Entry No. 22 — the Santa Cruz file — filed under: abandoned mansion

Rispin Mansion Community Park

Built in 1921 not as a home but as a 22-room real-estate showroom to lure Depression-era investors, Henry Rispin's mansion went bankrupt, became a convent, then sat vandalized and abandoned for over two decades, earning a 'cursed' reputation investigated by the Santa Cruz Ghost Hunters — a 2009 fire gutted three-quarters of it, and 2012 repairs sealed the shell shut for good, so today the mansion is permanently locked but the surrounding grounds just reopened as public parkland.

The move: Walk the newly opened park grounds around the sealed, fire-scarred mansion at dusk — you can circle the exterior of a building nobody has been allowed inside in over a decade — then buy an engraved brick for the park's walkway if the ruin gets its hooks in you.

• 📍 Capitola
• 💸 $$
• ⚡ Up for anything
• 🌗 Indoors

Where: 2200 Wharf Rd, Capitola, CA 95010

Hours: Added 2026-07-20 — confirm current hours before you go.

Plan a visit & invite your people →

Further reading: Wikipedia · cityofcapitola.gov

last checked: 2026-07-20