spite House (Hiawatha, KS)
In 1880, Adam Schilling owned 80 acres of land next to Hiawatha, Kansas. Schilling sold three-quarters of an acre to James Falloon. The city of Hiawatha wanted to buy Schilling’s acreage to build out the city limits, but Falloon wasn’t willing to sell his tiny holding.
Schilling built a tenement house on his property to spite his neighbor and his unwillingness to sell off his land. The tenement was very low quality and only 13 feet away from Falloon’s property line!
Schilling wanted to render the neighborhood “obnoxious and unendurable” for Falloon and his family, hoping the man would sell back his land to Schilling, who could then sell it all to the town. How spiteful! [5]
Richardson Spite House (New York, NY)
On the Upper East Side of New York City in the late 19th century, Joseph Richardson owned a tiny strip of land along Lexington Avenue and 82nd Street. Hyman Samer wanted to buy out Richardson and develop a block-sized building.
In 1882, Samer offered Richardson $1,000 for the land, but Richardson countered with $5,000. Samer declined, so Richardson constructed a long, thin apartment building running along the length of his plot. It was 104 feet in length and four stories tall, but only 5 feet deep!
There were eight suites within the building, each with three rooms and a bathroom. Sadly, Richardson’s spite house eventually came down in 1915, but what a three-decade run of spite it had! [6]
Collinsville Spite House (Collinsville, CT)
The Collinsville Spite House wasn’t actually a house at all. As the story goes, a local butcher living in Collinsville, Connecticut, didn’t care for his neighbor. The butcher eventually built a tall, narrow structure between their two homes.
The structure was more than two stories tall and only the width of a narrow staircase. It had windows all over it, and the butcher covered those windows with Venetian blinds—which were always closed.
Basically, the butcher wanted to keep the bright and warm sun away from his neighbor’s property. After the butcher’s death, his son tore down the spite “house,” and order was restored to River Street. Thank goodness! [7]
Miracle House (Freeport, NY)
In the late 19th century, a developer planned to lay out Freeport, New York, in a grid and build a ton of homes. But a competitor, John Randall, wanted to stop the other developer from laying out Freeport in the way he intended.
Randall had a triangular plot of land at the corner of Lena Avenue and Wilson Place. The so-called Freeport Spite House, known today as the “Miracle House,” was built on Randall’s triangular plot of land in mere hours.
Today, Lena Avenue and Wilson Place are still forced to wrap awkwardly around John Randall’s house. It wasn’t what the rival developer wanted, but Randall got his way. [8]
Froling Spite House (Alameda, CA)
At the turn of the 20th century, Charles Froling owned land in Alameda, California. The city of Alameda took a large portion of that land to build a street right through the middle of it. His neighbor was equally unsympathetic.
To get back at both the city and his uncaring neighbor, Froling built a tall and thin house that was barely deep enough to live in. The house was 54 feet long and two stories high, but only 10 feet deep at its widest point.
The Alameda spite house is still standing (and still occupied!) today. [9]
Edleston Spite House (Gainford, England)
In 1904, a mourning family wanted to erect a monument for their recently deceased loved one named Joseph Edleston. They asked the St. Mary’s Church if they could erect a monument for Joseph in the churchyard, but the church refused.
The church made a counteroffer: The family could donate their property to the church and then build a monument on the donated land.
Joseph’s children moved to construct a revenge building out of spite. They built themselves a house that overlooked the churchyard and erected a massive and unsightly 40-foot-tall column next to the churchyard.
Today, the Edleston Spite House and the column both still stand just as they were built 120 years ago. And the house is still occupied, too—with the Roman numerals MCMIV (1904) engraved over the front door. Savage! [10]
These spite houses stand as quirky testaments to the power of human emotion, particularly the lengths people will go to when fueled by anger or a desire for petty revenge. From narrow structures blocking views to entire cities built to outdo rivals, each of these tales offers a glimpse into the often-irrational world of neighborhood feuds. These buildings, born from spite, continue to capture our imagination and remind us of the enduring nature of human conflict.
Which of these spite house stories did you find the most unbelievable? Leave your comment below!
