They called it the Gilded Age. The late nineteenth century was a very prosperous time for the United States. Immense tracts of western land were being developed, providing huge amounts of natural resources (farming, mining, and logging) that were shipped back to the major eastern population centers via newly built railroads. These natural resources fed a rapid period of industrialization across the eastern U.S., noted for its significant increases in wages, standards of living, and technological innovation. The massive growth was fed by billions of dollars of capital from European investors, who were desperate to find new growing markets. The United States was basically the China of today. Also from Europe came millions of impoverished immigrants, frantic to get a piece of the American dream. Many Americans, both locals and immigrants, never escaped poverty, instead ending up ground up in the gears of the great American machine. Others were luckier. Lifted by the rising tide of prosperity, they were propelled into the growing American middle and upper classes. High above it all sat the billionaires. Barons of industry who ruled over all as gilded gods, shining far above the growing smog in the golden sunlight. It was the best of times, and it was the worst of times, depending upon who you were.
Perhaps nothing speaks more to the fancy predilections of the era quite as much as the idea of the Victorian mansion. The Victorian mansion was the McMansion of its day, by which I mean it was an overpriced monstrosity paid for by people who believed that the good times would never come to an end. Newly built streetcar lines in most cities caused rapid urban expansion, as people with the means to do so rushed to get out of the smoggy industrial cores. Away from the city centers, a person could more easily buy larger tracts of land for less money. It was the start of suburbia. The Victorian mansions tended to be gaudy, huge, and ridiculous. They tended to have vast rooms with high ceilings, large stairways that served no purpose other than to lord the wealth of the household over any visitors, and all of the newest innovations; such as electricity and telephones. Though they had numerous fireplaces, they were all just decorative, with the primary source of heat coming from coal fired furnaces, fueled by cheap mass produced coal. However, though meant to look to be the height of luxury, they were actually big wooden piles of shit. New building techniques, the most important being materials standardization, allowed the giant houses to be thrown up quickly and on the cheap. With few to any building codes, crooked construction crews cut every corner they could in order to reap a higher profit.
Unfortunately, the good times never last forever. The rapid economic growth led to thousands of businesses borrowing ridiculous sums of money in order to keep up with the expansion. The trouble started when commodity prices collapsed in 1890. This slowed demand for the construction of new railroads, one of the major drivers of the U.S. economy at the time. As a result, by 1893 several railroad companies went bankrupt. European investors, freaking right the fuck out, responded by pulling their money out of the U.S., collapsing the stock market. This further spooked investors, causing stock market collapses around the world, which drove the global economy into a major slump today known as the Panic of 1893, because the name Fucking Freakout of 1893 was a little too on the nose. Across the United States, overextended businesses failed by the thousands, throwing a shit ton of people out of work, 20 percent of the U.S. workforce to be exact. Numerous banks failed, which caused panicked people to rush to get their money out of the banks, which caused more banks to fail. Many in the growing middle class suddenly found themselves thrown back into poverty. People did any work they could to avoid starvation. Many women turned to prostitution just to feed their children, which probably pissed off the existing prostitutes since it undoubtedly lowered the price for a poke. The Panic of 1893 lasted until 1897. During the worst of it, the billionaires, who were busily consolidating businesses into massive trusts, had to bail out cities, states, and even the federal government.
So, what does all of this have to do with haunted houses? Well, similar to our most recent recession, the collapse of the U.S. economy left many Americans unable to pay their mortgages. Thousands of Victorian mansions, financially underwater and costing a ghastly amount to upkeep, were abandoned across the country and left to rot. Many of these homes, some not even fully completed, were never inhabited again. They slowly fell apart on overgrown lots, becoming gloomy hulks that children dared each other to enter, memories of a bygone era filled with dust and cobwebs. The prevalence of these abandoned houses was so great that by the 1920's they had become the archetype for the stereotypical haunted house, an image that still exists to this day. The Addams Family, Scooby Doo, and countless Halloween specials, all contain what has become an icon in America’s collective imagination.
Image: https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:The_Old_Hall,_Fairies_by_Moonlight.jpg