A Lakefront Mansion Built in 1897 That a Russian Billionaire Bought for $16 Million

This mansion sits on a lake, was built in 1897, and was designed by a very famous architect. A Russian billionaire bought it for $16 million. Nobody knows his plans for the property other than tearing the house down, and locals believe he went back to Russia and dropped the project. The exact location stays off this page.

The last family to live here moved in during the 1960s. They ran a Christmas company together until the wife passed away, and the husband died a few years after her. The house sat empty for many years before the sale.

What we found

The outside has pillars, a frosted glass I couldn’t identify that looks like a snowflake pattern, and a bird’s nest sitting in one of the light fixtures. The big green front door opened right up for us. Inside is green tile, some kind of heater I’m guessing, and a staircase of solid hardwood.

Next to the staircase is a stair lift chair, the kind made for someone who can’t climb steps. I couldn’t tell if it works. It isn’t plugged in. Up top there are heavy curtains and a small indoor patio, with a material I couldn’t place that might have been marble or ivory.

The living room has big pocket doors that slide right into the wall. The room I took for a library or office has a solid stone fireplace and built in bookcases, and a trophy collection on the shelves. Some were poker trophies. Another read second place for a team of four, and there was an individual champion. It’s strange to find trophies in a house where everything else is gone. The dining room had a big chandelier once, and the back patio looks straight out at the lake, with a shed back there that’s falling apart.

The first kitchen is a small one with a sink and a fridge. The wall lights with crystals on them still work. The main kitchen has lots of cabinet space, a stove, ovens, a dishwasher, and a big green sink with a garbage disposal, with tile work all the way around. It’s dated. The shelving looks like whoever lived here did their own woodworking, and I found a book about railroads and postmarks.

The basement is where it gets odd. A spiral staircase leads down to rooms of shelves, and the air smells moldy and like wood, a lot like the moldy sauna I found once. Some boards are completely rotten and the pipes are wrapped in what looks like spray foam. Then the McDonald’s stuff starts. Ronald McDonald items, a Grimace, Dixie cups, and a box labeled 25 pound tomatoes. The fridge down there still works. Under every shelf hang little vines, thin and delicate, through the entire basement. In the middle of all this was a Michael Jordan Chicago Bulls trophy. I wondered if the owner was some kind of collector.

Upstairs, the old owner would have sat at one window and watched the driveway. One room has green and yellow flower wallpaper with something leaking through it, a solid marble fireplace and lots of storage. Several bathrooms have brass handles and one looks out on the lake. The wallpaper is peeling because the air conditioning got shut off and it turned humid. There is a laundry room, a few locked doors, and one room with a jack in the box pattern all the way around that I took for a kid’s or baby’s room.

Even the attic is carpeted. It smells musty and it’s mostly empty, with a few organizers and a painting or drawing of a bear. There’s a guest house at the front that the new owner is keeping, so I didn’t go in. The greenhouse out back is falling apart, and I think it’s going to be removed.

Why places like this end up empty

I said the pattern out loud in the video. The owners pass away or run into money trouble, the kids don’t want the house, and the next buyer doesn’t want to fix up something that costs more than building new.

Reporting on other estates backs that up. A different lakefront mansion, a former Pillsbury family estate, was listed in 2007 for $53.5 million. After about a decade with no buyer it was relisted at $7.9 million, with 3.3 acres and 415 feet of shoreline left after the original 13 acres were split into five lots. The city issued a demolition permit because the house had no historic designation, and the new owner planned a single family home, according to the Star Tribune in 2018.

Midwest Design quoted an architect saying it’s difficult to find an owner interested in something that specific. A preservationist in the same piece said anyone with enough money for the land will gladly tear these houses down.

The guest house in front is staying. The rest of the property is slated to come down.