Abandoned Lottery Winner's Mansion with a Moldy Basement Movie Theater

I was told this mansion belonged to lottery winners who went bankrupt, and it still looks like it was built to impress. Three peaks up top, windows everywhere, a big chandelier inside and vines climbing one side of the house. Then you reach the basement.

The description gives the story as I got it. A doctor and his wife bought the house in 2016 after they won the lottery. After the money was spent, the family forgot about taxes, and the mansion was taken from them. It was listed for sale in 2018 and never sold. The exact location stays off this page.

What we found

From the driveway the place looks phenomenal. The old cameras are still on the walls, the lights have been removed and the door was wide open. Inside, the chandelier is still hanging, but the power is off, so I tried the lights and nothing came on. There’s popcorn ceiling, a stack of doors just laying there, peeling paint, a fireplace, a little graffiti and mold on the ceiling. The garage door looked secured from the inside.

Then there’s an abandoned pool, and another garage door was open. Inside was a lot of random garage stuff and a lot of trash, including an LG TV, a car radio and a little light with crystals on it. It’s a three car garage, and I said that’s really cool.

The kitchen is very pretty, with wood cabinets, a little oven and a pantry, and it would have had a view of the pool. Somewhere in that part of the house somebody had spray painted help me. Upstairs there’s a throw rug and an American flag, and I got a close up of the chandelier. The alarm panels are still on the wall, so this thing had alarms and cameras.

The room I figured was the master bedroom has a jacuzzi with a fireplace and a beautiful window. There’s a stand up shower with brass colored fixtures, a big walk in closet and some attic space. The other bedrooms and bathrooms didn’t have much in them, and there was a lot of mold on the ceilings.

The basement is where it gets bad. The mold looks really bad down there, lots of black mold, and it smells so bad too. There’s an at home gym with gym floor mats and equipment, and the floor was a little wet. There’s an office, a wine cellar with ventilation and the furnace. I told myself not to take too long down there because of the mold.

The last room was an at home movie theater, and the mold had covered all three chairs, the walls and the curtains. Somebody had spray painted what looked like leave on the wall. The controls and the projector were still there, and the seats reclined and had cup holders. I got out of that basement before I got sick.

My verdict was that it’s a very cool house in a sad state, and nobody can fix it up with a basement like that. It’s going to get demolished. On the way out I stopped to film the trees, which were all turning color.

Why places like this end up empty

I can’t confirm the family’s story. I haven’t opened court or county records for this house, so the doctor, the lottery and the taxes stay as they were given to me. What I can do is check whether the tax part is plausible on paper. The IRS tip sheet on gambling income says winnings are taxable, treats lottery prizes as gambling income, and says the payer may send a Form W-2G, with a copy going to the IRS.

The mold is easier to explain. The EPA says controlling indoor moisture controls the growth of indoor mold, and that wet buildings need to be dried within 24 to 48 hours. It says mold can grow on virtually any organic material as long as moisture and oxygen are present, and it names wood, paper, carpet and insulation. A basement in a house with the power off has nothing running to dry it out, and a house that sits long enough ends up like that theater.