sowden house haunted

Andrew Pielage

Sowden House: Inside The Mysterious Black Dahlia House in Los Angeles

The Sowden House has almost as many nicknames as it had owners, and its sordid history is almost enough to overshadow the home’s incredible architecture and extraordinary design. There’s no disputing that the Sowden showpiece is truly a spectacle in its own right. It’s textile block construction and Mayan influence was way ahead of its time and never fully appreciated until years after it was built. Although the home’s aesthetic initially received criticism, the Sowden House Los Angeles has become one of the most renowned and influential pieces of the 20 th century. The Sowden House gained even more notoriety in 1947 after being the site where the Black Dahlia murder allegedly took place. Hence the reason it’s often referred to as the “Black Dahlia House.”

The home has been the subject of multiple dark and twisted claims over the years but seems to only add to the public’s growing interest in the property. It’s even considered a historical-cultural monument. Whether you’re drawn to its stunning style or its morbid backstory, this house is one you just can’t miss.

Sowden House Los Angeles

Located at 5121 Franklin Avenue in Los Angeles, the Sowden House is a landmark due to its unique architecture and a history of disturbing events that allegedly took place there. The home’s original owner was John Sowden, a man who enlisted the help of architect Lloyd Wright to design a one-of-a-kind estate that was built for entertaining. Wright delivered a true work of art with his Mayan revival-inspired concept and intricate attention to detail.

The front entrance is both enticing and frankly, downright menacing. Constructed in 1926, the front of the building somewhat resembles the open mouth of a shark and for that reason, it is often referred to as the “Jaws House”. The 5,600 square foot house in Los Angeles featured seven bedrooms and four baths before several renovations that resulted in a spacious open kitchen, updated bathrooms and a spa with a pool in the central courtyard. A unique pattern of concrete blocks makes the distinct property stand out above the rest. Copper gates, an elaborate staircase, and an immaculate living room space are even more reason to be in awe of this house.

Due to its reputation in the media, Sowden House Los Feliz has become quite a tourist spot for those who visit California. It has appeared in a number of films including L.A. Confidential and The Aviator by famed filmmaker Martin Scorsese. The house was also featured in the television series about the Black Dahlia murder, I Am The Night , starring Chris Pine.

There used to be John Sowden House tour options, but now that it’s privately owned, tours of the residence are unlikely. Although you might not get a glimpse of the interior these days, it’s worth taking a trip just to get a view of the remarkable property from afar. Many tourists can’t resist visiting the Sowden house to view the stunning architectural masterpiece in person.

Black Dahlia House

In addition to being known as the Sowden House, the Los Angeles mansion’s frightening connection to grisly crimes gives it a reputation as the “Black Dahlia House”. There are a zillion Soden House Black Dahlia rumors, and the property has likely been the scene of various illegal activities and even murders. Much more on that a bit later.

The Sowden House basement is where Dr. George Hodel is believed to have assaulted and murdered his victims, including Elizabeth Short of the Black Dahlia case. According to a book published by Hodel’s son, the house contained a “floor-to-ceiling bookcase that concealed a secret room, accessible only to those who knew how to open the hidden door.” The Sowden House floor plan doesn’t depict any such room, but there are so many mysterious aspects of the home that anything is possible. Frank Lloyd Wright was known for his complex designs, so a secret room really wouldn’t be out of the realm of possibility.

The Black Dahlia Murder

The particularly heinous murder of Elizabeth Short is a tragic story that continues to be an unsolved crime. Commonly referred to by the media as The Black Dahlia murder, the story leaves many questions marks that remain a mystery.

Warning: The following may be disturbing to some readers.

On January 15, 1947, the naked and mutilated body of Elizabeth Short was discovered in Los Angeles. Her corpse was sliced into two pieces from the waist and her face had been disfigured. Her body had slashes and cuts all over it, as well as full pieces of flesh removed. The way the body was severed led investigators to believe that the culprit was someone who had medical knowledge. The victim had been identified as Short and the media went into a frenzy by sensationalizing headlines and even fabricating stories.

The alleged killer taunted investigators with menacing phone calls and by mailing them a package of Short’s personal belongings. The murderer was thorough in covering his tracks and never left fingerprints on any of the evidence, making it more difficult to figure out his identity. There were various suspects and false confessions to being the Black Dahlia murderer over the years, but none were deemed credible. It wasn’t until decades later that Dr. George Hodel was even considered a suspect, although he was never formally charged with the crime.

Detective Steve Hodel, George Hodel’s son, believes that his father was responsible for the Black Dahlia murder as well as multiple other murders and crimes during the 1940s, including the mysterious death of the doctor’s own secretary, Ruth Spaulding. George Hodel fled to the Philippines in 1950 until his death in 1999. While all signs point to him committing a string of horrific crimes, they all continue to be unsolved, including the infamous Black Dahlia murder.

Who Owns John Sowden House?

The John Sowden house has had a series of owners over the years. After only living in the house for four years, Sowden sold the home to Ruth Rand Barnett in 1930. The house was also sold in 1936 and 1944. From 1945 to 1950, Dr. George Hodel owned the house and allegedly committed a number of gruesome crimes at the residence, including the infamous Black Dahlia murder that went on to be one of the most heinous unsolved mysteries in history.

Over the next several decades the John Sowden house would have several more owners, including the prestigious Mazur Family who purchased the home in 1974. Then things took an interesting turn in 2001 when a designer named Xorin Balbes acquired the property for $1.2 million and put it through two rigorous renovations worth $1.6 million in 2002 and 2009.

Most recently, the Sowden House was sold in 2018 for $4.7 million to a man named Dan Goldfarb who owns a lucrative business making cannabis-infused products for pets. He shares the home with his wife and their Persian cat. He also has big plans for the property – including creating a “cannabis oasis” in the home and using it to host lavish company events.

Who Was John Sowden?

John Sowden was a retired painter and photographer who wanted to build a home where he and his wife Ruth could entertain guests by throwing parties and putting on amateur theatrical displays. John and Ruth Sowden commissioned the help of their friend Lloyd Wright (son of famed architect Frank Lloyd Wright) to construct a magnificent mansion that would become an iconic landmark for years to come. Other acclaimed properties designed by the Wrights include the Ennis House and the Hollyhock House in Los Angeles, but none are nearly as famous as the Sowden House.

Dr George Hodel House

The most controversial inhabitant of The Sowden House was Dr. George Hodel, a prominent gynecologist who lived in the home from 1945 until fleeing the country in 1950. Hodel was accused of doing a long list of sinister acts inside the confines of the Sowden mansion. Most notably, Hodel was the prime suspect of the 1949 murder of Elizabeth Short, also referred to as The Black Dahlia, and name the media used that quickly caught on. Although he was never convicted, there has been substantial evidence pointing to his guilt in the horrific crime, as well as many other murders in the area at the time.

Two of Hodel’s biggest opponents were none other than his own children. Hodel’s daughter, Tamar, escaped the house in 1949 after accusing her father and others of sexually assaulting her during one of the many parties he would throw at the estate. From there, authorities found evidence that led them to believe that Dr. Hodel was also a murderer. George’s son Steve, a retired cop for the LAPD, discovered several items after his father’s death that he believed belonged to his victims, including photos of the Black Dahlia. Various other acquaintances and regular partygoers further confirmed that Hodel participated in sadistic acts while at the home, and in 2013 cadaver dogs discovered that human remains were once present on the property.

https://www.nytimes.com/2019/05/22/style/sowden-house-lloyd-wright.html

https://www.atlasobscura.com/places/john-sowden-house

https://la.curbed.com/2011/3/15/10477822/black-dahlia-secret-rooms-at-lloyd-wrights-los-feliz-sowden-house

https://www.lamag.com/culturefiles/sowden-house-sale/

https://www.dwell.com/article/lloyd-wright-sowden-house-dan-goldfarb-ae5f222c

https://www.hollywoodreporter.com/news/inside-i-am-nights-sowden-house-1178234

https://www.architecturaldigest.com/story/the-murder-and-mystery-built-into-the-lush-luxurious-sets-of-tnts-i-am-the-night

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_Sowden_House

.css-16urd06{margin:0;font-family:Roboto,sans-serif;font-weight:400;font-size:1rem;line-height:1.5;} .css-1eo6nkc{color:rgb(0, 0, 238);font-size:24px;-webkit-text-decoration:underline;text-decoration:underline;cursor:pointer;} Carissa Moore

Carissa is a freelance writer from Boston. She loves her husband, her two kids, coffee, country music, and golden retrievers. While she’s comfortable creating content of all kinds, her passion for all things pop culture drove her to a career in Entertainment writing.

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The sordid and possibly murderous secrets of the Sowden House

A short history of the Lloyd Wright-designed fortress

From any room one could step into a central courtyard full of exotic foliage and beautiful giant cactus plants reaching straight into the sky. Once inside this remarkable house one found oneself in absolute privacy, invisible to the outside world. — Steve Hodel

It has been a source of mystery and chatter since its construction in 1926. The enigmatic Sowden House is an anomaly on otherwise charming and SoCal-bright Franklin Avenue in Los Feliz. Designed by Lloyd Wright , the Mayan Revival style house has been called “cultic,” “brooding,” “a gothic pile out of ‘Vathek,’” like “ Raiders of the Lost Ark ,” and the “Jaws house.” In recent years it has gained a new, much darker notoriety—as the alleged murderous lair of the Black Dahlia ’s killer.

This story is essentially a story of fathers and sons. In the late 1910s, the young architect Lloyd Wright came to Los Angeles at the request of his father, the legendary Frank Lloyd Wright. Over the next few years, the younger Wright worked with his father on many commissions, including Los Feliz's famous Hollyhock House . In 1924, the elder Wright left LA, telling his son , “I'm fed up here. You're young enough to take Los Angeles.” Take Los Angeles Lloyd did.

Determined to emerge from his father's shadow, Lloyd Wright would go on to a distinguished career, designing avant-garde orchestral shells for the Hollywood Bowl , and creating spectacular buildings like Wayfarer's Chapel in Palos Verdes, the Samuel-Novarro House in Los Feliz, and the Otto Bollman House in the Hollywood Hills.

During the 1920s, Los Feliz was a flower-filled enclave of silent movie stars and middle-class professionals. Retired artist John Sowden and his wife Ruth commissioned Lloyd to design a unique showplace where they could throw parties and put on amateur theatrics.

The result was a Mayan Revival-style fortress, complete with a stage, secret room, central courtyard, and ornamented concrete blocks. The blocks were actually an improvement on the senior Wright's experiments with the form (seen at the nearby Ennis House ), leading him to praise his son's “treatment of the block that preserves the plastic properties of concrete as material.”

The unique house quickly became a Los Angeles curio. In a 1938 article in the Los Angeles Times , a writer profiled the home, which “sure makes persons from the hinterland stop and stare on their trip to Hollywood”. According to the Times :

“It's the sculptural style of architecture,” explains Mr. [Lloyd] Wright. Sculptural architecture, it seems, fits the building right into the landscape. One of the striking features of the Franklin Avenue structure is the mass of stone and cement which project out from the roof line. “My goodness, I wouldn't want to live in a place like that,” one viewer gasped. “That darned stuff might come tumbling down on you while you was trying to open them gates to get in the house.” “Them gates," are huge, iron affairs constituting what would be the door into an ordinary home. There is no danger of the mass of stone and cement tumbling down. The entire building is constructed of steel placed both horizontally and vertically.

In 1945, Dr. George Hodel purchased the already iconic house, which was so confusing to most average mortals. There was nothing average about Hodel. The suave, brilliant doctor's VD clinic catered to many elite Angelenos, and his friends included Surrealist artist Man Ray and director John Huston.

Hodel moved into the “gothic pile” on Franklin and his ex-wife Dorothy and their children soon joined him. Hodel's son Steven remembered the magic of growing up in the labyrinth-like home:

Once through the gate, you turned immediately to your right and continued up a dark passageway, then made another right turn to the front door. It was like entering a cave with secret stone tunnels, within which only the initiated could feel comfortable. All others proceeded with great caution, not knowing which way to turn. Growing up in that house, my brothers and I saw it as a place of magic that we were convinced could easily have greeted the uninvited with pits of fire, poison darts, deadly snakes, or even a giant sword-bearing turbaned bodyguard at the door. Right out of Arabian nights.

But like many fairytales, life in this secluded fortress was not all white knights and fairy godmothers. George frequently beat his sons in the basement. He also threw drug-infused, hedonistic parties and orgies in his gold bedroom.

In 1949, Hodel’s beautiful teenage daughter Tamar ran away from the house. When questioned by the police, she said she had left because “her home life was too depressing,” on account of “all the sex parties at the Franklin House.” Tamar then accused her father and other adults of raping her during a party at the house.

When questioned by police, George responded bizarrely, stating that he had recently been “delving into the mystery of love and the universe,” and that the acts of which he was accused were “unclear, like a dream. I can't figure out whether someone is hypnotizing me,” he insisted, “or I am hypnotizing someone.” When police raided the home, they seized pornography and questionable objects.

George was acquitted after launching a smear campaign directed at his daughter. He soon sold the Sowden House and left the country. For decades, the house was quiet—the home of the upstanding Mazur family. George Hodel died in 1999. But this was not the end of the story of George Hodel and the Sowden House. Not by a long shot.

After George died, his son Steve, a retired LAPD detective, was going through some of his father's possessions when he found two pictures of a lovely dark-haired girl. He soon became convinced that the photos were of Elizabeth Short, aka the Black Dahlia, whose unsolved 1947 murder and mutilation had long been the stuff of Hollywood legend.

Memories of whispers and drunken accusations linking his father to many evil deeds flooded back to Steve. Family members and old friends then filled in the gaps, suggesting his father may have participated both in the murder of Short and that of an an unidentified “secretary.”

Over the next few years, he became convinced that not only had his sadistic father murdered the Dahlia, he had also been responsible for a number of unsolved, brutal murders that had taken place in Los Angeles in the 1940s. And he believed that some of these murders had taken place in the Sowden House’s basement. In 2003, Steve made these allegations public in the book Black Dahlia Avenger .

As is often the case, the sordid new story only increased the house’s profile and market value. Its transformation from private family home into hip showplace had already happened in 2001, when flamboyant real estate entrepreneur Xorin Balbes bought the home from the Mazur family for $1.2 million.

“When I walked into this house, I didn't move,” he told a reporter for the Los Angeles Times . “I said, ‘I have to buy this house.’ I turned around and walked out and got my checkbook. There's some connection for me.”

In 2003, the house was listed as a Los Angeles Historic-Cultural Monument. Balbes transformed the house, spending $1.6 million dollars in the process. He added a pool in the central courtyard, covered the interior walls in metallic bronze and silver, opened up the kitchen, and added Asian-inspired statuary and ornamentation.

Lloyd Wright’s son Eric, also an architect, gave his final verdict on the new, improved structure. “It's a mixed bag,” he said , “but most of the work he did is very good.”

In 2011, after almost a decade of hosting society parties, fashion shows, and reality TV productions, living in a bedroom where the original stage once stood, Balbes sold the 5,600-square-foot house to a man named Stephen Finkelstein for $3.85 million. In spring 2018, Dan Goldfarb, founder of founder of Canna-Pet , a CBD company for pets, acquired the property for $4.69 million. He and his his wife, Jenny Landers, use it as a venue for fundraisers and parties.

So is the legend of the monstrous doctor in the roadside fortress true? After Avenger was published, LA Times reporter Steve Lopez went through long-forgotten police transcripts related to the Dahlia's murder. Not only did he find proof that Hodel was a suspect in the murder, he also discovered that the Sowden House had been bugged by the DA's office in the months after the incest trial.

A transcript appeared to record a woman being assaulted in the basement, followed by the sounds of digging. Later that night, the DA’s microphone recorded George on the phone with a German friend.

“Supposin’ I did kill the Black Dahlia,” the good doctor said. “They couldn't prove it now. They can't talk to my secretary anymore because she's dead.” (No concrete proof of the secretary's existence has ever been found.)

In 2013, Steve Hodel claimed that a cadaver dog had indicated that human remains had been or were present in the basement and behind the house. As of fall 2015, there have been no excavations at the house.

But perhaps the best answer to the question can be found in the following tale. Decades after George Hodel left the country, a transient woman appeared at the back door of the house. She had detailed recollections of George Hodel's all-red kitchen and his all-gold bedroom, and seemed intimately familiar with the layout of the house. “She looked quite old,” the owner at the time told Steve Hodel. “I spoke to her and she said, ‘this house is a place of evil.’”

Sowden House

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Inside the Infamous Black Dahlia House

The most famous house in Los Angeles has a sordid history. On the cold, sunny morning of Jan. 15, 1947, a woman walking her 3-year-old daughter in the Leimert Park neighborhood found the mutilated corpse of Elizabeth Short, aka the "Black Dahlia." 

Thirteen miles away from the crime scene is where many experts believe Short's murderer lived — and possibly where he killed her. This mansion, known as the Sowden House, is an architectural masterpiece designed by Frank Lloyd Wright's son, Lloyd Wright. And it still stirs up mystery.

Come take a tour inside the 5,600-square-foot mansion and learn all about its dark past. 

A Mayan Temple

Built in 1926 for the artist John Sowden, the Sowden House is one of the most striking properties in the entire city. A steep set of stairs lead up to the front gate, mirroring a Mayan temple.

Tan concrete blocks and a large glass window make up the only architectural details on an otherwise flat concrete exterior. 

Some residents call it the "Jaws House" because of its maw-like look. 

An ornamental copper gate, which is original to the house, protects the main entrance. 

Beyond it are three flights of stairs in a narrow passageway leading to the house. 

The Hallway

Those stairs lead to the hallway which, as you can see, is less of a hallway and more of a covered footpath to tour the mansion's rooms. 

Old Hallway

This historical picture from the Sowden House website shows the home during the 1940s.  

Sowden only lived here for a few years. The property had three other owners by the time that George Hodel bought the home in 1945. 

George Hodel

George Hodel was a genius and a monster. Born in 1907 in Los Angeles, he impregnated the wife of a professor at the California Institute of Technology when he was 14.

He earned a medical degree from the University of California, San Francisco (UCSF) in 1936 and worked for the Los Angeles Board of Health where he specialized in venereal disease and illegal abortions. 

A Well-Connected Man

Hodel became known among prostitutes to perform abortions. According to author Sheila Weller, writing for Du Jour in 2015 , "desperate women sought him out, providing him all sorts of ammunition" against LAPD officers and their hookers.

He had blackmail on the cops, and in turn, protection from them. 

Surreal Times

George moved in here with his second wife, Dorothy Huston (whom he called Doreo to differentiate her from his first wife, Dorothy Anthony), shortly after their marriage in 1940. 

George was fascinated with surrealist art and made friends with Man Ray, one of the country's leading artists in the Dada and Surrealist movements. 

While George lived here, the mansion was known for hosting wild, drug-fueled sex parties. 

'It's an Evil Place!'

Life at the Hodel household was a nightmare for Hodel's children, which included Tamar and Steven (George is known to have fathered 11 children with five different women over his lifetime). 

Tamar was sexually abused by her father at the age of 12. 

"It's an evil place!" photographer Edmund Teske said of the house in an 1978 interview. "Women were tortured for sport there. Murders happened there. It's an evil place." 

According to Steven Hodel — a Los Angeles Police Department detective who would later be certain that his father was the Black Dahlia killer — Teske was once George's friend. 

Made with Theatrical Flair

Lloyd Wright designed the house with dramatic flair in mind. The center of the home used to house a fountain, but that was torn out before the Hodels moved in. 

In 2001, the house was purchased by luxury home flipper Xorin Balbes for $1.2 million. He installed the pool, spa, and made other renovations. 

The Old Courtyard

The courtyard looked like this in the 1940s. It's just a simple courtyard, with one stone block pathway crossing the middle and a candelabra tree reaching well beyond the roof. 

A 'Mistake'

Eric Lloyd Wright, Lloyd Wright's son, told the Los Angeles Times that Balbes putting in the swimming pool and spa was a "mistake."

The younger Wright added that the courtyard was meant to serve as a seating area for guests, with a "stage" occupying what is now the master bedroom. 

"It's a mixed bag," Eric said. "But most of the work he did is very good."

The Master Bedroom

This is the room that used to be the home's stage.

While the current design might not be in line with Lloyd Wright's original intention, how realistic is it to have a home designed around a courtyard for guests and a stage for events?

Master Bathroom

The master bathroom has been completely remodeled as well. It was also met with some criticism when Balbes unveiled the newly designed home in 2003. 

Dana Hutt, an architectural historian, said that there were alterations made to the property that suggest an Asian influence, which was "completely wrong" for Wright's Mesoamerican/Southwestern design.

She objected to the new bathroom, although it's not clear which one. Chances are, it's the master. 

Off to the side, the master bathroom has a koi pond. 

Balbes listed the house 13 months after he purchased it, putting it on the market for $4.2 million.

It finally sold in 2011 for $3.85 million .

You Can Book It

The home last sold for $4.7 million to CBD magnate Dan Goldfarb, who is using the property for fundraisers and events.

It's currently closed, but it's available to book . 

Would You Want to?

Those who believe in evil energy and other such things may want to stay away from it. 

George Hodel was accused of raping his 14-year-old daughter, Tamar, in 1949. The scandal made front-page news.

Despite two eyewitnesses to the crime, Hodel's wealth afforded him top criminal defense lawyers, and whatever other strings he pulled, George got off completely free. 

'I am Afraid He Will Find Something Wrong with Me'

Even more damning was what Hodel said to the arresting detectives.

According to Steve Hodel's 2009 book, "Most Evil," George told detectives that Tamar and he "have been studying the mysteries of sex" and that "these things must have happened. I need to talk to my psychiatrist, but I am afraid he will find something wrong with me." 

Hodel also believes a $10,000 payoff may have been involved to secure the not guilty verdict. 

The Suspicious Death of Ruth Spaulding

This was not the only time that George came under police investigation. On May 9, 1945, Hodel's 27-year-old secretary, Ruth Spaulding, was found dead (not at this home) from a barbiturate overdose. 

George had recently broken off an affair he had been having with Ruth. But Ruth may have had some dirt on some of Hodel's illegal business practices — like misdiagnosing women to clear them of diseases they didn't have — and it's very possible that George injected her with an overdose. 

Tracking the Black Dahlia Killer

George was investigated for the murder of Spaulding and cleared, but the rape trial of 1947 put him under new scrutiny.

During the trial, Tamar said she believed that her father killed Elizabeth Short (pictured), the Black Dahlia. Tamar was, of course, berated by the defense attorney and branded a liar.

But it caught the attention of the LAPD, which knew they were dealing with something evil.

The House Was Bugged

By 1950, George had become the main suspect in the Black Dahlia murders.

Eighteen detectives and cops bugged the Sowden House from Feb. 15 to March 27, 1950. 

'Suppose I Did Kill Her'

Transcripts produced from the operation revealed Hodel openly talking about law enforcement agency payoffs and how "two men in the D.A.'s office" were out to get him. 

The most damning evidence, though, was this near-admission of guilt:

"Supposin' I did kill the Black Dahlia," he told an unidentified German man over the phone. "They couldn't prove it now. They can't talk to my secretary [Ruth Spaulding] anymore because she's dead." 

Then, later, talking again over the phone: "Anyway, now they may have figured it out. Killed her. Maybe I did kill my secretary. They must have enough on him to be guilty or he wouldn't have confessed. Time for research."

George Flees the Country

Less than a month after the wiretap, George fled the country, eventually moving to the Philippines where he started and ended several marriages. 

But why Elizabeth Short? Eight people say that Hodel had some kind of relationship with Short, although it's not clear what. 

Informant Letters

Letters discovered by Steve in 2018 seemingly show that his father was the murderer of the Black Dahlia, as well as a killer of two other women.

Steve says an LAPD police informant named W. Glenn Martin kept a handwritten letter identifying a "G.H." as the killer of the Black Dahlia.

The letters were sealed in an envelope and seemed to be written as a failsafe in case "G.H." — believed to be George Hodel by Steve — went after Martin's family. 

The Orignal Fireplace

Here's a shot of the Mayan revival fireplace from the 1940s.

Tamar says her father "used to stand at the mantel and read poetry to everyone and inform us this was God speaking."

As Seen on TV

Sowden House has been in several television shows and movies. It was featured as Ava Gardner's house in "The Aviator" and appeared in "L.A. Confidential." The XX shot the music video for "I Dare You" here, "Ghost Hunters" inspected the place, and it was in season six of "America's Next Top Model."

Most notably, it was featured in "I Am the Night," a 2019 TNT mini-series based on a memoir written by Fauna Hodel, George Hodel's granddaughter. 

Tamar is Fauna's mother. However, the miniseries implies that Fauna's father and grandfather is George. In reality, Tamar had an abortion and did not give birth to her father's child. 

Fauna Hodel

Fauna Hodel was put up for adoption by Tamar. Her birth certificate named only an "unknown" Black man as the father. 

Believing she was multiracial, Fauna was raised in Reno, Nevada, by a Black family.

Years later, she would investigate her family and discover her true roots. 

The house has a simple rectangle layout, with the side halls leading to individual rooms. There are few windows, as most of the light comes in from the open courtyard. 

The Dining Room

The dining room is a no-frills affair. Recessed lighting has been added, and the ceiling has a curious glass panel that isn't a skylight. 

The kitchen was a major part of the renovation.

What used to be three small rooms has been transformed into one large space with a long metal kitchen island that doubles as a bar, several ovens and a wine cooler.

The flat, yellow-colored cabinetry is a nod to the home's architectural roots. 

One of the home's rooms has been transformed into an office. 

Hodels office — where he was caught talking about possibly being the Black Dahlia killer — used to be in one of the other large rooms at either end of the house. 

Renovated Bathrooms

Another controversial update is the updated bathrooms.

This one is all metal and modern, which matches the kitchen but is also somewhat of an odd choice, given that it's a clear departure from Lloyd Wright's style of using natural materials and integrating nature. 

More Renovations

This bathroom also has been redesigned, although it has a vaguely temple-like design.

The Old Bathroom

A picture of one of the bathrooms from the 1940s. It was clearly in need of an update, although the block design flows with the home's design. 

The Library

Another of what was likely a once-empty room is now a library or sitting area with a large aquarium.

We wonder if the floors are original to the house. 

No Pictures of the Basement

One of the things that the Sowden House site does not show is the basement. The basement is where George performed illegal abortions and is believed to be the place where he murdered Elizabeth Short. 

In 2013, chemical analysis found that the soil samples contained evidence of human decomposition at the front and rear of the property. Buster, a cadaver dog, alerted the humans to something going on in the basement , although the room has not been excavated. 

Still Seeking Justice

George Hodel died in 1999 at the age of 91. He had returned to the United States and died in San Francisco. 

Fauna Hodel died of breast cancer at the age of 66 in 2017. She was a writer, producer and motivational speaker on the topics of racial equality and human rights. 

Tamar Hodel died in October 2015. 

Steve Hodel has written several books attempting to prove that his father was the Black Dahlia murderer. The case is still unsolved. 

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Inside the Mayan Revival Home Where Old Hollywood Loved to Party

An Art Deco marvel.

The full story of the Sowden House is featured in season 3 of House Beautiful's haunted house podcast, Dark House . Listen to the episode here.

Towering over Franklin Avenue at the bottom of the Los Feliz foothills looms one of the most unusual and mysterious marvels in Los Angeles: A Mayan Revival home designed by Frank Lloyd Wright Jr., the son of the legendary architect Frank Lloyd Wright . While its unique architectural character is certainly noteworthy, arguably the most interesting thing about the home isn't necessarily the block-style facade, which was inspired by the menacing yet beguiling opening of a cave or an ancient tomb. Nor is it the massive garage-style window that turns the living room into an indoor-outdoor space, or even the koi pond off the primary suite.

Instead, it's the home's history, which captures both Hollywood's glamorous side and its seedy underbelly. Charlie Chaplin, Cecil B. DeMille, and other VIPS are all rumored to have spent time in the home, but another fallen Hollywood hopeful (famed for reasons entirely more tragic) may have also spent time there: Elizabeth Short , aka The Black Dahlia. Keep reading to learn about the unique design characteristics and early history of the Sowden House, as well as its history as the potential crime scene of America's most notorious cold case—thanks to its former inhabitant Dr. George Hodel, one of the prime suspects in the murder of Elizabeth Short.

The Sowden House's early history and design

Up until 1924, Frank Lloyd Wright and his son were working together on projects in Los Angeles when the older Wright said , "I'm fed up here. You're young enough to take Los Angeles." Wright Jr. wanted to make a name for himself by designing Hollywood sets and evolving his father's designs by incorporating the Mayan Revival aesthetic. He hit his stride when he was commissioned to build the Sowden House in 1926 by his friend, a photographer, John Sowden.

John and his wife of six years, Ruth, were moving to L.A. with their 6-year-old daughter and wanted a bohemian playhouse where they could throw parties for aspiring actors and Hollywood types. The Sowdens bought a large lot on the western edge of Los Feliz, which was home to many then-leading actors and entertainment moguls, as well as the storybook-style homes that inspired most of Walt Disney's fairytale creations. It was the perfect backdrop for Wright Jr. to design and build the 5,600 square foot, 7 bedroom, 4 bathroom structure, which is made of reinforced concrete and stucco over a wood frame.

Much like the Hollywood sets Wright Jr. was known for, the facade of the Sowden House is theatrical and sculptural. Mayan Revival magnificence aside, the home is also reflective of the Art Deco movement, marked by fan-shaped motifs and Brutalist features. Aside from one large window over the French front doors, the front of the house is windowless, adding to its intimidating presence. And yet, the home is filled with light, thanks to the central courtyard the entire home is built around. Though it sounds quite complex and bizarre, the layout is actually very organized and straightforward: It's essentially a rectangle with the center cut out, and corridors on either side leading to the private rooms on the east, and the communal spaces on the west.

Despite being a professional feat for Wright Jr., the house wasn't the Sowden's home for long. Most sources report that the family left because the Mayan Revival style got too much criticism, but perhaps it was for more personal reasons. According to census records, John and Ruth were divorced by 1930, and Ruth married her second husband, David Barnett in the Sowden House, where they lived until 1936 when they sold the home to a real estate developer named Milton Blazier. Blazier rented the home to various occupants, including a silent film era child star, James W. Boudwin. However, not all Hollywood connections are so glittering; In 1945, Dr. George Hodel, one of the prime suspects in the Black Dahlia case, bought the home and moved in with his third wife, Dorothy, and their three sons, Michael, Kelly, and Steve.

Dr. George Hodel and the Black Dahlia Case

Hodel was born on October 10, 1907, in Pasadena and was a highly spoiled only child with a soaring IQ of 186. He graduated early from high school and enrolled at Cal Tech when he was 15, though he was expelled for unknown reasons (family lore suggests an affair with a professor's wife). He pivoted to pursuing art, self-publishing a paper about the budding surrealist movement, but his art career eventually fizzled, leading him to move to San Francisco, where he dabbled in journalism. In the late 1920s, Dr. Hodel and his common-law wife Emilia had a son, Duncan, and in 1932, Dr. Hodel enrolled at UC Berkeley as a pre-med student. By the mid-1930s, he was married to another woman, with whom he had a daughter named Tamar. Around this time, he went to UCSF medical school to study surgery.

Once he graduated, Dr. Hodel divorced Tamar's mother and went to work as a surgeon at a logging camp in Arizona, but by the early 1940s, he was back in Southern California, married to Dorothy Huston Hodel, and became the head of venereal disease control for the Los Angeles County Health Department. Dr. Hodel also ran a medical practice on First Street in Downtown L.A., about a mile away from The Millennium Biltmore Hotel , which is believed to be one of the last places Short was seen alive before her brutal murder a week later in January of 1947.

By 1946, Dr. Hodel and Dorothy were divorced, but she and their sons still continued to live in the Sowden House sporadically. That same year, he lived and worked in Shanghai, China under the title Lt. General for the UN Relief and Rehab Administration. In a letter to Lloyd Wright himself, whom Dr. Hodel was trying to recruit to work in city planning there, Dr. Hodel said he’d be in Shanghai through the spring of 1947. But by September of 1946, he had abruptly resigned for personal reasons and returned to Los Angeles.

While Short and Dr. Hodel lived near each other and ran in similar circles, he wasn't on the investigators's radars until 1949, when his daughter then 14-year-old daughter Tamar told authorities she was being sexually abused by him in the Sowden House. The authorities searched the Sowden house and seized some predatory photographs and what authorities called pornographic art objects. According to a 1949 article in the Los Angeles Mirror, Dr. Hodel claimed: "The action which I was accused of participating in is unclear, and I'm not sure if I was dreaming or if it was real, and if I was being hypnotized or hypnotizing someone else." Before he got counsel, he said , "These things must have happened." Despite the damning testimony, his highly regarded and successful lawyer Jerry Giesler helped him build a case, and Goerge was acquitted in early 1950.

During the case, one of the witnesses, a boarder named Joseph Barrett, told Gielser that Tamar said to him : "This house has secret passageways. My father is the murderer of the Black Dahlia. My father is going to kill me and everyone in this household because he lusts for blood and is insane." This claim, along with the accusations of incest brought against Dr. Hodel, put him at the top of the lead investigator, Lt. Frank Jemison's , suspect list. In fact, Jemison ordered his squad to bug the Sowden House while he was interrogating him in 1950.

Many incriminating statements were caught on tape during the 24/7 surveillance period, and several other witnesses were interviewed to make a case against Dr. Hodel as the Black Dahlia murderer. Dr. Hodel worked hard to violently discredit all the witnesses who claimed he knew and killed Short (you can read more about it here in the letters from another detective who was sent to the Sowden House for a separate incident), but by 1951, Dr. Hodel left his family and Los Angeles behind for Honolulu. Shortly thereafter, Jemison closed the case and cleared Dr. Hodel, a decision that baffles many today given the apparent evidence against him.

According to the Honolulu Advertiser , Dr. Hodel remarried again and became a psychiatrist for the county hospital, where he worked with patients and even taught convicted killers the foxtrot. He and his fourth wife, Hortensia Starke Hodel, eventually moved to her native Philippines and had several more children before divorcing. He met his fifth and final wife, June, in Tokyo, before they moved back to San Francisco in the late 1900s. When Dr. Hodel died in 1999, June gave all of his effects to his son Steve, a retired, decorated Los Angeles homicide detective, which led Steve to find out his father was a suspect in the Black Dahlia Case Short murder. Initially hoping to clear his father's name, Steve ultimately uncovered information that convinced him his father most likely did commit the crime.

In 2003, Steve published The Black Dahlia Avenger to chronicle his findings, including eyewitness testimonies, a psychological profile, and physical evidence, such as construction work receipts still on file at the UCLA Library that match evidence found with Short's mutilated remains. The case was never solved, and researchers and historians continue to try to bring justice to Short's memory, but experts remain torn as to who the killer was, largely due to the numerous suspects, lost and tainted evidence, and the sensationalized nature of the investigation. Dr. Hodel's reputation was enough to lend the Sowden House an air of notoriety and accusations of hauntings.

The Sowden House post-1951 and today

According to a 1969 report by the Historic American Buildings Survey, the owner following Dr. Hodel's tenure was a woman who turned out to be a representative of Jerry Geisler's office—Geisler being Hodel's former lawyer. Dr. Hodel presumably put the Sowden House up as payment for the incest trial, and Giesler's office sold it to Dr. Harold Mazur in 1951, the same year Dr. Hodel fled to Hawaii. The Mazur family lived in the home until they either rented it out or let it sit empty between the 1960s and the 1980s, when one of Dr. Mazur's children moved in. For years, neighborhood residents reported that the Sowden House looked like it had fallen into disrepair, and even appeared to be abandoned.

The Mazur family eventually sold the Sowden House to a designer and developer, Xorin Balbes, in 2001. Though many of the original details have been preserved over the decades (we especially love the dramatic ceiling in the living room and the stained glass ceiling details above the fireplace), the interior has been updated to suit modern tastes. Balbes repaired the stonework, expanded the kitchen, finished the basement, and replaced the small fountain in the central courtyard with a large swimming pool. The renovation ushered in a new era of activity to the Sowden House and it's since become a popular venue for celebrity fundraisers as well as a backdrop for television, movie, and other commercial shoots ( this music video for "I Dare You" by the XX is one of our favorite Sowden House sightings). Perhaps you recognize it from the TNT series starring Chris Pine, I am the Night , which was inspired by Tamar Hodel's daughter's memoir, One Day She'll Darken , and fictionalized the Black Dahlia case. If only these walls could talk.

To hear the full story of Elizabeth Short's life and death, as well as more details on the Sowden House listen to Parts I and II of the Black Dahlia series of our podcast, Dark House .

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Inside ‘i am the night’s’ sowden house.

Infamous for its distinctive architecture and sordid history, L.A.'s 'Sowden House' (the actual home of 'Black Dahlia' murder suspect Dr. George Hodel) was used as a setting for the new TNT series 'I Am The Night' that debuts on January 28.

By Cathy Whitlock

Cathy Whitlock

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Iconic homes of Los Angeles have had their share of cinematic close-ups. From Frank Lloyd Wright’s Ennis House ( Blade Runner ) and John Lautner’s “spaceship” Chemosphere ( Body Double ) to Richard Neutra’s Lovell House in Los Feliz ( L.A. Confidential ) and the Beverly Hills Tudor Revival Greystone Mansion ( There Will Be Blood ), the setting often vies for screen time, literally becoming an additional character.

Architect Lloyd Wright’s (yes, the son of the legendary Frank Lloyd Wright) Sowden House is once again in the spotlight in the TNT series I Am the Night that debuts on Monday, January 28. (Fans may remember it as the home of Howard Hughes in Martin Scorsese’s 2004 The Aviator ).

Inspired by a true story, the TNT six-part series depicts the tale of the teenager Fauna Hodel (India Eisley) who travels to mid-’60s Los Angeles in search of her past after discovering she was given away at birth. Her investigation, with the help of fallen newspaper reporter Jay Singletary (Chris Pine), leads her to the sinister Hollywood gynecologist George Hodel (Jefferson Mays), who was the subject of the unsolved murder of the Black Dahlia (Elizabeth Short) in 1947.

Infamous for its distinctive architecture and sordid history, it’s only fitting that some of the filming takes place at Hodel’s actual 1945 home of Sowden House.

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'i am the night': tv review.

Designed in 1926 for retired artist John Sowden and his wife Ruth, the Mayan Revival-style home is unique with its sand-colored textile concrete construction depicting harvests and sun clouds (which drew praise from his father), and an open rectangular 6,000 square-foot floor plan with four wings looking out on an alluring central courtyard.

Perhaps the real showstopper is the front entrance, with its almost menacing entryway that some say feels like the mouth of a shark (hence the nickname “ Jaws House”). Production designer Julie Berghoff notes of the temple-like Franklin Avenue residence, “Sowden feels like a Mayan tomb. When you walk up the stairs, it’s like walking into the mouth.”

Berghoff, who created the dystopian designs for The Handmaid’s Tale , knows a thing or two about horror, as her first feature was the 2004 thriller Saw . “I read the script and fell in love with the idea as I love the horror genre, the dark, nostalgic background and the mystery of the true story,” she notes. “Sowden has a crazy energy and feels like a breathing entity. I looked at how it was preserved and wanted to keep the integrity of the furnishings.”

Creating an eerie tension was achieved not only through the general vibe of the house itself (legend has it that Smart and a secretary’s murder took place in the basement) along with covering up the modern elements with drapery to make it “moody, mysterious and shadowy.”

The designer looked to the designs of Los Angeles in the ’60s and the surrealist art movement in L.A. for inspiration, as Hodel was also a painter. Working with set decorators Nancy Nye ( Gattica ) and Sophie Neudorfer ( The Handmaid’s Tale ), they scoured rental shops and researched eBay for period-specific items such as toothpaste, hair curlers and straighteners. “We are always looking for the right piece that expresses each character. We are like little treasure hunters!”

The house’s owners (there have been 10 in all), Dan Goldfarb and his wife Jenny Landers, live in the space that serves as part home and part social and performance venue (such as listening parties for the Suspiria soundtrack and the Icelandic band Sigur Rós) in addition to non-profit events (wildlife, canine and cannabis education fundraisers), film, magazine and television shoots (weddings are off-limits).

It’s no wonder that the house is acoustically ideal for performances, as Wright designed the Hollywood Bowl. The events are all about giving back, promoting the arts and, as Landers notes, “This house has this crazy history and we wanted to utilize it in a positive way and share it with the community.”

When Goldfarb first learned the house was up for sale in 2017 (with a 4.7 million price tag), he had never been to Los Angeles in his life. “Someone sent me the listing for the house and I was immediately attracted and drawn to it,” notes the native New Yorker who made his fortune with the natural hemp pet products Canna-Pet (thanks in large part to their Persian cat Mariano, who was ill and in need of alternative medicine).

Given Sowden’s infamous storied past, do the owners feel it’s haunted? “From the outside of the house, you cannot tell what is going on; it looks like a fortress. On the inside, it’s a whole other world, and the few people who get to see it feel how tranquil it is. But at night, with the fire going and the vibes, I can see how it could feel scary for some people,” says Goldfarb.

If there truly are spirits, the four-legged residents of the enigmatic house don’t seem to mind, as Landers explains, “We have these amazing Persian cats and if any bad spirits arrive, they would keep them at bay. We feel like it’s a very peaceful place.”

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John Sowden House

The John Sowden House was the site of the murder of Black Dahlia, aka Elizabeth Short, found surgically cut in half and dumped on a lot. Suspect Dr. George Hill Hodel fled the country. Subsequent residents of the home have heard voices, footsteps, and the sound of heavy chains dragging, and seen apparitions that appear to be Hodel. TV’s Ghost Hunters featured the house on an episode, and they caught the apparition on video as well as an EVP that said “It’s George.”

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In 1945, Dr. George Hodel purchased the already iconic house. George frequently beat his sons in the basement. He also threw drug-infused, hedonistic parties and orgies in his gold bedroom. In 1949, Hodel’s beautiful teenage daughter Tamar ran away from the house. When questioned by the police, she said she had left because “her home life was too depressing,” on account of “all the sex parties at the Franklin House.” Tamar then accused her father and other adults of raping her during a party at the house. When questioned by police, George responded bizarrely, stating that he had recently been “delving into the mystery of love and the universe,” and that the acts of which he was accused were “unclear, like a dream. I can’t figure out whether someone is hypnotizing me,” he insisted, “or I am hypnotizing someone.” When police raided the home, they seized pornography and questionable objects. George was acquitted after launching a smear campaign directed at his daughter. He soon sold the Sowden House and left the country. For decades, the house was quiet—the home of the upstanding Mazur family. George Hodel died in 1999. But this was not the end of the story of George Hodel and the Sowden House. Not by a long shot. After George died, his son Steve, a retired LAPD detective, was going through some of his father’s possessions when he found two pictures of a lovely dark-haired girl. He soon became convinced that the photos were of Elizabeth Short, aka the Black Dahlia, whose unsolved 1947 murder and mutilation had long been the stuff of Hollywood legend. Over the next few years, he became convinced that not only had his sadistic father murdered the Dahlia, he had also been responsible for a number of unsolved, brutal murders that had taken place in Los Angeles in the 1940s. And he believed that some of these murders had taken place in the Sowden House’s basement. In 2003, Steve made these allegations public in the book Black Dahlia Avenger. “Supposin’ I did kill the Black Dahlia,” the good doctor said. “They couldn’t prove it now. They can’t talk to my secretary anymore because she’s dead.”

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Lloyd Wright’s Sowden House, possible Black Dahlia murder site, becomes a performance stage

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On a crisp Sunday evening, as the Los Angeles sky shifts from bright azure to sapphire blue, the lights come on at the Sowden House in Los Feliz revealing the building’s Mayan temple silhouette. In the pool, an artist is installing a kinetic sculpture that rotates in the breeze. In the living room, three dancers in flapper dresses go through a sequence of slow, undulating moves. And in the courtyard, a man in a cape cruises through, his head crowned with a bright, feathered headdress.

This unusual gathering isn’t a dream, but a rehearsal for the immersive installation “Passages at the Sowden House,” organized by homeLA , which is a project that creates site-specific performances in private homes around Los Angeles. Led by artist and dancer Rebecca Bruno, the project will stage two public events at the 1920s Sowden House over the weekend, featuring a mix of dance, live music, performance art, sculpture and film.

This will include a performance by experimental vocalist Odeya Nini, a movement piece choreographed by Cheng-Chieh Yu and a performance by Tyler Matthew Oyer (he of the cape), who will channel the spirit of the late artist and underground filmmaker Jack Smith. Visitors will be invited to move at their leisure through the performances in the home, designed by architect Lloyd Wright (son of Frank Lloyd Wright) for photographer and painter John Sowden and his wife, Ruth, in 1926.

“The event is a culmination,” says Bruno, of the months-long process of putting together the happening. “We are invited into someone’s home. I have a conversation with the host. Then I consider the artists who will participate and we make work in response to the home. Each of the artists stretch a little bit and relate to the home space and we create a performance out of that. We spend a lot of time in the home.”

As part of the process, Bruno collaborated with filmmaker Delaram Pourábdi to create a meditative five-minute film inspired by the house that will be incorporated into the show. “Passages,” as the film is also titled, follows Bruno as she improvises movements inspired by the home’s theatrical architecture: the courtyard flanked by Mayan Revival columns, the pyramidal facade, the rich, interior spaces.

“I have been working with dancers for years on video,” says Pourábdi, as she observes Bruno and another dancer practicing steps in the courtyard. “I’m interested in female dancers and female musicians and I’m interested in the way this intersects with architecture.”

The project got rolling about a year ago when the home’s owner, Jenny Landers — she and her husband, Dan Goldfarb, have owned the house since 2017 — reached out to Bruno about using the Sowden House as a site for a homeLA project.

“We started with the idea of a dance performance,” says Landers. “But then it evolved into a dance film and music, and now there’s a sculpture going into the pool!”

Landers, an aficionado of dance who is also a dancer, says the performance is an opportunity to resuscitate the home’s original purpose: as a stage.

Wright’s intent when he designed the structure was to create a house that could easily host performances and other artistic events. Laid out in a rectangle around an open, interior courtyard, the home has rooms at the northern and southern ends that can be opened entirely to the elements. Moreover, the northern space functions as a small stage.

“The acoustics in here are incredible,” says Landers. “If you play an acoustic guitar in here, it sounds amazing.” It’s a feature that makes sense given that Wright also designed one of the original band shells for the Hollywood Bowl.

Bruno, who had never been inside the Sowden House before being invited to perform, says she jumped at the chance when Landers reached out.

“It is so special,” Bruno says of the house. “It has this call to the pre-Columbian, Mesoamerican, Mayan — these textile blocks and triangulated passages. You enter this narrow passageway and suddenly you are in an expanse. … It really goes back to what the original owners wanted: a set for their experiences.”

The house, however, harbors darker legacies too.

The Sowdens remained in the house for only a few years, after which it went through a number of hands. From 1945 to 1950, it was owned by a doctor by the name of George Hodel. In 2003, his son, Steve Hodel, a former homicide detective, published a book in which he theorized that his father had been behind the gruesome murder of 22-year-old Elizabeth Short in 1947 — the Black Dahlia — and that the killing had likely taken place in the basement of the Sowden House.

All of the artists in the show, notes Bruno, have had to contend with that violent narrative as part of their research — whether they ultimately engaged the story in their work or not.

Landers says people frequently ask her if the house is haunted. “But I don’t get that sense at all,” she says. “I feel at peace here.” (Though she does keep a photograph of Short in the home to honor her memory.)

With the performance, she aims to “bring a positivity” back into the space. Part of that has consisted in opening the doors and once again letting the home serve as a space in which to make art.

“It’s been so interesting — watching the ideas forming,” says Landers. “There’s a performer doing something out front and I haven’t wanted to see it because I want to be surprised.”

Bruno, in addition to screening her film, will also perform a movement piece with fellow choreographer and dancer Flora Wiegmann. She says that months of engaging with Wright’s architecture has provided a singular experience.

In a past homeLA event, she performed at the intimately scaled home designed by Modernist architect Richard Neutra in Silver Lake. Those are spaces where “the scale of the body is really considered,” she says. “The stairs are really narrow. Only one person can go up and down the stairs at a time.”

But the Sowden house is different, she notes. It was “created for this relationship with art and maybe the cosmos” — its stunning open courtyard making it feel a bit celestial.

“The Sowden house is very connected to the sky,” says Bruno. “You forget where you are in a way — until a helicopter flies over.”

“homeLA: Passages at the Sowden House”

Where: address is provided upon the purchase of a ticket

When: 4 to 7:30 p.m. Saturday and Sunday

Admission: $35

Info: homela.org

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Sowden House

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Besides being one of Los Angeles' most striking historic homes, Sowden House also happens to be the decades-long residence of the man many LAPD officers believe killed the Black Dahlia. Besides being one of Los Angeles' most striking historic homes, Sowden House also happens to be the decades-long residence of the man many LAPD officers believe killed the Black Dahlia. Besides being one of Los Angeles' most striking historic homes, Sowden House also happens to be the decades-long residence of the man many LAPD officers believe killed the Black Dahlia.

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• January 16, 2020 (United States)
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New York Times Bestselling Author Steve Hodel

Sowden house publicity la weekly "most haunted" featured today coincidentally () on george hodel's 110th birthday new owners give a 3d tour, october 10, 2017 los angeles, california (today would have been dr. george hill hodel’s 110th birthday).

Click to LA WEEKLY article, “Most Haunted House John Sowden House” by Jason McGahan here.

New Owners have removed heavy landscaping and opened up the front street view of the residence

Take a 3D Tour Click Here

Take a 3D Tour of thanks to the new owners.

Hi Steve, I think the house looks even more menacing without the foliage although without the foliage more sunlight is let in. Without the foliage it seems like the viewer is being drawn to an alter at the far end to be sacrificed to a dark god. On the inside, I noticed someone put a dog cutout over the fireplace and a surreal type picture of a woman’s face with slashes(?) of red hair across it. This is a sad place now where many do not rest in peace. When there are too many coincidences there are no coincidences re October 10th. They misspelled the family name over and over as well in the article. I’m not sure much could be done to ever remove the aura of murder of this house and grounds. Those poor women.

You may know this, but I saw yesterday there is a new book that has “solved” the Dahlia case …… https://www.hachette.com.au/piu-eatwell/black-dahlia-red-rose

Amanda: Yes, I am aware. Every few years a new “solution” pops up. The author’s “suspects” were officially cleared long long ago. See my blog on it at the below link.

http://stevehodeloldsite.staging.authorbyteshosting.com/2017/09/black-dahlia-leslie-dillondr-paul-de-river-fiasco-week-lapd-fubar-fouled-beyond-recognition/

Ah, thanks! Must have overlooked that post.

I notice that the house is on the market, and has been under contract for some time. I have it on my watch list to see what price the sale closes at. It IS a beautiful house, and has such a storied history, both bad and good, that it will always fascinate both history and architecture buffs, so people wonder why it changes hands so often and lingers on the market for so long when it is available, while more ordinary homes sell quickly for comparable prices or more. .However, I’m not sure there is anything supernatural at work here. It could be that this house is just too difficult and unconventional to live in and maintain. Houses by the Wrights, both father and son, have this way of imposing a particular style and way of life on you, and people really want a blank slate on which they can impose their own style. Additionally, Lloyd Wright & Frank Lloyd Wright Usonian block houses are hellish to maintain- those Aztec-patterned concrete blocks are just as expensive maintain as any intricate terra cotta facade, and you almost have have your furniture custom-designed for it to work with the architecture.

Or, maybe, people just don’t want to live in a really prominent house that is notorious for being the probable site of a vile crime, because they get sick of people knocking on their doors requesting tours, or constantly parking in front of the house or prowling the property in search of “clues”. The Clutter house in Kansas, where the prominent farmer and his family were murdered in 1959, is an example- the present owners have been trying for years to unload it for $300K or less, with no takers.

Laura: My understanding is it has just recently closed with the new owner. Don’t know what the sale price was, but I think the asking was around 4.85M. Yes, definitely a limited buyer base. Both because of the unusual design and its “history.” Also, as you say, the constant flow of strangers wanting “see inside” would be a real turnoff.

I was wondering. You wrote that cadaver dogs alerted when brought to the house i 2013. the basement. And that soil samples were collected, turning up positive for human remains?!. Did they ever dig in the basement soil to see if remains were retrievable? if no, why not?

With the renovation going on It would have been the right occasion for doing this.

Hi Marius: The renovation was done back in 2002. Buster the cadaver dog and the follow up soil analysis didn’t happen until 2012 and 13. No permission to dig on the property or at the rear upslope. LAPD claimed they were “too busy to do any followup”. The woman that owns the property on the upslope, actress Laura Prepon, denied access permission so could not move forward. Best, Steve

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Podcasts worth a listen, haunted homes « » 7. sowden house (aka the 'black dahlia' murder house).

An historic Hollywood mansion, designed by a world-famous architect and featured in films such as 'The Aviator' and 'L.A. Confidential'. But its real claim to fame? As the site of one of the most notorious unsolved murders in American history. Buyer beware! This home (and podcast episode) is not for the faint of heart! Music: Glenn Miller Orchestra (intro); Grand Project (soundtrack).

15 episodes

7. Sowden House (AKA The 'Black Dahlia' Murder House)

Haunted Homes

published 8M ago

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37 episodes

At the crossroads of true crime, interior design, and the paranormal, Dark House explores beautiful homes that can’t seem to escape their dark histories. Hosts and House Beautiful editors Hadley Mendelsohn and Alyssa Fiorentino dig into the twisted backstories of four infamous homes, and uncover the strange stories suggesting some inhabitants never left—and that perhaps history isn't the only thing haunting them. Featuring guest interviews with authors, set designers, psychic mediums, and paranormal investigators, Dark House uncovers why these residences, and the stories they tell us, are so important.

Dark House House Beautiful

• 4.6 • 561 Ratings
• OCT 16, 2023

Listen Now: I Hear Fear

Nothing is as terrifying as the sounds we hear in the dark. The slow creak of a door opening late at night... or a whisper in a room when you thought you were alone... or a distant scream in the wind. One noise at the wrong time or place can scare us for days. Each episode of I Hear Fear plunges the listener into a tale inspired by real events, from a deadly dance party to a cursed film set. Join host and two-time Oscar nominee Carey Mulligan for six immersive stories designed to jangle your nerves and haunt your dreams.   Follow I Hear Fear on the Wondery App or wherever you get your podcasts. You can binge all episodes of I Hear Fear ad-free right now by joining Wondery Plus. Listen now: Wondery.fm/IHF_DH Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

• OCT 13, 2023

Guest Interview: Hilarie Burton Morgan (Actress, Author ‘Grimoire Girl’)

Hadley and Alyssa chat with One Tree Hill star Hilarie Burton Morgan about her new book, Grimoire Girl: A Memoir of Magic and Mischief in a special Dark House minisode. The trio discuss the inspiration behind the book and Hilarie’s encounters with haunted homes, including a meaningful connection she made with a spirit “guide” while living in Wilmington, North Carolina. Plus, Hilarie shares her empowering interior design philosophy, how to incorporate magic into your everyday routine, and the case that inspired her true crime docu-series, It Couldn’t Happen Here.  CREDITS Alyssa Fiorentino - Co-host & Producer Hadley Mendelsohn - Co-host & Producer Jessy Caron - Producer  RELATED LINKS ‘Grimoire Girl: A Memoir of Magic and Mischief’ by Hilarie Burton Morgan: https://amzn.to/46hElcx  Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

• OCT 11, 2023

Lucy Murder House (Uniontown, AL)

Alyssa and Hadley explore the haunting past of the Hardie-Coleman House—or, as it’s better known online, the Lucy Murder House—in Uniontown, Alabama, where the remains of 13-year-old Allan Lucy were found buried beneath the front porch in January of 1994. Allan, who lived at the home with his adoptive parents, Phillip and Margaret Lucy, disappeared without a trace in May of 1985. In the months that followed, Jason Lucy, Phillip and Margaret's biological son, told classmates that his father killed Allan and buried him in the backyard. As they work to uncover what really happened, the hosts hear from former Uniontown resident David B. House, who explains why, at the time, no one believed Jason's story, and shares the rumors that were circulating about the Lucy family long before Allan disappeared. Later, in trying to understand why—even years after Allan Lucy's murderer was brought to justice—the house has still not recovered, Hadley and Alyssa discuss the environmental issues that have driven many residents out of Uniontown, and left those who remain fighting for justice of their own. CREDITS Alyssa Fiorentino - Co-host & Producer Hadley Mendelsohn - Co-host & Producer Jessy Caron - Producer Jacob Stone - Sound Editor & Mixer To advertise on the show: https://www.advertisecast.com/DarkHouse or email us at [email protected].  RELATED LINKS Uniontown Historic District Nomination Form (PDF): bit.ly/3YJmg44 ‘REPORTER: Covering Civil Rights...And Wrongs in Dixie’ by Alvin Benn: https://amzn.to/3P6yTTJ  Exploring An Abandoned Murder Mansion | Boy Buried Under The Porch (VIDEO): bit.ly/3OK07xZ “Environmental Injustice in Uniontown, Alabama, Decades after the Civil Rights Act of 1964: It's Time For Action” American Bar Association (ARTICLE): bit.ly/3P8tN9I “Uniontown is polluted with coal ash. Here’s how some UA students are helping” The Crimson White (ARTICLE): bit.ly/3E5Ullp “Judge orders Uniontown to stop fighting $31M sewer fix” Alabama.com (ARTICLE): bit.ly/45eKdTo “Alabama sues Uniontown again over sewage issues” Alabama.com (ARTICLE): bit.ly/3P9DW61 Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

• 1 hr 18 min
• OCT 4, 2023

Black Dahlia Part 2: The John Sowden House (Los Angeles, CA)

With a better understanding of the victim, Elizabeth Short, Hadley and Alyssa set their sights on the Black Dahlia’s suspected killer: prominent California doctor George Hodel. Dr. Hodel lived in the John Sowden House—Frank Lloyd Wright Jr.'s surrealist magnum opus in Los Feliz—from 1945 to 1950, until he abandoned his family and fled the country after the home was bugged by the district attorney's office. Following the trail of a popular theory, the hosts explore the history of Sowden House, from its magnificent Mayan Revival architecture and many former owners to the events and evidence that have led many to believe it was the site of Elizabeth Short’s murder.  CREDITS Alyssa Fiorentino - Co-host & Producer Hadley Mendelsohn - Co-host & Producer Jessy Caron - Producer Jacob Stone - Sound Editor & Mixer To advertise on the show: https://www.advertisecast.com/DarkHouse or email us at [email protected].  RELATED LINKS Sowden House, 5121 Franklin Avenue, Los Angeles (PHOTOS): https://bit.ly/3PBihm5  ‘Black Dahlia Avenger’ by Steve Hodel: https://amzn.to/468kDj4  Root of Evil: The True Story of the Hodel Family and the Black Dahlia (PODCAST): https://bit.ly/45iciIU  Historic American Buildings Survey, Sowden House (PDF): https://bit.ly/3ZwglA1 Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

• 1 hr 38 min
• SEP 27, 2023

Black Dahlia Part 1: The Biltmore Hotel (Los Angeles, CA)

Hadley and Alyssa dive into the life and gruesome death of Elizabeth Short—better known as the Black Dahlia—whose unsolved murder spurred Hollywood’s most persistent ghost story. Working to uncover whether or not the iconic Millennium Biltmore Hotel in downtown Los Angeles was the last place she was seen alive, the hosts retrace Elizabeth's final steps through her unmailed letters, stories from people who knew her, and eye-witness testimony. Having tracked her movements up to the evening of January 9, 1947, when she was seen leaving the lobby of the Biltmore, Alyssa and Hadley review all the possible sightings that may prove Elizabeth was seen elsewhere in Los Angeles the following week. They also sift through the many chilling stories of paranormal activity reported by Biltmore guests in recent years, which have many people convinced that Elizabeth’s spirit remains at the hotel. Later, the hosts learn about several top suspects in the case, including one who stands out among the rest.  CREDITS Alyssa Fiorentino - Co-host & Producer Hadley Mendelsohn - Co-host & Producer Jessy Caron - Producer Jacob Stone - Sound Editor & Mixer To advertise on the show: https://www.advertisecast.com/DarkHouse or email us at [email protected].  RELATED LINKS Ghost Captured in the Biltmore Hotel by Ginny Myers Sain (PHOTO): bit.ly/45UCN85 ‘Childhood Shadows’ by Mary Pacios: https://amzn.to/4532RwC  Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

• 1 hr 31 min
• SEP 20, 2023

Holiday House (Watch Hill, RI)

Alyssa—a longtime “Swiftie”—leads us in a deep dive into the history of Holiday House, Taylor Swift’s oceanfront mansion in Watch Hill, Rhode Island. The co-hosts turn their attention to “the last great american dynasty,” a track off of Swift’s 2020 album Folklore, from which we learned that, just like us, she too enjoys digging into the history of her own home and learning about the people who lived there before her. In the song, Swift sings about the fascinating life of Rebekah Harkness—an American socialite who purchased Holiday House in 1948 with her second husband, Standard Oil heir William Harkness. Following her husband’s death, Harkness spent much of his fortune hosting lavish parties, buying her own ballet company, and pissing off her neighbors in the small resort community of Watch Hill along the way. After scouring through old newspapers and reading ‘Blue Blood,’ the out-of-print biography on Rebekah’s life, Alyssa breaks down the song line by line, revealing which of the wild anecdotes mentioned in the song are true (did Rebekah really dye her neighbor’s dog key lime green??), which aren’t, and what’s missing. She also shares her own theory about the lyrics, and why she thinks they may suggest that Holiday House is haunted by Rebekah’s ghost. Later, the co-hosts discuss Swift’s own struggles since buying the home in 2013, including her many (horrifying) encounters with stalkers trying to gain access to the property.  CREDITS Alyssa Fiorentino - Co-host & Producer Hadley Mendelsohn - Co-host & Producer Jessy Caron - Producer Jacob Stone - Sound Editor & Mixer To advertise on the show: https://www.advertisecast.com/DarkHouse or email us at [email protected].  RELATED LINKS Holiday House old postcard (PHOTO): bit.ly/3qG8dzS ‘Blue Blood’ by Craig Unger: https://amzn.to/3sjhuy9  ‘Watch Hill Through Time’ by Chaplin Bradford Barnes: https://amzn.to/45Bbb7B  “Taylor Swift: A former resident of your house would like to meet you” The Day (ARTICLE): bit.ly/44sIhpm  Watch Hill Historic District Nomination Form (PDF): bit.ly/3OKhWx4 Rebekah Harkness or Jane Lynch? (PHOTO): bit.ly/3KQigt5 Daimoku - Nam myoho renge kyo - 15 minutes (VIDEO): bit.ly/3OHG6bi ‘Blue Blood’ recap series by @JessiSwiftTok (TIKTOK): bit.ly/44iUsVt ‘Blue Blood’ analysis by @Kristina Parro (TIKTOK): bit.ly/3qLttnG Westerly RI including Taylor Swift's house...Ocean House Watch Hill DJI Phantom 4 Drone view in 4K (VIDEO): bit.ly/3OJjo2B Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

• 1 hr 33 min
• © Copyright 2021 Hearst Magazines. All Rights Reserved.

Customer Reviews

561 Ratings

I love knowing there are others out there with the same strange fascination I have with the super natural. I can’t stop listening to this podcast, the attention to details and great story telling are top notch!

Great hosts, interesting topics, thoughtfully researched.

This show gets better and better. Enjoying the new season!

Love this podcast. It’s fascinating how these old houses have an almost lifelike quality. Please do The House of Seven Gables!!

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Sowden House

The Sowden House with its distinctive entry and patterned concrete block facade was designed by noted architect Lloyd Wright.

Place Details

• Lloyd Wright

Designation

• Locally Designated

Property Type

• Single-Family Residential
• Private Residence - Do Not Disturb
• Los Angeles

The Sowden House was designed by noted architect Lloyd Wright, the son of Frank Lloyd Wright, for his friends John and Ruth Sowden. The Sowdens, who were part of the Hollywood film scene, wanted a house that would accommodate lavish parties and entertaining, and they encouraged Wright to create a distinctive showplace.

With a design incorporating patterned concrete blocks similar to those of Frank Lloyd Wright’s “textile block” houses (on which Lloyd collaborated), the house’s dramatic appearance evokes a sense of mystery and exoticism.

The street-facing façade is arranged in a stepped pyramid configuration that emphasizes the home’s central entrance. Visitors pass through copper gates with a stylized leaf-and-water motif and ascend the scissor-style stairs to the main entrance.

Inside, the house is rectangular in plan, with four connected wings around an enclosed central courtyard. This space was originally designed for open-air gatherings and musical or dramatic performances.

The house underwent a substantial renovation in 2001 that updated lighting, plumbing, and electrical systems and repaired many of the deteriorating concrete blocks. A swimming pool and spa were also added to the courtyard. Several rooms were reconfigured, though the home’s original façade has remained intact.

The Conservancy holds an easement protecting the house’s historic exterior, including the courtyard.

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Haunted Snowden House

• Ghosts and Hauntings

By Crusader1307

 The Sowden Home, located in Los Angeles, California – is a model of rather odd architecture. The strange facade rather resembles the ''jaws of some great animal''. It has also been compared to an Ancient Mayan Temple. But The Home was the brainchild of World renown (and still studied) Architect Frank Lloyd Wright. That alone is enough to find The Sowden House a registered State and National Historic Point of interest (which it is). It is also possibly the location of MANY unsolved murders and perhaps – was where one of California's (if not America) most horrendous murders of the 1940s. That particular victim's name was Elizabeth Short. History knows Her as ''The Black Dalhia''.   The year was 1947. World War II had been over barely 2 years and California was again a hub of great activity. From businesses and jobs catering to returning Veterans, to an uptake in California's main industry – Hollywood Films, just about everybody, everywhere – wanted to come to California and ''discovered''. Elizabeth Short was one such. Coming from Massachusetts, California had everything she wanted. But Hollywood was filled with very pretty girls (of which Short was just another one). She struggled to find and keep menial jobs while She tried out for every ''bit part'' that came along. Becoming sullen and refusing to go back East, Short turned to prostitution (so it was alleged and so too did The Los Angeles Police Department arrest and ''book'' Her for the charge). Short was a fixture in many ''seedier'' bars and nightspots. Her dark hair and dark looks earned Her the nickname by some, alluding to the recently released film ''The Blue Dalhia'' (1946) becoming ''The Black Dalhia''.   Enter our second ''character'' – one Dr. George Hodel. A well educated and multi-talent Physician, Hodel brought The Sowden House (which befitted His ''station'') Many parties were held inside and Hodel filled His home with fine Art. Married with Children, Hodel appeared to have a ''dark past''. Having been named as a sexual abuser in a Patient Case, it would be learned that Hodel liked ''trashy women'' and to beat and abuse them. Some even speculated that He drugged women and tortured them 9although must of this was never quite proved). Hodel also like to ''hang out'' in some of the same seedy Hollywood and Los Angeles Bars that Short did. With Her looks and outright ''desperate need'' to get into pictures, someone like Hodel would have jumped at the change to ''be with'' Her. Perhaps he was. On January 15, 1947, a Mother and child were walking down the sidewalk near Leimert Park. Much of the area (then) was still bordered by trees, open lots and tall grass. The Mother ''saw'' something ''very white'' laying in the grass. Closer investigation revealed the truth. It was a body – or rather ''two pieces'' of such. The Police were called and the investigation began in earnest. The victim was a female in Her 20s. She was nude. Further, the Killer had dissected the poor girl into two halves. The upper torso, head and arms were separated from Her lower abdomen and legs. Absolutely no blood was found. In fact much of the victims fluids had been drained. Finally, the victim's face bore the ''scars'' of what was known in Irish crime circles as ''The Glascow Smile''. This act involves the slicing of a 4-inch laceration, beginning with the end of the mouth opening (nearest the cheek) and cutting rearwards to the ear. This is done of both sides of the face. The County Coroner would arrive and take the victim. IT took little effort to identify ''Her'' as one Elizabeth Short.   The Coroner determined that Short was dead ''before'' she was cut in half – and even given Her ''smile''. Cause of death was from blunt force trauma to the rear of the head. Further She was obviously murdered someplace else. That ''location'' would be covered in blood, no doubt. The crime made the headlines of just about every Newspaper in The US. The Police began their search for a suspect. Which led them to Dr. Hodel. Hodel was well known as stated for His being under Police investigation for patient sexual abuse. Further work found the He had other victims – mostly ''loose women'' and prostitutes. Some stated that Hodel had abused Him, even stating He like to ''talk about dismemberment and torture''. The Police could not really establish any of this to the full extent of The Law. Hodel also may have had major connections within The City because of His wealth. No investigation of His House was conducted. And although several other suspects were advanced (some famous others not) – Hodel beat the Patient Abuse case and divorced His Wife. He would leave The US and settle in The Philippine Islands. Coming back to America in the mid-1990s, He would die in 1999 at the age of 91. Hodels Son – who would grow up to become an LAPD Detective, found evidence (letters), that He claimed shows His Father was not only the murderer of Short but MANY other women. He has put forth the theory that His Father would bring women back to His Sowden Home, drug and rape them. Short may have had a severe reaction to the drug and died or Hodel got to carried away and smashed Her in the head, killing Her. As a Doctor, He would definitely had the skill and training to perform the ghastly dissection of Short and dump Her remains. There are MANY variations. In the early 2000s, a Police Cadaver Canine was brought to The Sowden House. In the dank basement, full of crushed rock and dirt, the animal ''alerted'' to the presence (or one at one time presence) of human remains. The Police were none too interested. The case had been cold for 60 nearly 70 years. ANYONE involved with it would have been long dead. The location was NOT dug up. In 2012, a group of Paranormal Investigators had ''a crack'' at The House. An assigned Medium picked up ''dread dread and fear'' within the house. Further, ''something was present'' (but is is unclear as to if it is a Male or Female ''feeling''). Cold Spots and temperature variances were present withing the interior. However, an Electromagnetic Voice Experiment was conducted – without response. Not since London's ''Jack The Ripper'' Case of 1888 – had a single crime created such response by people. Seen as being the oldest unsolved murders in Los Angeles History, the real truth (and killer) may never be truly known. But in a peaceful cemetery in the City of Oakland, California – lies the simple flat plaque bearing the name of Elizabeth Short, ''The Black Dalhia''.

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Top 13 places in Russia where you may face a ghost

1. Kusovnikov House in Moscow

In the 19 th   century house № 17 on Myasnitskaya street in central Moscow was inhabited by a rich, but very greedy couple – Pyotr and Sofya Kusovnikov, who scrimped on almost everything. Extremely suspicious, they used to hide money from their servants in different places. Once they hid some in the fireplace, but the janitor accidentally burned it when lighting the fire. When she found out, Sofya died instantly of a broken heart, her husband passed away a little later. Since then, the ghost of a hunched old man in a coat has routinely appeared on the street near the house – this is Pyotr Kusovnikov mourning his lost money.

2. Sokol metro station

During WWI, not far from the modern Sokol station of the Moscow metro, a cemetery for fallen soldiers was located. In 1918, mass executions of White officers and priests by the Reds were held there. All this led to the appearance of ghosts in the dark tunnels of the station. Early in the morning diaphanous figures with festering wounds can be seen there.  

3. St. Michael’s Castle in St. Petersburg

This castle was a royal residence built by order of Tsar  Paul I. On March 21, 1801, he was killed there by a group of conspirators. It is considered that the restless spirit of the tsar was unable to leave the castle. It appears there in the corridors with a burning candle in its hand.

4.   Znamenskaya Tower in Yaroslavl

During the Civil War in Russia (1917-1922), a group of White troops held positions in the Volkovsky theater in Yaroslavl. The Red commissar in command of the siege promised to spare their lives. However, he lied and all the Whites were executed at the Znamenskaya Tower. Since then, the ghost of the commissar who didn’t keep his promise has been seen at the place of his crime.

5. Igumnov House in Moscow

The house at 43 Bolshaya Yakimanka Street in Moscow, also known as “Igumnov House,” serves today as the residence of the French ambassador. It was built at the request of the industrialist Nikolay Igumnov in the late 19 th   century. He settled his young mistress here, but one day caught her with a lover. The lover was kicked out, but the girl was never seen again. It is believed that the outraged Igumnov bricked her up in a wall. During Soviet times, people often saw the ghost of a young girl walking through the walls with deep, plaintive sighs.     

6. House of Rasputin in St. Petersburg

The flat on the second floor at 64 Gorokhovaya street in St. Petersburg is today a usual residential apartment. However, in the early 20th century it was home to one of the most mystical figures in Russian history – Grigory Rasputin. His ghost sometimes appears here, scaring inhabitants with its clunking steps and grunting in dark corners.

7. House on the Embankment

This house at 2 Serafimovicha Street, simply known as “House on Embankment,” is among the most famous in the Russian capital, known as the place of residence for the Soviet   crème de la crème : writers, artists, actors, generals, athletes. However, it also has a dark history. During the Great Purge, a campaign of political repressions in the USSR, dozens of the house’s inhabitants were arrested and executed. Today, the house is full of the ghosts of those victims, who sometimes appear in their old dwelling place. 

8. Tower of the old hospital in Ryazan

Among the high-rise modern buildings at 15 Gorky Street in Ryazan is an old tower – all that remains of the old hospital. At night, a lonely dark figure can be seen walking in this tower. This is the ghost of Alexander Smitten, who administered the hospital more than a century ago.

9. Griboyedov Canal in St. Petersburg

During a misty night in March, one can see the ghost of a young girl near the Griboyedov Canal in St. Petersburg. Her face is blue because of asphyxiation, and there is a big red mark on her neck caused by a rope. This is famous revolutionary Sophia Perovskaya, who assassinated Tsar Alexander II and was hanged for her deed. To meet this ghost is a bad omen, and can cost nocturnal pedestrians their lives.

10. Nizhny Novgorod Kremlin

There is a legend that when the Kremlin in Nizhny Novgorod was being built, the constructors were unable to finish one of the towers. It kept falling down. In the end, they decided to make a sacrifice and to build the tower on the blood of the first person who passed by. It happened to be a pregnant woman hurrying to the river for water. She was seized and bricked up in the tower alive. The ghost of a pale woman holding a baby has appeared near this place ever since.

11. Oldenburg Palace near Voronezh

Built in the late 19th century, the palace belonged to Princess Eugenia of Leuchtenberg. Today her ghost rises from the deep casemates of the palace to wander through its rooms and corridors. There is also another ghost there, much older — the ghost of a young peasant girl. It is even said that Princess Eugenia saw it when she was alive.

12. Stalin’s country house near Sochi

Stalin’s ghost can be seen at his country house, located today within the Green Groove hotel near Sochi. The “father of the nations” walks in his white jacket, smoking his trademark pipe.

13. Psychiatric hospital near Nizhny Novgorod

Near the modern psychiatric hospital in the village of Lyakhovo near Nizhny Novgorod, one can see an abandoned old building. Several dozen years ago a young girl hanged herself there because of unrequited love. At night it is possible to see a white silhouette and hear the moaning and cries of the “love-stricken schoolgirl” as the locals call her.

And if you want to see a UFO, here are several places in Russia where you will have a chance.

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Top 10 Most Haunted & Ghost Places in Russia

Being the largest country by area across the globe, Russia incorporates a vast range of landforms and spans a total of 11 time zones. It shares land borders with countries like Estonia, Finland, Norway, and Poland etc. and is known for covering over 1/8th of Earth’s occupied land area.

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There is no denying the fact that Russia is an incredibly wonderful country with beautiful churches and delicious cuisine but when it comes to horror , it takes you to a next level. that you will definitely end up having goosebumps on your next visit.

From Stalin’s country house to the Diamond mine in Yakutia, there are so many haunted places in Russia that you will remember for life.

List of top 10 most haunted and ghost places in Russia

10. nizhny novgorod kremlin, 9. griboyedov canal in st. petersburg, 8. tower of the old hospital in ryazan, 7. mikhailovsky castle, 5. obvodny canal, 4. northern crown – the stranded 5-star hotel, 3. mirny diamond mine, 2. the kusovnikov house in moscow, 1. the maternity hospital, what are the most haunted and ghost places in russia.

The Nizhny Novgorod Kremlin is a fortress in the center of Nizhny Novgorod and its oldest historical part, the main social and political and historical and artistic complex of the city.

The official residence of the Plenipotentiary Representative of the President of Russia in the Volga Federal District, the Governor of the Nizhny Novgorod Region and the Mayor of Nizhny Novgorod.

It is located on the right high bank, at the confluence of the Volga and Oka rivers. The northwestern part of the Kremlin descends almost to the foot of the slopes, the south-eastern part goes to Minin and Pozharsky Square, and the south-west part rises above the deep Pochainsky ravine and the People's Unity Square.

There is a legend that when the Kremlin in Nizhny Novgorod was being built, the constructors were unable to finish one of the towers. It kept falling down. In the end, they decided to make a sacrifice and to build the tower on the blood of the first person who passed by. It happened to be a pregnant woman hurrying to the river for water. She was seized and bricked up in the tower alive. The ghost of a pale woman holding a baby has appeared near this place ever since.

This is a narrow and twisting canal flowing through the very centre of St. Petersburg, between - and for most of its length parallel to - the Fontanka and Moyka Rivers. Although the canal is less than six kilometers in length, it is traversed by more than 21 bridges, many of them pedestrian. Only Obvodny Canal, with its 24 bridges, has more. The canal's embankment is five kilometers long and gives a broad panorama of St. Petersburg architecture spanning centuries and styles - from luxurious palaces and cathedrals to simple tenements of the beginning from the 20th century. The canal is also famous as the site where anarchist revolutionaries killed Russian Emperor Alexander II, undoubtedly one of the most high-profile terrorist attacks of the 19th century.

Griboedov Canal was built along the course of the small Krivusha River, which was here long before the construction of St. Petersburg. Houses for employees of the Navy Department were built on the right bank of the river in the 1730's. In 1737, the Krivusha River channel was connected to the Moyka. The new channel was named Konyushennaya, and the houses and barns of the Court Stables were located here. From 1759-1761, a mansion for General Villebois was built at the intersection of the canal and Nevsky Prospekt by Francesco Bartolomeo Rastrelli. Here, during the 1820s and 30s, millionaire Baron Vasily Engelhardt held the best masquerades and balls in the city, and it now hosts concerts of chamber music in the Maly (Small) Hall of the St. Petersburg Philharmonia.

During a misty night in March, one can see the ghost of a young girl near the Griboyedov Canal in St. Petersburg. Her face is blue because of asphyxiation, and there is a big red mark on her neck caused by a rope. This is famous revolutionary Sophia Perovskaya, who assassinated Tsar Alexander II and was hanged for her deed. To meet this ghost is a bad omen, and can cost nocturnal pedestrians their lives.

Among the high-rise modern buildings at 15 Gorky Street in Ryazan is an old tower – all that remains of the old hospital. At night, a lonely dark figure can be seen walking in this tower. This is the ghost of Alexander Smitten, who administered the hospital more than a century ago.

The Mikhailovsky Castle is both a beautiful and unusual architectural phenomenon for St. Petersburg and was a silent witness to some interesting episodes in the dramatic story of the short-lived reign of Emperor Paul I, son of Catherine the Great. Catherine overthrew her husband Peter III to gain access to the Russian Imperial throne and then ruled the country until her death in 1796. By then her son Paul was 42 years old and would normally have already taken over the mantle of power from his mother. However, neither the nobility nor the royal guards liked or respected Paul and he lived his life in constant fear of assassination. In order to allay these fears he ordered a fortified palace (a castle surrounded by deep ditches) to be built for him. According to a legend, one of the soldiers guarding the construction site experienced a vision of the Archangel Michael guarding the castle alongside him. This was reported to the Emperor and the castle was given the name Mikhailovsky (St Michael's).

The Mikhailovsky Castle is well known for two reasons: Firstly, it is St Petersburg’s only castle, and secondly, it is the home of the city’s most famous ghost, tsar Pavel I. The building of the castle was his initiative, and after it was completed, it became his refuge. Pavel was murdered by a drunken mob of soldiers who were only supposed to arrest him so that his son could take the throne. His life was also brimming with auspiciousness: he ruled exactly four years, four months and four days, and he lived in his castle for only 40 days. According to legend, there is a particular window in the castle, where he can be seen playing the violin, his favourite instrument.

At the corner of Gorokhovaya Str and the Fontanka embankment, there’s a house built in the end of the 18th century. It is a typical building in St. Petersburg, but…

Here you can find the most mystical spot in the city – the Rotunda.

It is a round building with six free-standing columns. The bends of the walls repeat the lines of the stairs aspiring endlessly upwards.

The Rotunda earned its cult status in the ’70 – ’80s of the last century with the rise of the population of informal Soviet youth movements and subcultures: rockers, hippies, punks.

There are a ton of legends surrounding this place. For example, dreams and wishes written on the walls of the Rotunda may come true. But this is not the only legend. Someone called this place the center of the universe, since the Rotunda is located at intersection of the meridians of the St. Petersburg hexagon.

There is also a legend about a young man who went down into the basement of the house, got into the parallel world and spent there about 15 minutes. When he came back he looked like an old man.

Many believe that at midnight you can meet Satan here. During the times of the Russian Empire the Rotunda was a meeting place for Freemasons. It was also the favorite place of Grigory Rasputin.

At some point Obvodny Canal had served as a city frontier. While the Fontanka had been the city frontier of the 18th century, in the 19th century the city border ran along Obvodny Canal, with the suburbs on the other bank. And while the city border had advanced significantly since then, the look of Obvodny Canal had changed over the past 20th century, and “city outskirts” now means something different, it still feels “uptownish” in some way even today. Obvodny Canal is not only a hydrotechnical facility of cutting-edge quality for its time and an important waterway between the port and the upper Neva; it is also a part of the city’s artistic image, as significant for the city’s culture as Nevsky Prospekt. At least without Obvodny Canal the perception of St. Petersburg would be incomplete. St. Petersburg had always presented a dichotomy of two likenesses – the solemn, official and beautiful, and the industrial, noisy, smoggy and unkempt. Both likenesses, however, comprised the unique whole – the capital of the Russian Empire. Both of these likenesses had had an influence on the development of the city.

Obvodny Canal is one of the main artificial water arteries of St. Petersburg and the longest of all at 8 km. The canal currently serves as a conditional border of the southern industrial belt of the city. Many of the buildings along Obvodny Canal, civil and industrial constructions, bridges and support walls, are of considerable historic and architectural value. The current architectural environment along the canal shores is of very individual nature and is an inalienable part of St. Petersburg, like Nevsky Prospekt, Kolomna, Vasilyevsky Island.

Obvodny Canal is the longest artificial canal in St Petersburg that used to serve as the southern boundary of the city. Despite not being very deep, it has been the location of many suicide attempts, most of them successful. Those who’ve been saved have said that they didn’t mean to commit suicide. They just felt an overwhelming force to jump in. Some say it comes from the restless souls in the canal craving company. If you do decide to visit, don’t stand too close to the water.

It should be bustling with wealthy holiday makers and business executives but instead this crumbling five star hotel lies empty after the stunning project was mothballed nearly two decades ago.

The 247 rooms of the Northern Crown Hotel have never been slept in, and the corridors of what should have been a grand lobby are filled with an eerie silence.

The luxury hotel was set to be a premier St. Petersburg destination when construction began in the Russian city in 1988.

However, workers downed tools at the hotel in 1995, with the building 90 per cent complete after a bank which had been helping to finance the construction ran into financial troubles.

Although several attempts have been made to recommence building work have been made, the unfinished hotel was instead left dormant and is now due to be demolished.

Work had begun on the hotel in the late 80s by the firm Monteksgroeksport, based in what was then Yugoslavia, after the project was commissioned by the Soviet government.

But, the destiny had some other plans since its construction was almost completed when the project was abruptly stopped due to the lack of money. Then what happened was the destruction of this glorious hotel as it eventually became an abandoned place and never had the opportunity to host any visitor. Plenty of locals also believe that this unfortunate event is related to the demise of Metropolitan Ioann of St. Pete. He died in Northern Crown during a reception in the honor of the 5oth birthday of Bank St. Petersburg. Even today, the rooms look as luxurious as ever but the building cannot get repaired now.

The Mir mine, also called the Mirny mine, is an open pit diamond mine located in Mirny, Sakha Republic, in the Siberian region of eastern Russia. The mine is more than 525 meters (1,722 ft) deep (4th in the world), has a diameter of 1,200 m (3,900 ft), and is one of the largest excavated holes in the world.

Open-pit mining began in 1957 and was discontinued in 2001. Since 2009, it has been active as an underground diamond mine.

The diamond-bearing deposits were discovered on June 13, 1955, by Soviet geologists Yuri Khabardin, Ekaterina Elagina and Viktor Avdeenko during the large Amakinsky Expedition in Yakut ASSR. They found traces of the volcanic rock kimberlite, which is usually associated with diamonds. This finding was the second success in the search for kimberlite in Russia, after numerous failed expeditions of the 1940s and 1950s. (The first was Zarnitsa mine, 1954.) For this discovery, in 1957 Khabardin was given the Lenin Prize, one of the highest awards in the Soviet Union.

Are you someone who is fascinated about those mysteries about Bermuda Triangle and wish to visit a place like this? If yes, then you must go to the Mirny Diamond Mine at least once in your lifetime to witness something extraordinary. Once a source of jobs and revenue for the Russians, this place was earlier known for producing the most amount of the precious Russian diamonds. The city that surrounded this huge mine was full used to be a busy one with a lot of happy and cheerful citizens.

Although this deserted mine is now closed till now, there has been not been any clear scientific explanation of why every helicopter that flew above this hole got sucked into it. Strange for a diamond mine, isn’t it? Well, if you wish to visit the popular scary places in Russia , then do not forget to pay a visit here and explore the mystery of this place.

Situated on the Myasnitskaya Street in the Central Moscow, this 19th century House No.17 was used to be the residence of Pyotr and Sofya who were extremely greedy. They were also very suspicious about whether their money is safe or not and that is why they used to hide it in different and unusual places.

They adopted this trick so that none can steal their money but what they didn’t know was that one day, it would be the reason for their own destruction. It is said that one unfortunate night, the caretaker accidentally burned their hidden money in the fireplace and they died on the spot due to the shock. Since that day, a lot of people have witnessed the ghost of an old humped man, considered by them as Pyotr Kusovnikov on the nearby street who mourns the loss of his money. So, if you are planning to take a night walk on this street, make sure to think twice before you end up bumping into him.

It was built on a territory of the hospital constructed for the participants of the patriotic war that took place in 1812. After becoming the maternity hospital in the 2nd half of 20th century, it was closed due to reconstruction in the year 2009. Despite the fact that this building has been abandoned for so many years, it is quite astonishing to witness that the hospital still has the central heating which is rather clean. There is a reason why it comes under the category of the most haunted places in Russia as the place looks like the torture chamber from a horror movie.

The Maternity hospital has been the major tourist attraction for a long time and a lot of enthusiastic bloggers often come here on a regular basis to find out the reason behind the peculiarity of this building. What adds to the weirdness of this place is the fact that a lot of pregnant Russian women want to deliver their baby in this particular hospital. This is the perfect place for those who had a thing for scary hospitals and its creepy corridors.

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Historic haunts: Can you guess which West Palm Beach haunted house Zak Bagans has visited?

Palm Beach may not be as haunted as St. Augustine reportedly is, but we have some ghost stories of our own in South Florida.

Palm Beach is actually rumored to share a ghost with Florida’s oldest town: the spirit of Florida oil tycoon Henry Flagler, who died 110 years ago in 1913. And Flagler isn’t the only spirit rumored to roam the Palm Beaches. There have long been whispers of a witch that traps the souls of children in a coral cliff underneath a castle beside the ocean and gossip of graves forgotten under buildings.

If you’re interested in taking a self-guided ghost tour this Halloween, here’s a roundup of some spooky spaces in Palm Beach County.

Who needs haunted houses? What to know about I-4's 'Dead Zone,' Florida's haunted highway

Where is the Witches Wall in Palm Beach?

The Witch’s Wall, or Witch’s Castle, is tucked right behind the Palm Beach Country Club and The Beach Club on Country Club Road. The road cuts through a mini mountain of coral, creating rock “walls” on both sides of the street. 

At the top of the coquina mound sits a castle-like house. Below the house, in the wall of rock beside the road, there’s a hole with bars on the opening. It looks like a small, rugged jail cell if you’re just driving by. That barred hole has been the genesis of generations of local campfire stories: From the story of a mother forever mourning the death of her only son, to an unhinged witch who once lived atop the hill and trapped children in the coral jail cell.

But we do know what's behind the bars at the Witch’s Wall today. It’s a water pump, as the area is the location of a water pumping station for West Palm Beach, according to a 2015 article from the Palm Beach Daily News .

Cost and how to visit: It's free to visit the Witch's Wall, but there isn't a sidewalk or safe space to stand near it on the road. Your best bet is to take a scenic drive through the coral cut and slow down to catch a glimpse if you can.

You can find more on all the local legends tied to the Witch’s Wall in Palm Beach here .

Is Henry Flagler’s Palm Beach mansion haunted?

In February 1902, Henry Flagler and his third wife, Mary Lily Kenan Flagler, moved into a stunning 75-room mansion that still stands in Palm Beach today . Some say they never left. Flagler died in 1913, partly due to injuries he sustained from a fall he took in his Gilded Age mansion. Mary Lily died four years after him, in 1917.

In 1974, a night watchman for Flagler’s former mansion said he woke up from a nap at 3:30 a.m. one night to find Flagler’s ghost standing in front of him . He claimed to have gotten a good look at Flagler, who was wearing a dark suit and tie, before he vanished.

According to the blog Hauntedhovel.com , Flagler’s ghost is still fairly active in the mansion and is reported to dim lights and be heard walking through empty rooms and corridors.

“There are many stories about how he likes to make himself known, with the common reports of his presence coming from the area which used to be his offices,” the website says. “He was known to spend huge amounts of time in his office and it seems even after his death he's not prepared to let it go.”

Cost and how to visit: If you buy a ticket to visit the Henry Morrison Flagler Museum , which includes Flagler's mansion, you can take a free tour. The museum offers free tours every week, from Tuesday through Saturday at 11 a.m., 12:30 p.m. and 2 p.m. and Sundays at 1 p.m.

Admission to the museum is $26 for adults and 13 and older and $13 for kids ages six through 12. Admission is free for kids 5 years old or younger.

Were bodies found under the Norton Museum of Art?

In October 1902, Richard Hone, a pineapple grower whose house still stands in West Palm Beach, was murdered in that home on Plymouth Road. Hone sat at his kitchen table, writing a letter to his sister in England. His wife, Mary, sat close by reading, when one of Hone's employees fired a gun through their window, killing Richard. 

The cemetery that Hone was buried in, Lakeside Cemetery, was given to the city of West Palm Beach to be turned into a park, which Art Collector Ralph Norton eventually flipped into an art museum. The city moved all the burials across the street, to Woodlawn Cemetery – or so they thought.

In 1985, Richard Hone’s headstone and a few other forgotten graves were found in a crawl space underneath the Norton Museum of Art’s auditorium.

Cost and how to visit: You can buy general admission tickets to visit the Norton Museum of Art here . Admission for students is only $5 with a valid school ID and $15 for seniors. General admission for all other adults is $18. Kids 12 and under get in free.

What is the haunting of the Riddle House?

Continuing with the trend of early 20th century haunts: Last but certainly not least on this list is the Riddle House (no, not the one from “Harry Potter”). This West Palm Beach historical house was built in 1905 and is one of the most haunted places in Palm Beach County.

It’s actually haunted enough to have earned a visit from the king of ghost hunting, Travel Channel’s Zak Bagans.

“The Riddle House is one of the most active haunts in southern Florida,” According to Ghost Adventures ’ page on Travel Channel’s website. “One visitor who had arranged for a private tour was struck in the head by a piece of wood in the staircase.”

Bagans and his crew spent a night locked inside the house in 2008. The Riddle House episode was the fourth episode of the show’s first season and aired in November 2008. 

The house was originally used as a funeral parlor and later used as a private residence for West Palm Beach’s first City Manager and Superintendent of Public Works, Karl Riddle. The home used to sit next to Woodlawn Cemetery. It was the house for those who oversaw the cemetery and kept an eye out for grave robbers. 

In the 1920s, when Riddle became the city manager, a part of the job was to oversee the cemetery, so he moved into the house. Soon after, one of Riddle’s employees took his own life in the attic, which sparked a series of unfortunate events.

Afterward, Riddle couldn’t seem to keep his household staffed. Employees reported hearing chains rattling on the stairs and murmuring voices and most quit.

That was just the beginning of decades of paranormal activity. Although the house has been moved across town, to Yesteryear Village, rumors of hauntings remain. Some have reported a woman in white who disappears when she is approached.

Are you brave enough to tour the Riddle House?

Cost and how to visit: Yesteryear Village at the South Florida Fairgrounds is open on Thursdays, Fridays and Saturdaysfrom 10:00 a.m. through 4:00 p.m. Admission is $10 for adults, $7 for seniors, $7 for kids ages six through 11 and free for kids ages 5 and under.

It will be closed Saturday, October 14, Thursday, October 19, and Thursday, October 26 and Friday, October 27.

If you want to take a guided spooky ghost hunting tour through the Riddle House and the rest of the village, there will be one this Saturday. The guided ghost tour is $35 per person and there is a maximum amount of 30 people that can go on the tour. You can buy tickets here.

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Creep, sneak, and dash your way through hordes of ghouls and eerie ectoplasms in this roguelite reimagining of the classic Atari adventure!

Chills and stealthy thrills abound In Haunted House, a reimagining of the classic Atari adventure! Players take control of Lyn Graves, the precocious niece of legendary treasure hunter Zachary Graves. Lyn visits her uncle’s mansion with her closest compatriots, only to find the house overrun with ghouls and monsters who quickly grab and spirit away her friends. In order to free her uncle and her friends, and capture all the supernatural foes, Lyn must find the shattered pieces of a magical urn and put them back together. Through procedurally generated room layouts, shifting walls, unpredictable enemy placements, and unique ghostly encounters, Lyn must creep, sneak, and dash her way through hordes of ghouls and eerie ectoplasms in order to locate her friends and uncle. Each urn shard is fiercely guarded by a bone-chilling boss — with 3D isometric stealth gameplay, Lyn must think on her feet to conquer each challenge. When she gets knocked out by a shadowy specter, she winds up back at the Haunted House’s entrance and must face an entirely new floor layout and enemy placement, ensuring each run is unique. Features Resurrected Roguelite: Haunted House doubles down on stealth and mystifying challenges while adding roguelite elements, ensuring no two runs are the same. All-Ages Thrill Ride: The whimsical, cartoonish art style only thinly veils the chills and thrills in Haunted House! Expertly riding the line between goofy and spooky, Haunted House features primarily stealth-based gameplay and light combat sequences. Unlockable Characters: As Lyn explores the Haunted House, she’ll free her trapped friends, who become playable characters you can use to dive deeper into the mansion. Each friend possesses different stats, so depending on who you explore the mansion with, it’ll be a new experience! Atari Easter Eggs: The game is full of collectibles and lore based on the original Haunted House and other classic favorites from Atari’s golden age. Sneaky Shivers: With combat de-emphasized, players must focus on stealth movement and solving challenges unseen in the shadows, along with utilizing the arsenal of traps and items at their disposal to distract the ghoulies hunting Lyn. Lyn must collect gems to power up the skills and perks that make her that much stronger during the next trip through the mansion’s labyrinth.

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© 2023 Atari Interactive, Inc. ATARI, the ATARI logo, and HAUNTED HOUSE and its logo, are trademarks of Atari Interactive, Inc. in the U.S. and other countries. All rights reserved.