#TravelTuesday – Houston’s Mystery Mansion on Wichita Street

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Our haunted Travel Tuesdays are coming to a close, my spooky friends. And what a fun summer we’ve had hitting up spooky spots all over the United States! Just in case you missed any, here is a reminder of where we’ve been:

Today I wanted to bring things back home and share a cool spot in Houston you should check out when you visit. Last summer I put together a list of 8 haunted locations in the Bayou City – many of which are well-known.

 

But none are quite like the Mystery Mansion on Wichita Street…

 

 

2309 Wichita Street is just 1.6 miles away from the Spooky Little Apartment. While it isn’t clear whether or not the house is actually haunted, it’s kind of like our own local Winchester Mystery House!

 

Here’s the back story:

The structure was built in 1935, and in addition to being a home over the past 80+ years, it has also served as duplex apartments and even a day care center in the 1960s. 1980, however, is when Charlie Fonden purchased the home and things began to get interesting.

When it was purchased, the home had sat vacant for five years, was infested with termites and had no air conditioning. For most people in Houston, the lack of air conditioning alone would be a deal breaker.

But not Fonden – he had a vision.

Inspired by his love of architecture, Fonden set to work repairing the home. When Hurricane Alicia took off the house’s roof in 1983, Fonden decided this was his opportunity to expand. Instead of replacing the roof, he built a full third story onto the home, complete with a pair of turrets.

From there, the house began to grow. A 2001 interview with the Houston Press suggests the nonstop renovations came from a love of building with Popsicle sticks as a child. The article says Fonden would build structures with the sticks, only to burn them down and build again – this time bigger and better.

 

 

Over the years, the house grew more: a circular deck here, an elevator there. The expansion was slow but never stopped and was never a challenge – the real challenge was finding contractors who would give estimates prior to taking on the work. Fonden’s plans weren’t for an ordinary Houston home, after all. He finally found two independent contractors and a structural engineer to work with.

That work continued right up to Fonden’s death in 2011. (He fell ill in Barbados while on a cruise and passed away before returning home.)

The home was bought by a bank following Fonden’s death and sat vacant for three years before it was purchased yet again in 2014, this time by a real estate investor. (And purchased for nearly double the asking price are an alleged $251,000.)

It’s worth noting that Houston has no zoning laws and most older properties bought these days are immediately bulldozed in favor of more modern homes or, *cringe*, yet another highrise apartment building…

Thankfully, the new owner, Nick Ugarov, says he will restore the home and complete the renovations Fonden wasn’t able to complete himself.

For now, I suppose I’ll just have to wait and see what happens next to our local mystery mansion.

By the way, you can take a peek inside over on Swamp Lot’s website.

 

 

So now that we’ve traveled the country finding spooky spots to vacation…

 

Which #TravelTuesday spot would you most like to visit?

As always, share your thoughts in the comments.

Happy haunting,

 

 

 

Miranda | Spooky Little Halloween

Miranda is the Houston-based writer, blogger, and Halloween lover behind Spooky Little Halloween, the blog celebrating October 31st all year long. Her favorite Halloween things include pumpkin guts, chocolate bars in her trick-or-treat pail, real haunted houses (including the one she lives in!), and historic cemeteries.

3 Comments

  1. Reply

    Chelsea Celaya

    September 12, 2017

    Freaky! It is almost very much like the Winchester Mystery House in respect to the constant building and renovating. I’ve never been to it (even though it’s only 30 minutes away from my home – at one point, I lived less than a mile down the street from it!), but even all the spooky stories aside, the architecture would be the main draw for me. The Mystery Mansion looks like it’d do the same. It looks really gorgeous! Do they do tours or guides or anything or do people just drive by and look at the outside while the current owner works on the renovations?

    • Reply

      Miranda | Spooky Little Halloween

      September 14, 2017

      No tours at this house – it has always been a personal residence. When I drove by to get my photos, there were some contractors pulled up out front so I’m curious to see if anything on the exterior is changed next time I get a chance to drive by.

      I can’t believe you’ve never been to the Winchester Mystery House despite being that close…but then, that’s kind of how things go, right? We forget to visit the sites in our own backyards. I know they do some special Halloween tours in October. Might be fun to check out!

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