Buzz
Your town likely has a quirky building or two that locals love to show off to visitors. But the structures in this list are no charming oddities—they were built out of sheer spite. Some were designed to obstruct a neighbor's view, settle personal scores, or outsmart city officials. Here are 10 spite houses that prove while fences might make good neighbors, a little vengeful architecture can create unforgettable neighborhood lore.
1. The Hollensbury Spite House // Alexandria, Virginia
When most people want to keep others away from their property, they put up a simple fence. Not John Hollensbury. This disgruntled brickmaker erected a 7-foot-wide house in 1830 to stop people from using the alley beside his home, irritated by the constant wagon traffic that scraped his walls.
2. The Tyler Spite House // Frederick, Maryland
The Tyler Spite House thwarted plans for a new road. | Wikimedia Commons // Public DomainJohn Tyler, an eye doctor, quickly constructed this mansion in 1814 to stop the town from building a road through his land. A local ordinance dictated that if a building was under construction in the path of a proposed road, the city couldn't proceed with the project, so the doctor rapidly ordered a foundation to be poured for his mansion.
3. The Virginia City Spite House // Virginia City, Nevada
In the 1950s, a miner decided to build a home in downtown Virginia City, Nevada. But his quaint white house didn’t stay peaceful for long. One of his rivals
4. The Old Spite House // Marblehead, Massachusetts
A 1912 postcard featuring The Old Spite House. | Wikimedia Commons // Public DomainAccording to local folklore, this peculiar house was the result of a brotherly grudge. One brother, upset by the way their land was divided, constructed his part of the house in a way that obstructed his sibling's view.
5. The “Skinny House” // Boston, Massachusetts
A bitter inheritance dispute between brothers led to the creation of Boston’s Skinny House. One brother constructed a house that allegedly occupied more than his fair share of land. When the other brother returned from military service, he built a skinny house specifically to block sunlight from his sibling’s building. The result is an architectural oddity that doesn’t even have a front door; instead, people must squeeze through a side door that resembles more of a window than an entryway.
6. The Sam Kee Building // Vancouver, British Columbia
The Sam Kee Building is an exceptionally narrow commercial property. | Wikimedia Commons // Public DomainWhen Vancouver officials decided to expand Pender Street, their plan severely impacted the property owned by the Sam Kee Company—without offering fair compensation to Chang Toy, the company’s owner. In 1913, Toy built a commercial building on the narrow strip of land that remained. The final structure measures only 6 feet wide, with additional space created by pop-out windows on the second floor that extend over the sidewalk.
7. The Alameda Spite House // Alameda, California
There are two theories behind the creation of this beloved Northern California landmark. One story suggests that Charles Froling built the house after Alameda attempted to seize his land to make way for a street, while the other attributes the house to sibling rivalry. The quirky home is still inhabited, and thanks to a stained glass window that proudly reads “Spite House,” its vengeful past is on full display.
8. The Cambridge Spite House // Cambridge, Massachusetts
It may resemble a shed, but this small structure is, in fact, a spite house. | ArnoldReinhold, Wikimedia Commons // CC BY-SA 3.0What is it with spiteful landowners in Massachusetts? In 1908, Francis O'Reilly attempted to convince his neighbor to buy his small parcel of land. When the neighbor refused, O'Reilly built an 8-foot-wide house on the tiny plot. The interior designer who now occupies the space has described the building as a three-dimensional billboard for her work.
9. The Freeport Spite House // Freeport, New York
John Randall, a developer, opposed his town’s plan to implement a grid system. To block the project, he constructed a Victorian-style house on an oddly shaped triangular lot. Aerial views of this Long Island town reveal that the streets had to curve around the large lot, disrupting the town's symmetry.
10. The Plum Island Spite House // Plum Island, Massachusetts
The isolated Plum Island Spite House, with no neighbors in sight. | Lee Wright, Flickr // CC BY-SA 2.0Despite its pink exterior, this house’s history is anything but sweet. Local legend has it that in 1925, a woman agreed to divorce her husband under one condition: he had to build her an exact replica of their shared home. The man consented, but instead of kindly fulfilling her request, he built the house on a remote salt marsh, leaving her without access to fresh running water.
