Lifestyle

The Largest Historic Homes In America

By Julie Zeveloff
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Sprawling estates built by titans of industry.

biltmore
Wikimedia Commons

Forget Yuri Milner's Silicon Valley megamansion and David Tepper's $44 million Hamptons teardown -- America's most opulent homes were built decades ago by titans of industry like Alfred I. du Pont and William Randolph Hearst.

The largest historic homes in America, all built before 1952, are sprawling estates located in every corner of the country.

Some are now publicly owned, others are still in private hands.

NEMOURS, WILMINGTON, DEL: 47,000 square feet. This estate, built for industrialist Alfred I. du Pont in 1910, is now open for public tours.

nemours
Wikimedia Commons

WALKER McCUNE MANSION, PARADISE VALLEY, ARIZ: 52,000 square feet. Built for an oil tycoon, this six-acre estate was once owned by the heiress to the Hormel Foods fortune.

mccune mansion
via Luxist

THE WHITE HOUSE, WASHINGTON, DC: 55,000 square feet. The press briefing room in the President's official residence was once a swimming pool built for Franklin Roosevelt.

white house
Wikimedia Commons

WHITEHALL, PALM BEACH, FLA: 60,000 square feet. Henry Flagler, a co-founder of Standard Oil who built this mansion 1902, died after falling down a flight of marble stairs in the home at age 83.

flagler
Wikimedia Commons

HEARST CASTLE, SAN SIMEON, CALIF: 60,645 square feet. This castle, built for newspaper magnate William Randolph Hearst and completed in 1947, has 56 bedrooms and 61 bathrooms.

hearst castle
Wikimedia Commons

STAN HYWET HALL, AKRON, OHIO: 64,500 square feet. The name of this estate, built for a founder of the Goodyear Tire & Rubber Co., means "stone quarry" in Old English.

stan hywet
Wikimedia Commons

THE BREAKERS, NEWPORT, RI: 65,000 square feet. The mansion, completed in 1895, was built as the summer home of Cornelius Vanderbilt II.

breakers RI
Wikimedia Commons

LYNNEWOOD HALL, ELKINS PARK, PA: 70,000 square feet. The grounds of this 110-room, Gilded Age estate were used to train military dogs during World War II.

lynnewood
Wikimedia Commons

MEADOW BROOK HALL, ROCHESTER HILLS, MICH: 88,000 square feet. Scenes from "Transformers 3" were filmed at this estate, built by the wife of auto pioneer John Francis Dodge.

meadowbrook
Wikimedia Commons

WINTERTHUR, WINTERTHUR, DEL: 96,582 square feet. This 175-room house, once the home of Henry Francis du Pont , is now a museum that houses around 85,000 objects.

winterthur
Wikimedia Commons

OHEKA CASTLE, HUNTINGTON, NY: 109,000 square feet. Completed in 1915, this Long Island mansion was built as the country home of financier and philanthropist Otto Kahn.

oheka
Wikimedia Commons

BILTMORE ESTATE, ASHEVILLE, NC: 175,000 square feet. This 8,000-acre estate is still owned by one of builder George Washington Vanderbilt II's descendants.

biltmore
Wikimedia Commons

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zitona via flickr

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Julie Zevelof West on grey background
Julie Zeveloff
Julie Zeveloff West is Director of Editorial Product Strategy at Business Insider. She was previously Chief of Staff to Business Insider's editor-in-chief.Julie was the editor-in-chief of the Life division, where she oversaw Business Insider's entertainment, health, food, travel, style, parenting, and digital culture coverage. She was also a Deputy Editor for the site's business section, where she oversaw the lifestyle, transportation, retail, education, and lists & rankings sections, as well as its social media and graphic design teams. Before joining Business Insider in 2010, she was a reporter at Law360, where she covered international trade.In 2019, she was chosen as one of the Folio: Top Women in Media honorees in the Up and Comers category. Julie graduated from Cornell University and holds a master's degree from Columbia University's Graduate School of Journalism.
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