Eccentric Homes

The humble home where the famous beat author lived briefly and wrote one of his most famous works.

The former home of Samuel Clemens and family remembers the happiest period of the author's life.

This community on a small Venetian island has taken to painting their houses in bright neon hues.

This Italianate Villa-style castle is pretty to look at, just keep off the private property.

A geometric jumble of homes.

Sitting on an Italian hilltop is this surreal fortress built by the mad inventor of electrohomeopathy.

This posh mansion began as a family's estate and ended as the site of a murder ripped from the pages of a pulp novel.

A folk art mecca famous among outsider art fans.

A wacky two-story folk-art assemblage of carved and found objects, with lights, motion, and sound now in need of financial support.

The house that birthed The Old Man and The Sea is now a museum devoted to the old man who wrote it.

This lavish estate recalls the opulent history of Calcutta.

This simple apartment may have inspired some of the most important theories in the history of science.

The world's largest ginkgo tree contains a hollow so large a man once lived in it for two years.

What was once a trend-setting, phrase-coining icon of architectural splendor is now a rotting, forgotten hulk.

Built as a gift to the hottest tastemaker of the time, these hidden quarters remain an Art Deco showpiece.

Art and armour fill every inch of this rich kid's Italian villa.

The home of one of California's most important horticulturalists wilts amidst a lovely park.

California's own medieval Italian castle, authentic down to the 300-year-old iron maiden in the dungeon.