World’s Largest Ghost House!

World's Largest Ghost House!

Proof that wealth does not bring happiness is shown by the tragedies experienced by the A.B. Widener family who built the 110-room Lynnewood Hall in Pennsylvania. Said to be the largest remaining example of Neoclassical Revival architecture from the Gilded Age, its decline began with links to the sinking of the Titanic. Designed by Horace Trumbauer, the mansion was based on a palace in Bath, England and featured numerous outbuildings and gardens. Widener also used the mansion as a gallery for his extensive art collection which included works by Raphael, Rembrandt, Van Dyck and El Greco.

Widener’s great wealth had been amassed through investments in inner city transportation systems and stock in United States Steel Corporation, Standard Oil, and the Pennsylvania Railroad. When he invested with J.P. Morgan in the White Star Line, little did he know that his son and grandson would die on the maiden voyage of its flagship Titanic. Consumed with guilt and grief, A.B. Widener died in his grand mansion three years after the sinking. It is said that the three Widener ghosts are still its caretakers, its legacy as the world's biggest abandoned ghost house. The mansion was listed at $20 million in 2014 and dropped to $16.5 million in 2015.