Spite Houses Trivia Quiz

Answer: Built a seven foot wide house right across the alley

The alleyway between his home and the house on the other side was far too tempting a short cut for people to resist using it. The resulting sound caused by noisy pedestrians, and wagons lumbering up and down at all hours of the day and night, with their wheels gouging marks on his property, was finally too much for Hollensbury. Using the external walls of his house and his neighbour's home, both of which were opposite the alleyway, Hollensbury had a seven foot wide, two storey high, twenty-five feet long house built across that access way.

This extremely narrow home was still occupied by tenants in 2015 - complete with the gouges from the old wagon wheel marks now on its internal walls.

Answer: The Skinny House

Two brothers who lived at the North End in Boston during the latter part of the 1800s inherited a generous but shared parcel of land from their late father. Unfortunately at the time that the older man's death occurred, one of the brothers, a soldier, was away for a lengthy period with the military. On his return home, and to his understandable indignation, he found his sibling had built a huge mansion for himself on that property, so large that there was only a very narrow strip of land left for the soldier.

Not to be outdone by such greed and selfishness, the intrepid soldier had a house built on the remaining strip which was 10.4-foot wide at the front and 9.5-foot wide at the rear. This successfully blocked the sunlight and the view from being enjoyed by the mansion-owning brother. Today the Skinny House, as it was promptly called by all and sundry, can be found at 44 Hull Street, Boston - still occupied by tenants.

Answer: Built a very noisy tenement building right next door

The scenario: In 1880, Adam Schilling (very aptly named) owned 80 acres of land outside the town boundaries of Hiawatha, Kansas, and sold three-quarters of an acre of this land to one James Falloon who wanted to enjoy the serenity of rural surrounds. After Falloon had gone to all the trouble and expense of building a nice home for himself on that small allotment, the authorities in Hiawatha decided to extend the town's boundaries further. Schilling stood to make a massive killing as a result, but in his greed, he also wanted back the land he had sold to Falloon - offering him a very small sum for it.

When Falloon rightly refused, Schilling spitefully had a very noisy tenement building constructed only thirteen feet away from Falloon's home - filling it with the most disreputable and noisy tenants he could possibly find.

Answer: Five

Known as the Richardson Spite House, this building was eventually demolished in 1915. The story behind its construction in 1882 was a failed business deal with the owner of the land next door, Hyman Sarner. Sarner wanted to build a sumptuous apartment building on the two properties once he had purchased the property owned by Joseph Richardson. Sarner however only offered $1,000 for Richardson's land, whereas Richardson wanted $5,000. Both sums were quite hefty for the times.

After much wrangling, where neither parties refused to budge over the sums involved, the deal fell through.

The angry Richardson then promptly had his own apartment building erected on his property - but though it was four stories high, and comfortable wide at the front, it only extended five feet to the rear. So small in fact were the eight "suites" contained within, that they each only had three rooms and a bath.

Answer: The width of a standard stairway

Can you believe that? Such craziness. The story behind this spite house's construction occurred when a Connecticut butcher had a fight with his neighbour. Enraged and wishing to vent his spleen, the vindictive butcher built a two storey construction between their two properties that was only the width of a standard stairway - and with every window covered by closed venetian blinds.

This completely blocked his neighbour from ever daring to gaze at the butcher's property again. Well, that is, until the butcher passed away at any rate.

When the butcher's time on earth was up and he met his chop, the butcher's son, who had no quarrels with the neighbours, had the spite house demolished.

Answer: Built a house on a triangular block of land

That's just a tiny bit amusing, and that rather appealing Victorian design house in Freeport, New York is still standing in 2015 and still on its triangular block of land. The most intriguing thing about this spite house builder's opposition to grid line construction, and his subsequent triangular building erected to frustrate the town planners, is that the state of New York itself could be said to also have a triangular shape. That apple certainly didn't fall far from the tree.

Answer: The church had refused to erect a much smaller monument

Joseph Edelston had been attending that church for forty-one years, and no doubt over that time had donated a sizable portion of his money and time to same. Yet, on his death early in the twentieth century, the church officials refused to allow his family to build and pay for a small monument on church grounds in memory of their father.

They stated that there was no room BUT that the family could donate Joseph's land to the church and then build a monument on a small part of it instead. Oh, that's terrible.

The outraged family promptly set about building a new home on Joseph's land next to the church, and then erected a forty foot tall monument to their father right next to the boundary line between the two properties. That's justifiable monucide.

Answer: Twelve inches

That's a little too close for comfort. Particularly following a dispute. Yet that is what took place following an argument between two men in Virginia City, Nevada, in the 1950s. When one of the men subsequently bought a new lot of land and began building a new home there, the other immediately bought the lot next door and built his own new home there - twelve inches away.

It completely blocked the view from, and the breeze to, his former friend's home. What a spiteful thing to do. If they had kissed and made up, think how easy it would have been to borrow a cup of sugar, but there is no record of them doing so. That new house, known as the Virginia City Spite House, was still occupied in 2015.

Answer: Purple with yellow polka dots

Lubbock, Texas, saw a landlord there renting out four rooms to four struggling Texas University Technology students in order for them to have affordable accommodation - and for himself to make a spot of money on the side. When the city authorities heard of this in 2001, the landlord was cited for violating city rules that stated not more than two unrelated people could share the same accommodation at any one time. Lord bless us, that's a bit tough.

But still, that is what took place. In retaliation, over the next few years, the landlord and his students painted the house in increasingly bright colours, culminating, when last reported, in purple, with yellow polka dots - some of which included smiley faces.

Answer: He modified his house to look like a pig

Believe it or not that's what he did, and that house, in a city not far from where I was born, was immediately dubbed the Pig House from that point on. This man, whom I most sincerely hope wasn't a relative, not only painted his house a bright pink, he also decorated it up with pig apparel - complete with a snout, ears and a curly tail.