There’s A $260 Million Abandoned Mansion In The USA

Symbolising the Gilded Age, during which American industrialists amassed wealth and built some of the country’s most magnificent architectural treasures, Lynnewood Hall today is an abandoned landmark. Once a historic symbol, today remains in a state of disrepair.

Extravagance All-Around

Credits: Wikimedia Commons

Lynnewood Hall has been a landmark in Elkins Park, Pennsylvania, for over a century.  It was built in the early 1900s for industrialist Peter A.B Widener and his wife, Josephine. Designed by Horace Trumbauer, one of America’s most prominent architects of the Gilded Age, the mansion is an architectural masterpiece, recognised as one of the largest surviving Gilded Age mansions in the country.

The mansion spans over 70,000 square feet and features over 110 rooms, including a grand ballroom, a marble swimming pool, a chapel, and a bowling alley. Even the marble floor furnishings involved export from Italy and France. Some of the most prominent artists and craftsmen of the time worked on its interiors.

One of the most remarkable features of Lynnewood Hall is its grand ballroom. The ballroom features a soaring 50-foot-high ceiling, adorned with a massive crystal chandelier that weighs over 3,000 pounds. Hand-carved wood panels line the walls of the ballroom while the floor is made of rare Italian marble. The space also includes a chapel modelled after the Sainte-Chapelle in Paris. It features intricate stained glass windows that depict biblical scenes and a carved stone altar.

State Of Abandonment

The construction of Lynnewood Hall began in 1897 and continued for several years. It was even modelled after the Palace of Versailles in France. During World War II, Lynnewood Hall played an important role in the preservation of European art and artefacts.

Credits: Wikimedia Commons

In the 1950s, the Widener family sold Lynnewood Hall and used the estate for various purposes. A real estate developer purchased the mansion in 1996 and planned to convert it into luxury condominiums, however, the project never materialised.

The estate’s history is fascinating and complex, and it has attracted the attention of historians and architects. Despite efforts to restore the mansion, including petitions and fundraising campaigns, its future still remains uncertain.

Cover image credits: Wikimedia Commons