9.
Bizarre Birthday House
Where would we be without Reddit?
It’s shone a light on all kinds of strange things from all around the world we probably
wouldn’t get to see otherwise.
A classic example of this dates back to 2009 when one intrepid user ventured into an abandoned
mansion that was close to his neighborhood around the area of Long Island.
Why was it abandoned?
Nobody knows why someone would abandon a place like this.
The property looked like somebody had last lived in it during the late 20th century.
Evidence suggested the residents had vacated the property in the mid-1990s.
So, what do you discover when you go into a dilapidated house after over a decade of
neglect?
A birthday celebration is what!
When we say birthday celebration, we’re not talking about the usual balloons, candles,
and a cake.
Instead, the freaked-out Reddit user found a bedroom strewn with birthday cards on the
second floor.
These were all addressed to an individual named “Eric”.
Even stranger is the handwriting on the cards.
Could the same person have written all of these cards to the mysterious Eric?
We’re getting definite ‘The Shining’ vibes here, people.
By this time, the amateur explorer must have been feeling pretty unnerved.
They’d already seen what looked like signs of recent human habitation, and not from the
original owners.
He began hearing strange noises and investigated.
His worries were once confirmed when he went up the stairs to the next floor.
A filthy human being came out from behind a door and started towards him, dragging himself
along and making zombie-type noises!
Was this Eric?
How did this person wind up in such a desperate situation?
The Reddit explorer didn’t stay to find out, and we don’t blame them.
He bolted from the room and headed downstairs and out the door.
We hope “Eric” is okay and that, wherever he is, he’s having a Happy Birthday.
8.
Ashlar Hall To say this next mansion is strange is an
understatement.
What, another mansion?
But this is truly a different type of mansion.
Robert Brinkley Snowden originally constructed, as a mock castle, Ashlar Hall in Memphis during
the late 19th century.
With a reported cost of around $768,000, the interior of the house was about 11,000 square
feet (1,022 sq m), and surrounded by a property of no less than 3,000 acres, it was certainly
a spectacular sight both inside and out.
Ashlar Hall may have gotten its name from Ashlar Stone, but its ownership wasn’t as
solid as a rock.
After Brinkley Snowden’s passing, the family eventually sold it to new owners, and it wound
up as a restaurant.
A pretty impressive place to eat your dinner.
We’re sure you’ll agree.
But now we flash forward several decades and things have changed somewhat.
Throughout the 1990s, the property was owned by wealthy local man Robert Hodges.
Hodges had political ambitions and had become known for throwing his hat in the ring during
mayoral contests.
You certainly can’t miss him, because he looks like a character from a fantasy novel!
The self-styled steampunk politician calls himself Prince Mongo and claims to be from
a planet called Zambodia.
He also states that he’s over 300 years old, though, in fairness, that applies to
a lot of politicians.
What did he do with Ashlar Hall…?
Well, he transformed it into a nightclub called The Castle, or Prince Mongo’s Castle.
By the close of the 20th century, the party was over, and it sounded like quite a party,
with wet t-shirt contests and everything that might make the original owner spinning in
his grave!
A story from 2020 revealed that those going inside the property could make some strange
discoveries, though you would no doubt have to be careful when doing so.
One of these random finds was Prince Mongo’s old reel-to-reel tape recorder, which you’d
probably have a tough time finding out how to operate the machine now.
At present, the mock castle is still abandoned, though a few people have made some attempts
to renovate it.
7.
Submerged tank
What would you do if you were a kid, and you saw some major vehicle tracks leading toward
a lake?
You’d probably be pretty intrigued, right?
Then imagine if you looked across the water and suddenly bubbles began forming on the
surface.
Is it a sea monster?
Or is it connected to those tracks there?
Being a kid, you may be fascinated, but chances are you’d forget about it once the next
cool thing comes along a little later.
That’s exactly what happened to a boy who lived in Estonia toward the end of World War
II, in 1944.
The lake was in the area of Jõhvi, a town to the northeast in what’s known as Ida-Viru
County.
While the kid didn’t mention it at the time, the details stayed with him as he spilled
the beans a little later on down the line.
And when we say down the line, we mean down the line.
He told his story over half a century later in the year 2000!
Because he reportedly told a local history society about the sight, interest was naturally
high.
They went down to the lake and investigated for themselves.
Diving into the water, they discovered something strange and very cool…
well, freezing cold if you were in the lake, I guess.
The tracks belonged to a Soviet T-34/76 tank that had been abandoned during the conflict.
Who abandoned it?
Not the Soviets, that’s for sure.
The Nazis had appropriated this enemy war machine and given it their own markings.
Then, when it looked like they were getting beat, they drove it into the drink and ran
off.
As you can imagine, the tank took some recovery efforts.
It weighed around 27 tons (27,000 kg) and was located 23 feet (7 m) down.
Once you reached it, there was a 10-foot (3 m) layer of crud to dig through!
It just goes to show how even the most destructive world events leave behind traces of history.
Still, this wasn’t so much a trace as an armored chunk!
6.
Casa Sperimentale
We typically associate tree houses with kids, but this example is also for grown-ups.
Constructed in a surprising Brutalist style, Casa Sperimentale, which translates as “Experimental
House,” was the brainchild of Giuseppe Perugini, who built it with help from his family back
in the 1960s.
He potentially designed it as a holiday home, somewhere for the clan to kick back and live
high within a pine forest in the Italian town of Fregne, Rome.
This eye-catching blend of shapes must have been quite the place to flop.
And best of all, Casa Sperimentale is truly tucked away, making its discovery by the outside
world even more special.
Sadly, the death of Mr. Perugini in the mid-1990s led to the treehouse falling into disrepair.
Nobody has found a use for it at this point, and the clock is ticking when it comes to
a renovation.
At this rate, we’re probably talking about a rescue attempt!
Tell me about a treehouse or a fort you had as a kid in the comments.
Be sure to subscribe and hit that like button!
5.
Beriev Be-6
What better monument to a vintage plane than the plane itself?
Situated in the city of Myrnyi in Ukraine, and positioned on what looks like a concrete
base, the Soviet seaplane Beriev Be-6 is in a broken-down state but still looks kind of
impressive.
We should call this twin-engine relic by its nickname, which is reportedly Madge.
Hey, how’s it going Madge!?
She seems to have had a pretty rough ride, falling onto her nose from the platform at
one point and giving locals a scare.
Her rightful position is with her nose pointing to the sky, even though this class of plane
hasn’t flown since the late 1960s.
It wasn’t a long career amongst the clouds for Madge, either.
Reports state she first took off approx 20 years earlier.
Built by the Beriev Design Bureau, the Be-6 was used for reconnaissance, observation,
and research, though it had other uses.
We don’t recommend trying to climb aboard this flight, though it’s a living reminder
of the area’s military past.
Genuine history in action type stuff!
We should also point out that the Be-6 isn’t officially classified as abandoned.
That said, it looks very abandoned to us.
4.
Abandoned Farmhouse
Farmers are a hardy bunch, so it must take something strange for someone to just abandon
their farmhouse with a ton of stuff inside.
This former home in the picturesque setting of Yorkshire, England, became famous via the
YouTube exploration channel Bearded Reality in 2021.
Two fearless adventurers snuck a peek inside and filmed the results for all to see.
We probably won’t know why the property came to be abandoned, but it’s a classic
example of someone dropping everything and scooting at a moment’s notice.
For all intents and purposes, it looks like the owner needed to leave behind an extensive
and potentially valuable assortment of food, household appliances, antiques, and paintings.
One notable detail about the abandoned Yorkshire farmhouse is its enormous collection of toys.
Check out this freaky doll, which looks like something out of Fraggle Rock!
Though in fairness, it’s probably the ravages of time that left it that way.
How long has the house been deserted?
It’s all very ambiguous, and that only adds to the mystery.
3.
Trash lottery ticket
A decade or so ago, a woman named Sharon took some abandoned lottery tickets from the trash
of a convenience store in Arkansas.
In true rags to riches type fairytale, she happened upon a lottery ticket worth $1,000,000
and figured the money was hers to spend.
On hearing the news, the store begged to differ, and legal action ensued.
Who bought the ticket in the first place?
Another lady, who strangely was also named Sharon!
Pretty crazy, huh?
News about the legal action reached the other Sharon, let’s call her Sharon no.1, who
also got involved in trying to claim the million-dollar fortune back.
This is one of those cases that seem straightforward in one sense, yet is quite complicated in
another.
Sharon 1 discarded the ticket when told it wasn’t a winner.
So did that mean it entitled her to the money?
What rights did the store manager, who began legal proceedings in the first place, have
in this situation?
Did Sharon no.2 do the right thing in not only taking the ticket but also spending approx
half the $1,000,000 according to reports?
A judge ruled that Sharon 2 should give the money back to Sharon 1.
They settled out of court, the details of which were kept confidential.
A cautionary tale of looking through trash for possible treasure!
Who do you think should get to keep the cash?
2.
Villa de Vecchi
Translated as “the old house”, Villa de Vecchi is a mid-19th-century mansion near
Lake Como in the mountainous regions of Northern Italy.
They built the old house for Count Felix de Vecchi with the architect Alessandro Sidoli,
who used Baroque and Classical Eastern designs to create a sumptuous summer retreat for the
Count and his family.
Set in approx 13,993 square feet (130,000 sq m) of parkland, it’s the perfect spot
to get away from it all.
Sadly, it also became a crime scene in 1862.
Reports state that the Count found his wife dead, having been murdered.
On top of this tragedy, he couldn’t find his daughter.
After a fruitless search, he took his own life.
This contributed to an overall image of the mansion as a supernatural place.
Architect Sidoli had passed away before the Villa De Vecchi was finished, though, in fairness,
this probably wasn’t because of anything suspicious.
More interesting are accounts of music coming from the abandoned property, despite the family’s
grand piano being long since destroyed.
Did the mansion become a venue for sinister occult practices, as some rumors have said?
Another name Villa De Vecchi goes by is Casa Delle Streghe, or the House of Witches!
Following the Count’s death, his brother Biago took over, and the place seemed relatively
alright for a few decades.
The family departed around the time of the Second World War and the mansion was deemed
abandoned a couple of decades after.
We’re fairly certain the house isn’t haunted, though we’re in no hurry to go there and
find out.
Even if you don’t believe in the supernatural, the state of the mansion is enough to give
you the creeps anyhow.
Vandals have very much taken center stage since Villa de Vecchi stopped being a haunt
for the great and good!
1.
Welcome to Hell…
Ingly Hospital This abandoned psychiatric hospital in the
woodland of East Sussex, England, sure looks spooky and strange in its neglected state.
What used to be known as the County Lunatic Asylum, back in the days before people had
a true awareness of mental health, and then Hellingly Hospital stood for some decades
following its closure in the mid-1990s.
It had been treating patients since 1903 and was designed by George Thomas Hine.
The combination of history and a dramatic setting naturally led to the abandoned property
being documented by urban explorers and the like.
Found close to the town of Hailsham, the old Hellingly Hospital wasn’t somewhere you
wanted to be alone at night.
The potential for old and disturbed ghosts is high.
As it turns out, the location isn’t as terrifying as it seems.
It’s well known that the hospital probably looked after its patients well.
The administration encouraged dancing as therapy and the place even had a hair salon.
So this wasn’t some rusty and dangerous asylum of old.
Though traces of outdated attitudes to mental health remain, the name of the organization
that opened the hospital was the “Commissioners in Lunacy”!
They renamed the County Lunatic Asylum Hellingly Hospital in 1948.
Britain was changing, with the founding of the NHS being just one step forward.
Today the Hellingly medical center serves the community’s needs, and the area has
been redeveloped, though old remnants can still be seen.
Thanks for watching!
Which of these strange places would you most like to visit?
Let us know in the comments.
Be sure to subscribe, and see you soon.