Rispin Mansion (Capitola, California)

 ruins, place with historical importance, mansion / manor house / villa, closed, historical building

This four story, 22 room mansion of approximately 7,106 square feet, was built by Canadian-born Henry Allen Rispin in 1921, two years after he purchased the entire seaside resort of "Camp Capitola." The home is designed in a combination of Mission, Spanish Colonial, and Mediterranean architecture styles. Rispin built the mansion to be a draw to, and feature of the resort community of Capitola, using it to entertain and convince potential buyers of the charm of the area he was developing, and never intending to live there. He proved to be a rather absent landowner and the estate fell into disrepair, and was sold by Rispin 10 years later, to a speculator associate of his, who also neglected the property. Eventually it was sold to the Catholic order the Oblates of St. Joseph which used it as a convent until 1957 when the nuns abandoned the property due to its chilliness and strange attraction it had with the local population.