10 Unusual Homes with Secret Passages

If you're ever in San Francisco with an extra $10,000 burning a hole in your pocket, you might want to book a stay at the Fairmont Hotel's Penthouse Suite. For that price, you get the entire eighth floor to yourself, which includes three bedrooms, a dining room large enough for 50 guests, a billiards room, a bathroom featuring 24-karat-gold fixtures, and a two-story library [source: Valhouli]. And on the second floor of the library, if you know the secret spot, a hidden passageway awaits, allowing you to live out your Batman-inspired fantasies.

However, if you decide to use that $10,000 to create a hidden passageway in your own home, you'll be able to channel your inner superhero whenever the mood strikes. Hidden passageways are no longer just a feature of mystery novels and comic books; they are becoming more common in private residences [source: Summers-Sparks]. The 10 homeowners featured here saw a hidden passageway as an essential addition to their home, but you can decide for yourself whether it was a wise choice. After all, these secret corridors have been used for everything from romantic rendezvous to suspected criminal activities.

Continue reading to explore these quirky homes and decide if a hidden passageway should be on your dream home checklist. We'll kick things off with a millionaire who used his secret passage to spy on his friends. Find out who this crafty homeowner was on the following page.

10: Singer Castle

In 1896, Commodore Frederick G. Bourne decided it was time for a summer retreat and hunting lodge. As the president of the Singer Sewing Machine Company, Bourne had the wealth to construct a five-story castle on Dark Island in New York's St. Lawrence River. What would a proper summer home and hunting lodge be without an icehouse for entertaining, a library to display game trophies, and, of course, hidden passageways and a dungeon?

During Bourne's lifetime, the castle was referred to as The Towers, but in recent years, it's been renamed Singer Castle. Unlike some of the more dubious uses of hidden passageways in the other homes on this list, Bourne’s reason was much simpler. Like many people, Bourne was curious about his guests' true opinions of him. His secret passageways allowed him to discreetly slip away from a gathering and spy on the party.

When fellow self-made millionaires Cornelius Vanderbilt and Vincent Astor visited, Bourne might have disappeared behind a wooden panel in the library to find the stone spiral staircase. From a higher floor, he could sit quietly in a hallway and peer through a metal grate at his guests. At that height, no one would notice if a large painting on the wall shifted slightly; Bourne could gently push it to listen in on their conversation below [source: McCarron]. If he wasn't in the mood to eavesdrop, one of the hidden passages also led directly to the wine cellar.

Remember those shady uses I mentioned earlier? Keep reading to discover the hidden passageway that allegedly allowed one homeowner to carry on numerous affairs with Hollywood starlets.

9: Wolf's Lair Castle

Wolf's Lair Castle in Hollywood, California, was designed by art director L. Milton Wolf. Wolf sought to create a replica of a Norman castle, complete with a turret built just for his pet gibbon [source: Pavlik]. Beyond the gibbon’s quarters, the estate boasts eight bedrooms, six bathrooms spread across the main house and guest house, a heart-shaped pool, and even a speakeasy. The house, built in 1927, provided an ideal hideaway during Prohibition with its secretive bar.

From Wolf's Lair Castle, the view is breathtaking; you can see downtown Los Angeles, Catalina Island, and the iconic Hollywood sign. What remains hidden, however, is the secret passageway between the main house and the guest house. According to rumors, Wolf created a concealed apartment beneath the guesthouse to indulge his taste for young Hollywood starlets [source: Brenoff]. The notorious womanizer would slip away through the hidden passage to meet his dates while his unsuspecting wife rested just a few hundred feet away.

In June 2008, the property was listed for $7.5 million, but musician Moby purchased it for only $4 million in 2010 and subsequently invested around $2 million in renovations [source: Wadler]. It was likely a more favorable deal than the next eccentric home on our list, which has changed owners several times over the years, largely due to a lingering issue with ghosts. Find out who may have used hidden passageways to commit murder on the next page.

8: Franklin Castle

Few things can make a home as eccentric as rumors of it being haunted. Enter Franklin Castle, located in Cleveland, Ohio, which was built in 1865 by German immigrant Hannes Tiedemann. Having succeeded in several ventures including barrel-making, banking, and grocery stores, Tiedemann spared no expense in constructing this home for his wife. Once they moved in, the family quickly grew to include several children.

Then tragedy struck, and the children began to die. As rumors swirled that the deaths might not have been mere accidents, Tiedemann decided to expand the house to distract his wife from her sorrow. He seemed to think that what his wife really needed were extravagant features such as turrets and gargoyles, making the home look even more like a castle. Along with these additions, Tiedemann incorporated hidden passageways and secret rooms throughout the house, including a ballroom that ran the entire length of the building.

But redecorating didn't prevent the deaths. One tale suggests that Tiedemann hanged his teenage niece from the rafters in a hidden passageway off the ballroom, either due to her insanity or promiscuity [source: Taylor]. Tiedemann may have also killed a servant on her wedding day because she rejected his romantic advances [source: Lane]. Their ghosts are said to haunt the home. The only possibly innocent use of the passageways could have been by Mrs. Tiedemann, who allegedly used them to visit her children away from the volatile Mr. Tiedemann [source: Lane].

The bizarre history didn't end with Tiedemann, however. The home was later used by the German Socialist Party, and it's said that the voices occasionally heard in the halls might be those of 20 party members who were supposedly killed in one of the hidden rooms. When the house became a boarding house, one resident discovered a secret room containing the skeletons of numerous babies. A doctor confirmed the bones were human and very old, but some theorized they were the victims of failed medical experiments [source: Taylor].

Franklin Castle has changed owners many times since the 1960s, with several of them reporting strange occurrences and ghostly experiences. But any eerie happenings at the next house on our list were likely engineered by its owner. Flip the page to learn about the ultimate haunted house.

7: Britannia Manor

If you're familiar with Ultima Online, the popular series of online role-playing games, you might recognize Richard Garriott as Lord British. Lord British is the in-game persona of Garriott, a computer designer and programmer. But Garriott isn’t just Lord British in the virtual world; when he hosts his famous haunted house at his Austin, Texas, mansion, he does so dressed in the attire of Lord British.

Even when it's not Halloween, Garriott's Britannia Manor remains a fascinating place. The home spans 4,500 square feet (418 square meters), boasting not only a network of hidden passageways but also an operational observatory, a moat, and a swimming pool with artificial rain effects [source: Gunther]. Behave yourself, or you might find yourself thrown into the dungeon, where you'll share space with a human skeleton, a fetus, a few shrunken heads, and some dead animals [source: Pitts]. If creepy toys are more your fear, the upstairs room filled with automated marionettes won't offer any relief.

Garriott once likened his home to interactive software, and navigating through it indeed feels like playing a computer game [source: Lewis]. To unlock one of the secret passageways, guests must pass a magnetized pottery piece over hidden sensors on a shelf in a specific pattern to reveal the concealed passage.

Those who think they have the courage to endure the eerie challenges of Garriott's lair camp out every two years in hopes of winning free tickets to his four-night haunted house event. The house becomes a quest full of witches, bloodied pools, flying demons, and banshees, among other terrifying features from previous years [source: Gould]. The event requires hundreds of volunteers and tens of thousands of dollars, but Garriott genuinely enjoys it. In 1993, he bragged about scaring three people so much they wet themselves when six-foot (1.8-meter) sparks from a Tesla coil shocked them [source: Lewis].

Richard Garriott is constructing a new home in Austin, and he might just surpass Britannia Manor. However, regardless of the new features, it will be hard to beat the legendary history of the next home on our list. Turn the page to read about a college dorm with haunted secret passages.

6: Sessions House

Sessions House, located in Smith College in Northampton, Massachusetts, has likely witnessed its fair share of eccentric student antics over the years. However, none of those wild college parties could possibly compare to the extraordinary history that haunts this residence hall.

The house was built by Captain Jonathan Hunt in 1710. To safeguard his family from local Native American tribes, Captain Hunt installed a secret passageway in the home as a hiding spot. But Captain Hunt's granddaughter, Lucy, had a different use for the passage. When she fell in love with a Revolutionary War soldier, she arranged secret meetings with him inside the hidden passageway. The family disapproved of the relationship, and although the soldier promised to return and marry Lucy, he never did. It is said that the spirits of the heartbroken couple still roam the halls, searching for one another [source: Smith College].

Every Halloween, the new residents of Sessions House attempt to uncover the secret passageway. With all the lights turned off, the students have just 20 minutes to find the spot where the star-crossed lovers met. One eerie clue is the sound of two former students. Legend has it that two girls discovered the secret passageway one Halloween, only to fall through a hole on the staircase. The girls are said to have either broken their necks or sustained such severe injuries that they couldn't move, ultimately perishing from starvation [source: Belanger]. If the story is true, it seems more plausible that the girls broke their necks, since it's hard to imagine the passageway being so elusive that no one would come to their aid after their disappearance was realized.

While it’s been suggested that the secret passageways in the house may have been used to transport slaves on the Underground Railroad, some of the home's other visitors weren’t so fortunate. Before it became a college property, the house was reportedly the scene of a tragic incident. A woman with two young children mistakenly believed she heard intruders, so she grabbed an axe and searched the house. Unfortunately, she mistook her children for intruders and ended up killing them. Realizing her mistake, she then took her own life [source: Belanger].

There’s no indication that Sessions House has a hidden passageway leading to the Sessions Annex next door. In the 1970s, the annex was used to house male students participating in exchange programs at Smith College. Certainly, some students from the all-female college might have appreciated such a feature.

5: The Octagon House

Homes with hidden passageways often acquire new purposes as time passes, and the Octagon House in Fond du Lac, Wisconsin, is a prime example. Built in 1856 by trader Isaac Brown on the site of an established settlement and trading post, the house was designed with defense in mind. As the area drew settlers seeking work in industries like mining, lumber, and dairy, Brown worried about possible Native American attacks. To prepare, he constructed a 12-room house that functioned like a fort, complete with an 'Indian Lookout' room where he could keep watch. If an attack occurred, the family would need somewhere to hide, so Brown incorporated nine secret passageways and a hidden room next to the lookout room.

Brown later gave the home to his son, Edwin, as a wedding gift when Edwin became engaged to Ruth Pier. Shortly thereafter, during the turbulent years before the Civil War, the house took on a completely different function. It became a critical part of the Underground Railroad, a network that helped slaves escape to freedom. Wisconsin, which became a key stop on the route, saw the Octagon House host numerous runaway slaves passing through, with its hidden rooms and passageways offering sanctuary from pursuers.

During a renovation in 1975, the new owner of the Octagon House discovered yet another hidden feature — a secret underground tunnel believed to have been constructed specifically to help facilitate the escape of slaves. Today, visitors can tour this very tunnel and even see a message that a slave reportedly scrawled on the wall inside the hidden room.

4: The Gillette Castle

The 24-room Gillette Castle, perched high on a cliff overlooking the Connecticut River, was constructed in 1913 by William Gillette, a stage actor famous for his portrayal of Sherlock Holmes. Described by some as "ugly, excessive, and weird" and likened to a "ruined European castle," the mansion was built with fieldstone blocks hauled up the mountain by tramway. It was inspired by the medieval castles of Germany’s Rhineland [sources: Monagan, Old House Journal].

The actor and playwright seemed to have crafted his unique home with a theatrical touch. For instance, Gillette set up mirrors above the living room and bedroom windows, allowing him to watch his guests as they entered and to time his dramatic entrance down the staircase with precision. Similarly, the house allowed for his timely exit. In his private study, he installed a hidden door to flee to his workshop if an uninvited guest appeared unexpectedly.

Gillette had a penchant for spying on his guests, using hidden staircases and rooms, along with his clever mirror setup. He also loved to impress them with the home's eccentric features. During the Prohibition era, he designed a bar that could instantly disappear and lock itself, only to be reopened by pushing a secret lever. At parties, he enjoyed watching guests return to the bar, fumbling in vain to find the lever for a refill.

The peculiarities didn’t stop there. In his dining room, the table was on a track. Guests would sit on a wall-mounted bench, and the table would roll toward them, locking into place. When Gillette wanted dinner service, he'd step on a floorboard to ring for help. Throughout the house, small openings, about the size of a cat, were built into the walls to allow the family’s felines to move around freely, while outside, a full-scale train traversed the 125-acre estate [source: Vorhees et al].

In his will, Gillette made it clear that he didn’t want his property to fall into the hands of "some blithering saphead who has no conception of where he is." He passed away in 1937 at the age of 83, and in 1943, the state acquired the land for $30,000 to convert it into a state park [source: Monagan]. The quirky castle underwent renovations in 2002 at a cost of $5.9 million and was opened to the public [source: Old House Interiors].

3: Körner's Folly

Dubbed "The Strangest House in the World," Körner's Folly in Kernersville, North Carolina, takes the concept of an eccentric home to an entirely new level, with a staggering number of levels. The house, designed to showcase the skills of interior designer Jule Körner, features 22 rooms spread across seven levels and three floors. The 15 fireplaces are all uniquely designed, as are the doors. Room heights vary greatly, from just 6 feet (1.8 meters) in child-sized spaces to an impressive 25 feet (7.62 meters) in some adult gathering rooms [source: Salisbury Post].

Legend has it that a cousin or a neighbor remarked that the house would surely become "Körner's folly," a comment that delighted Körner so much that he had the phrase set in tile and displayed it as a name plaque outside the house. Körner began building the home when he was still a bachelor, and it was never meant to be a permanent residence. However, his plans changed after he married.

When it comes to secret rooms and passageways, Körner's Folly has them, but their functions are more whimsical than mysterious. The narrow corridors, some just 2 feet (61 centimeters) wide, are meant to connect various rooms and levels of the house. The underground passageway was designed to allow visitors to move between buildings on the property without getting wet or dirty during bad weather. The trap doors that visitors find so intriguing were originally part of an elaborate ventilation system intended to circulate air throughout the home. Somewhat less practical but equally fascinating are the nooks, crannies, and hidden cubbyholes, many of which are concealed behind curtains. Körner and his wife often hosted parties, and these secret hideaways allowed guests to slip away from the crowd and enjoy a private kiss!

2: The Coffin House

You might expect a house with a name like the Coffin House to be eerie, but in reality, it couldn’t be more welcoming.

Before the Civil War, Levi and Catharine Coffin found themselves unhappy in North Carolina because, as a married Quaker couple, they could not condone slavery. They chose to move to Newport, Indiana (now known as Fountain City), where they could live among like-minded individuals. There, they opened a general store and began building a home. However, this wasn’t just any home — it was specifically designed to serve as a safe house for slaves escaping along the Underground Railroad.

While Indiana was a free state, it was still illegal to harbor runaway slaves under federal law. Because of this, the Coffin House had to include hidden areas where slaves could take refuge until they were safe to continue their journey. A room in the back of the house was equipped with five different doors, ensuring that there were multiple escape routes for anyone who needed to leave in a hurry.

The house contained various secret spaces, including a small, cramped cubbyhole located off one of the bedrooms. This was where slaves would hide for as long as two weeks, escaping danger and recovering before continuing their journey. One of the slaves who took shelter in this tiny cubbyhole was a woman named Eliza, and her story was featured in Harriet Beecher Stowe's famous novel, "Uncle Tom's Cabin."

It is believed that the Coffins helped more than 2,000 runaway slaves during their time in Fountain City. Remarkably, every single person they assisted eventually reached freedom [source: Indiana Insider Blog]. Due to his remarkable work, Levi Coffin earned the title of "President of the Underground Railroad."

1: Winchester Mystery House

The Winchester Mansion in San Jose, California, is a prime example of architectural eccentricity. Its design was as unconventional as the reasons behind it. Spanning 38 years, Sarah Winchester, the heiress to the Winchester Rifle fortune, oversaw the creation of a mansion with an astounding 160 rooms. Among these were 40 bedrooms, 13 bathrooms, 40 staircases, and three elevators [source: Winchester Mystery House].

The 160-acre estate was not only a place for the mansion but also home to an orchard where Winchester grew nuts and fruits, which she sold under her own brand. She employed a team of eight gardeners who tended to the mansion's Victorian-style gardens. The gardens featured plants from all over the globe, along with numerous statues, mostly from Europe.

To the outside world, Sarah Winchester appeared industrious and practical, but inside her mansion, things took a more peculiar turn. Winchester believed she was haunted by the spirits of those killed by the Winchester repeating rifle. A medium once told her the only way to rid herself of these restless ghosts was to construct a house that would confuse them. The result was a labyrinthine structure, filled with rooms that had multiple exits, more than 450 doors, staircases that led to dead ends, hidden passageways, and twists and turns that made it unlike any other eccentric home on this list.

Following her passing, The American Weekly published this report in 1928 [source: Winchester Mystery House]:

"When Mrs. Winchester made her way to the Séance Room, it was said to be so perplexing that even the spirit of an Indian or a bloodhound would be discouraged from following her. She would navigate a seemingly endless maze of rooms and corridors, and then, with the push of a button, a panel would spring open, allowing her to swiftly move from one room to another. If the ghost wasn't paying close attention, it would lose her. Then, she would open a window, but instead of stepping into the open air, she'd find herself on top of a flight of stairs that led down one level, only to encounter another set of stairs that brought her back up to the same floor. This elaborate route was designed to confound any malevolent spirits, who, according to legend, were particularly wary of such traps."