A spite house is a home built, moved or altered mainly to annoy a neighbor: to block their light, their view, their breeze or their way through. They are some of the strangest buildings in America, and the grudges behind them tend to outlive the people who held them.
Virginia City, Nevada has one of the most famous. Two houses stand less than 12 inches apart, so close that one roofline wraps around the other. The house sits in the old Comstock mining district, where deep shafts and tunnels reached thousands of feet underground and miners faced extreme heat, flooding and fatal accidents.
This guide covers what spite houses are, why people build them, where the famous ones are, and which have a haunted reputation. Then it takes a closer look at Virginia City's Spite House and the mines around it, which may be the real reason the town is called one of the most haunted places in America.
Why do spite houses exist?
Nearly every spite house starts with a grudge over land. The most common reasons are:
- Feuds between neighbors, often after one refused to sell a strip of land or offered too little for it.
- Inheritance fights, where a sibling or stepparent got the family home and someone else built next to it out of resentment.
- Blocking sunlight, views or breezes, in an attempt to make the neighboring property less pleasant to live in.
- Protests against the government, when a city took land for a road and left the owner a useless sliver.
- Divorce and family conflict.
Spite houses are much rarer than spite fences. A fence is cheap and fast, while a house costs real money and has to pass building codes. That is part of why the ones that exist are so memorable: someone was angry enough to pay for a whole building.
Building rules and nuisance laws can limit what an owner is allowed to construct; a spite-house story is not a guide to what is legally permitted today.
Famous spite houses in America and around the world
One of the oldest buildings commonly called an American spite house dates to 1716, and several from the 1800s are still lived in today. Here are some of the best-known examples, listed from the most recent story to the oldest building. These are commonly repeated origin stories; several remain disputed. The dates and summaries follow the overview linked in the sources below.
| Spite house | Location | Built / story date | The grudge | Today |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Virginia City Spite House | Virginia City, Nevada | 1950s (legend says the mining era) | A rival moved a house onto the next lot, less than 12 inches away, to block his neighbor's light and breeze | Standing, private homes |
| Kavanagh Building | Buenos Aires, Argentina | 1934 | Corina Kavanagh built the tower to overshadow the church of the Anchorena family, who refused a marriage into their family | Standing |
| Montlake Spite House | Seattle, Washington | 1925 | Built after a neighbor made a lowball offer on the land | Standing, lived in |
| Sam Kee Building | Vancouver, Canada | 1913 | The city took most of Sam Kee's lot for a street, so he built on the sliver left | Standing |
| Cambridge Spite House | Cambridge, Massachusetts | 1908 | Francis O'Reilly built it after a neighbor refused to buy his land | Standing |
| Alameda Spite House | Alameda, California | about 1900 | Charles Froling built it after the city took his land for a street | Standing |
| Richardson Spite House | New York City | 1882 | Joseph Richardson built it after a neighbor offered too little for his strip | Demolished 1915 |
| Skinny House | Boston, Massachusetts | 1874 | A brother built it on a sliver of inherited land to block his brother's sunlight | Standing |
| Hollensbury Spite House | Alexandria, Virginia | 1830 | John Hollensbury closed off an alley to stop wagons and loiterers | Standing |
| McCobb Spite House | Phippsburg, Maine | 1806 | Thomas McCobb built a grander house after his stepmother inherited the family mansion | Moved to Rockport in 1925 |
| Marblehead Spite House | Marblehead, Massachusetts | 1716 | Said to come from a family feud or inheritance dispute | Standing, lived in |
What makes Virginia City's Spite House unusual is that it sits in a town whose whole history is built on mining, money and death.
Are spite houses haunted?
Spite houses make compelling settings for ghost stories. The reasoning follows a common idea in ghost lore: places tied to intense emotion, conflict and unfinished business are the ones most often reported as haunted.
Spite-house folklore is built from exactly that. They exist because of anger that was never resolved, and they stand for decades as monuments to it. When investigators look at a home like this, they watch for the same signs reported in other haunted places:
- Feeling unwelcome or watched in narrow, dark rooms
- Sounds through shared or nearly shared walls that no one can trace
- Cold spots in rooms that get little sunlight by design
Virginia City's Spite House adds something the others lack: it stands in a town already known for the dead it left behind, and our team has investigated it firsthand.
The Virginia City Spite House: history and legend
Virginia City's Spite House is a pair of houses on D Street, a short walk from the Mackay Mansion. The two buildings stand less than 12 inches apart, and the roofline of one wraps around the other. Both are private homes, so the house is best seen from the street.
The competing accounts. A widely repeated version dates the feud to the 1950s: one neighbor built a new house, and the other built on the next lot to take away his view and breeze. Other accounts connect the houses with the mining era. These conflicting versions should be treated as stories about the property rather than a settled construction chronology.
The local legend. Local lore tells an older version set in the mining boom: two miners fell out. The first built a white house with windows on every side to catch light and air. His enemy bought the lot next door, moved a house onto it and set it right on the property line. That cut off the light and breeze on one whole side of the white house.
Why it still matters. Whether the feud happened in the 1870s or the 1950s, the Spite House sits in the heart of the Comstock. The Mackay Mansion down the street was the office of the Gould & Curry Mining Company and later belonged to John Mackay, the richest man the Comstock produced. Everything around the Spite House was built on money from the mines below. Read our full history of the Mackay Mansion or watch our live Mackay Mansion investigation from October 22, 2026.
The Comstock mines: why Virginia City may be so haunted
The Spite House stands in the Comstock mining district, where deep mining brought serious risks. Virginia City grew on top of the Comstock Lode, the huge silver and gold deposit found in 1859 and credited to Peter O'Riley and Patrick McLaughlin. By the mid-1870s the town had more than 25,000 people, and the ground under and around it was cut through with shafts and tunnels.
How deep and how hot
- Over 3,000 feet down. The Combination Shaft, started in 1875, reached 3,250 feet, at the time the second-deepest shaft in the world (Las Vegas Review-Journal).
- About 130°F at the bottom. Hot springs inside the rock heated the deep levels. Miners worked about 30 minutes, then rested in "ice rooms" to cool off. They were nicknamed "hot water plugs."
- Scalding water. Breaking through rock could release steam and hot water into the tunnels. Adolph Sutro dug a nearly four-mile tunnel, finished in 1879, to drain the flooded lower levels.
The dead of the Comstock
- The Yellow Jacket fire, April 7, 1869. A fire started 800 feet underground in the Yellow Jacket Mine in Gold Hill, about 1.5 miles south of Virginia City. Smoke and poisonous gas spread into the Kentuck and Crown Point mines. About 37 miners died, and some bodies were never recovered. We cover the disaster in depth in our article on the haunted Gold Hill Hotel and the Yellow Jacket mine fire.
- Steady accidents. One study of the Comstock mines counted 12 accidents in August 1877 alone, killing 6 men and injuring 9 (John A. Church, 1880).
- Slow deaths too. Many miners developed silicosis from rock dust.
- The Great Fire of 1875. On October 26, 1875, fire swept through Virginia City, destroying about three-quarters of the town and leaving around 2,000 people homeless.
Why the mines matter for a haunting
Paranormal investigators often look at what lies under and around a building, not just its own story. The Spite House sits on hillside ground above the Comstock workings, in a neighborhood built by the mining companies. Men died in fires, cave-ins, floods and heat throughout the mining district, and some were never brought back to the surface. Our own investigations have explored that connection: at the Crown Point Mill in Gold Hill, team members reported dizziness and a strong sense of influence during our 2025 investigations.
Ghost lore often links hauntings with sudden, violent and unresolved deaths. For investigators, the Spite House brings together two powerful stories: a neighbor's grudge and the human cost of the Comstock mines. That connection is an interpretation of the site's history, not proof that a mine death caused a haunting or that a particular shaft runs directly beneath the home.
Our live investigation of the Spite House
On November 5, 2026, Tim Wood, psychic Lillian Alquist and the LiveSciFi team investigated the Spite House live on In Search of the Paranormal LIVE. Watch the full Spite House replay and decide for yourself what was captured.
Explore more of haunted Virginia City:
- Mackay Mansion: haunted history of Virginia City and our live Mackay Mansion investigation
- Crown Point Mill: Gold Hill history and paranormal investigation, with episodes on the blood-offering ritual and Ouija session and the seven-spirit ritual and EVP playback
- Haunted Gold Hill Hotel and the Yellow Jacket mine fire
- Old Washoe Club: history, hauntings and EVP evidence
- Silver Queen Hotel: haunted history and Rosie's ghost
- Virginia City named America's most haunted town in 2026
- All haunted locations
Visiting. The Spite House is a private home on D Street, a short walk from the Mackay Mansion. View it from the street and respect the residents' privacy.
Spite house FAQ
What is a spite house?
A building put up or changed mainly to annoy a neighbor, usually by blocking their light, view, breeze or access.
Why are spite houses built?
Most come from land disputes, inheritance fights, lowball offers or anger at a city for taking land.
Where is the Spite House in Virginia City, Nevada?
On D Street, a short walk from the Mackay Mansion. It is a private home and can be seen from the street.
How close are the Virginia City spite houses?
Less than 12 inches apart. One roofline wraps around the other.
What is the most famous spite house in America?
Boston's Skinny House (1874) and the Hollensbury Spite House in Alexandria, Virginia (1830) are among the best known.
Is the Virginia City Spite House haunted?
It has a haunted reputation, and our team investigated it live on November 5, 2026. Watch the replay to assess the investigation for yourself. The surrounding Comstock mining district has a history of fatal fires and accidents; that history alone does not establish a haunting.
How deep are the mines under Virginia City?
The Combination Shaft reached 3,250 feet. Historical accounts describe temperatures around 130°F in the deep Comstock workings.
Sources
- Spite house — Wikipedia (overview of famous examples and competing origin stories).
- Virginia City “Spite House” — Nevada Ghost Towns & Beyond (photographs and the local miner legend).
- Combination Shaft historical marker (depth, geothermal heat and mining history).
- A History of the Comstock Silver Lode & Mines — Dan De Quille (historical mining account).
- John A. Church, Accidents in the Comstock Mines and Their Relation to Deep Mining, 1880.
- Storey County Chamber: Spite House Picture Gallery & Framing (the gallery began in the historic home; its current C Street shop is a separate location).