7 Spite Houses That People Built Just for Revenge

Some of the owners never even lived in them!

3) Old Spite House at Marblehead, Massachusetts

As one of the oldest spite houses in the U.S. this 1716 home is said to have been built by the sailmaker Thomas Wood in order to block the view from his brother’s house, who co-owned the property. Another version has the original house blocked from sight and sound of a scandalous local tavern just across the way by the tiny home. Either way, we think some spite was involved!

Today it is still a subject of fascination for many as it juts out – creating a very particular look.

Via/ Wiki Commons

2) Richardson Spite “House”

At only 5 feet wide, this 4-story building contained within it 8 suites and each suite contained 2 bedrooms and 1.75 baths. Joseph Richardson, who owned a strip of property just to the side of a huge lot owned by Hyman Sarner had built the sliver of a building to spite Sarner after a deal had gone bad.

Richardson was offered $1,000 for the small strip of land from Sarner, which he scoffed at and demanded 5 times that much! When Sarner refused, Richardson got into action building his narrow apartment building right alongside the more traditionally-sized one that Sarner was erecting.

Via/ Wiki Commons

Built in 1882, this very narrow building was demolished in 1915 to make way for much larger and more modern apartment buildings.

Click the “Next Page” button to see #1 (including a peek inside)!

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