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A spite house is a structure that’s either built or significantly altered by an individual harboring resentment toward their neighbors, whether based on real grievances or imagined slights. These houses are precisely what they sound like—created out of spite! Often, they aren’t designed for practical use or comfort but are constructed in unusual ways to serve as a tool of annoyance in a bitter feud, often over a parcel of land or some other dispute.
Sounds pretty strange, right? But as you’ll see in the following list of ten spite houses, the stories behind these buildings are both highly entertaining and almost unbelievable. Below, you’ll find ten accounts of neighbors who engaged in fierce (and sometimes decades-long) quarrels, only to respond by building eccentric structures designed to outdo each other. As the Bible once famously said, “You shall love your neighbor as yourself.” Clearly, these individuals didn’t heed that advice!
10. Veh-Antiok-Xusrō
Let’s take a break from spite houses for a second and dive into the story of an entire spite city! In AD 526, the Roman city of Antioch was completely devastated by an earthquake. Emperor Justin and his heir, Caesar Justinian, poured substantial resources and money into its reconstruction, hoping to restore Antioch to its former glory and make it prosperous again after the disaster.
By 541, King Khosrow I of Iran and his army had successfully besieged Antioch and taken control of it. They claimed the city for their own and began populating it with Roman prisoners of war and slaves, also bringing in residents from nearby Ctesiphon. The king then set to work rebuilding the city in his own image.
In the end, Khosrow expelled all the inhabitants of Antioch and sent them, along with Roman prisoners, slaves, and others under his control, to a newly constructed city called Veh-Antiok-Xusrō. This marked the beginning of a new chapter where these displaced people lived and worked under Iranian rule in this freshly created settlement.
And here’s the reason it became known as a spite city: Veh-Antiok-Xusrō roughly translates to “Better than Antioch, Khosrow built this.” Yes, you read that right—the Iranian king modeled the new city after Antioch, copying its layout as much as possible, and then flaunted the superiority of his version. To make matters even worse, he forced Roman prisoners and slaves to live there! This was not just a demonstration of power—it was an overt act of revenge and defiance.
9. Old Spite House (Marblehead, MA)
The reason behind the peculiar design of the so-called 'Old Spite House' in Marblehead, Massachusetts, remains a mystery. The house stands tall, narrow, and elongated, with two separate sections inside that appear to serve as distinct living spaces. Built in 1716 by Thomas Wood, a local sailmaker, the house’s unusual construction is only rivaled by the bizarre stories surrounding it!
One popular tale suggests that two brothers once lived in the house but had such a bitter feud that they refused to speak to each other. As a result, one brother occupied one half of the oddly shaped house, while the other took residence in the opposite side. Another theory about the house's narrow design is that it was intentionally built at an angle to obstruct the views of two neighboring houses down Orne Street in Marblehead.
A third story claims that Thomas Wood constructed the house for a future owner on a small plot of land. The reason for its odd shape? The new owner was furious after inheriting only a tiny portion of his father’s estate, so he created the house as a giant structure to block his brothers' views from their own homes as a form of revenge.
Regardless of the true cause—whether it was spite or one of these colorful explanations—the house remains standing to this day. It’s still occupied, and the current residents seem to have embraced its unconventional shape and design, making it work for their family. If nothing else, this 300-year-old house proves that spite can stand the test of time!
8. The McCobb House (Rockport, ME)
In 1806, Thomas McCobb returned to Phippsburg, Maine, after spending years in business away from home. McCobb was the rightful heir to his father’s land and shipbuilding business in the area. The McCobb family had been incredibly prosperous and wealthy, so Thomas expected a generous inheritance upon his return.
Indeed, Thomas received a sizable amount of money from the value of the business. However, there was one major issue: his childhood home, known as the 'Mansion in the Wilderness,' was inherited by his stepbrother, Mark. Mark refused to give it up, sell it, or even move out.
Furious about losing access to the home that held so many family memories, Thomas decided to build an even grander, more lavish mansion purely out of spite. He constructed it right next door! The new McCobb mansion dwarfed the family’s 'Mansion in the Wilderness.'
The new house was far more spacious, with upgraded rooms, modern fixtures, and high-end finishes. Built on a vast estate right next to the old family home, Thomas’s mansion was designed to make his stepbrother’s life as difficult as possible, ensuring that if he couldn’t live in his childhood home, Mark wouldn’t enjoy it either.
In a surprising twist, this spite house story took an unexpected turn. In 1925, the National Park Service’s Historic American Buildings Survey decided to relocate the McCobb Spite House from Phippsburg to the Deadman’s Point area in Rockport, about 50 miles (80 kilometers) north. There, it was added to the National Register of Historic Places, and today, it stands as an exquisite example of early 19th-century American architecture. The spite that once motivated its creation continues to live on, albeit in a different city.
7. Tyler Spite House (Frederick, MD)
In 1814, a man named John Tyler (not to be confused with the tenth president of the United States) lived and worked in Frederick, Maryland. Tyler was one of the leading ophthalmologists of his time and notably one of the first American-born doctors to successfully perform a cataract surgery.
John Tyler was a prominent figure in Frederick and had the financial resources to be counted among the town’s elite. However, in 1814, he learned that the local government had plans to extend Record Street through the area near the Courthouse Square in downtown Frederick. This posed a problem for Tyler, as he owned the land along West Patrick Street that lay directly in the path of the proposed extension.
Tyler knew that the city could invoke eminent domain to extend Record Street as it wished. However, he found a loophole: the city could not proceed with road construction if there was a 'substantial building' already being constructed in the path of the proposed street. To stop the city and prevent the road from cutting through his property, Tyler quickly gathered a few men and poured the foundation for a building late one night.
The next morning, city workers arrived to extend Record Street, only to find Tyler’s new foundation standing in its way. The city had no authority to continue, so the extension was abandoned. Today, Tyler’s spite house remains at the very end of the southernmost section of the street.
6. Schilling Spite House (Hiawatha, KS)
In 1880, Adam Schilling owned 80 acres of land that bordered the city limits of Hiawatha, Kansas. In a generous gesture, Schilling sold three-quarters of an acre to a man named James Falloon, while retaining the remaining 79-and-a-quarter acres for himself.
At the time, Hiawatha was expanding, and the city wanted to purchase Schilling’s land to extend its boundaries. Schilling was willing to sell and wanted to see the town grow. However, there was one issue: Falloon, who owned the small parcel, refused to sell. Schilling made an offer to buy it back, but Falloon deemed the offer too low and turned it down.
At some point, the relationship between Schilling and Falloon took a bitter turn. To spite his neighbor’s refusal to sell the tiny piece of land, Schilling constructed a tenement house on his property. The building was poorly made, featuring cheap and dilapidated rooms, and it was placed just 13 feet (4 meters) away from Falloon’s property boundary.
Schilling’s aim was to make the area so “obnoxious and unbearable” for Falloon and his family that Falloon would be compelled to sell his tiny land back to Schilling. Schilling hoped to then resell it to the city of Hiawatha. A truly spiteful move!
5. Richardson Spite House (New York, NY)
In the late 1800s, Joseph Richardson owned a narrow strip of land in the Upper East Side of New York City, running along Lexington Avenue and 82nd Street. His parcel was long but very narrow, only about 5 feet (1.5 meters) deep. The neighboring plot on the block was owned by Hyman Samer, who wanted to purchase Richardson's land to develop a large building covering the entire block.
In 1882, Samer made Richardson an offer: Take $1,000 for the small strip of land, a sum Samer believed was fair for such a seemingly useless plot. Richardson, however, countered with a $5,000 demand, seeing more value in the land. Samer, unwilling to pay that much for what he saw as a nearly worthless piece of property, rejected the offer. Stuck in negotiations, Richardson took a drastic step.
Richardson built a long, narrow apartment building running along the length of his land. The building stretched for 104 feet (31.7 meters) and reached four stories high. Externally, it looked like any typical apartment building of the time, but the twist was its depth: a mere 5 feet!
Though highly impractical, the apartment building was actually functional, and people did live there. Inside, it contained eight suites, each featuring three rooms and a bathroom. Sadly, Richardson’s spite house was demolished in 1915, replaced by an apartment building that still stands today. But it had an impressive three-decade run fueled by spite!
4. Collinsville Spite House (Collinsville, CT)
The so-called Collinsville Spite House wasn’t technically a house. It was, rather, a deliberately constructed structure built purely out of spite between two neighbors after a bitter feud that lasted much of the 19th century. The tale goes that a local butcher in Collinsville, Connecticut, had a neighbor he couldn’t stand, and the feeling was apparently mutual.
The butcher escalated the feud significantly when he erected a tall, narrow building between their two homes. The structure soared over two stories high but was only as wide as a staircase. It had windows on every side, but the butcher ensured those windows were always covered with Venetian blinds, all of which remained perpetually closed.
The butcher’s goal was to block the sunlight from reaching his neighbor’s property, so he kept the blinds closed for years, preventing his neighbor from enjoying the warmth of the sun. The structure itself wasn’t habitable, but it seemed to be allowed to stand because it had both windows and a staircase. And stand it did, year after year, until the butcher’s death.
However, this story does have a happy ending! The butcher’s son didn’t share his father’s animosity toward the neighbor. After the butcher passed away, the son demolished the spiteful “house,” and peace was restored to River Street. Thankfully, the situation was resolved!
3. Edleston Spite House (Gainford, England)
In 1904, a grieving family wanted to erect a monument in honor of their recently deceased relative, Joseph Edleston. They owned a plot of land in Gainford, England, right next to St. Mary’s Church cemetery in this small village. They approached the church with a request to place a memorial for Joseph in the churchyard to commemorate him and the impact he had on their lives.
The church outright rejected the family’s request to erect a monument for Joseph. Instead, they made a counteroffer: rather than allowing the family to build a memorial on church grounds, they suggested the family donate their property to the church and then erect the monument on that donated land.
This suggestion infuriated Joseph’s children, leading them to decide to construct a revengeful building. Not only did they build a house on their property overlooking the churchyard, but they took things a step further by adding a massive, unattractive 40-foot (12.1-meter) tall column next to the cemetery.
The column loomed over the cemetery trees, serving as a bold reminder of both Joseph’s life and the offense they felt from the church’s offer. Today, the Edleston Spite House and the towering column remain as they were built 120 years ago. The house is still occupied, with the Roman numerals MCMIV (1904) etched above the front door. A true act of defiance!
2. Froling Spite House (Alameda, CA)
At the turn of the 20th century, Charles Froling owned a large plot of land in Alameda, California, which he had inherited. His plan was to build the dream home he’d always wanted. However, a problem arose when the city of Alameda seized a portion of his land to build a street right through the middle of it, disrupting his plans.
Froling was understandably furious, but there was little he could do. The city had the legal right-of-way, leaving him powerless. What made matters even worse, though, was the complete lack of sympathy from the neighbor on the other side of his property. That only fueled Froling’s anger further.
In retaliation against both the city of Alameda and his indifferent neighbor, Froling built a narrow, tall house on the small sliver of land he had left. The house stretched 54 feet (16.5 meters) in length and rose two stories high, but it was only 10 feet (3 meters) deep at its widest point. To make the most of the limited space, he cantilevered the second story over the new road's sidewalk, avoiding any possible zoning restrictions in the future. His foresight paid off, as the Alameda spite house still stands today, and it’s still occupied!
1. Miracle House (Freeport, NY)
In the late 19th century, a developer set his sights on Freeport, New York, with plans to lay out the town in a grid and build a number of homes along the new streets. He stood to make a substantial profit, as Freeport was rapidly expanding at the time. But one of his competitors, John Randall, didn’t want to see his rival succeed and was determined to prevent the other developer from laying out the town as planned. Randall’s goal was to stop his competitor’s project and secure his own future earnings instead.
Randall’s saving grace in the competition was a triangular plot of land situated at the corner of Lena Avenue and Wilson Place. The other developer aimed to disrupt the land and place a grid of city streets right through it. Randall realized his only way to stop the developer was to build a house on the land. And so, he built one—basically overnight.
The so-called Freeport Spite House, more commonly referred to as the 'Miracle House,' was swiftly constructed on Randall’s triangular plot in just a few hours. The house went up so quickly that the grid designers had no opportunity to halt its construction and proceed with their plans.
The house itself is surprisingly ordinary. It was livable back in the day and remains so today. It’s a classic Victorian structure, well-maintained, and a well-known part of Freeport’s landscape. Even today, if you look at Freeport from above on Google Earth, you’ll see that Lena Avenue and Wilson Place awkwardly curve around Randall’s house. It wasn’t what the rival developer had planned, but Randall got his way—and his legacy is still present in the town’s layout with those crooked streets!
