Although Homes are typically designed to be a safe haven, sometimes they're made with less positive intentions."Spite houses" are homes that were built to irritate neighbors or serve as an act of revenge.They're a common phenomenon throughout the world, often becoming tourist destinations once the original owners no longer own them.A house painted to look like candy canes and a tiny home built just to block a brother's view are only a couple of the spite houses that exist.Visit Insider's homepage for more stories.Despite the importance of loving thy neighbor, fights between those who live near each other are common, and can even result in what is known as a spite house.A spite house is one that is built with the sole intention of irritating a neighbor or as an act of revenge against another landowner.They're a common phenomenon, and you can find them all over the world.For instance, a London resident painted this house red and white after her neighbors prevented her from demolishing it.In 2015, Zipporah Lisle-Mainwaring wanted to demolish her London home, but when her neighbors objected to the plan, she decided to paint it with candy cane stripes instead, according to The Guardian.Although her neighbors attempted to force her to repaint, the High Court in London ruled that she could ignore a planning orderfrom the local council in 2017.She was also given permission to move forward with the demolition in 2017, according to the Evening Standard.It's believed that the Skinny House in Boston was the result of a feud between brothers.According to Boston Magazine, The Skinny House is believed to have been built after a man returned from serving in the Civil War only to find that his brother had built a large house on their shared land.The 1,166-square-foot building blocks the adjoining home's view of the Boston harbor, as well as its access to sunlight.The Equality House sits directly across from Westboro Baptist Church in an act of protest.The Equality House, located in Topeka, Kansas, is the resource center for Planting Peace, a global non-profit organization.Planting Peace bought the house in 2013, according to the Huffington Post, with the intention of making a statement against Westboro Baptist Church, whose members are known for picketing the funerals of fallen soldiers.The Equality House still stands today, and Planting Peace added a second home called the Mott House in 2016, which is painted the colors of the transgender flag.The Spite House in Alexandria, Virginia, was built in a former alley.At just seven feet wide, the Spite House has been dubbed the narrowest house in America. The 325-square-foot house was built in 1830 by John Hollensbury, who lived in one of the adjacent homes, as reported by The New York Times.Hollensbury built the tiny home to prevent horse-drawn carriages and passersby from moving through the alley. From inside, you can see marks on the brick walls from wagon-wheel hubs.The Montlake Spite House came to be after the land parcel's owner was insulted by a neighbor's offer to buy it.The Montlake Spite House in Seattle, Washington, was built in 1925. As legend has it, the owner of the 3,090-square-foot parcel of land was offered a small amount of money from his neighbor who hoped to turn the plot into a garden.According to Atlas Obscura, the landowner was offended by the small offer and decided to build a small house instead.In 2016, the spite house, which is only 15 feet wide, hit the market for more than $519,000.Dr. John Tyler built this Maryland home to defy his town's city hall.Located in Frederick, Maryland, the Tyler-Spite House was built by Dr. John Tyler in 1814. According to local lore, the spite home was built after Tyler discovered that the city planned to build a road through his property.Tyler found a law that said the road couldn't be built onto the property if a building already existed, or was in the process of being built on it, so he tracked down a contractor who was willing to start construction the night before the road was set to be paved.Because of Tyler's dead-of-night construction, the road couldn't be paved, and the home he built is still called the Frederick-Tyler Spite House today.Historians claim the Spite Tower in Adamsville, Rhode Island, was built in response to a neighborly spat.Local Rhode Island historians claim the Spite Tower was built in 1905 after two neighbors had a fight and one of the men wanted to block the other's view of the town.But, according to Herald News, the house may have just been built in its location because it sits over a well. The height would have been necessary for accessing the water.Regardless of its origins, the name stuck, and the Spite Tower is still a popular tourist destination today.This house in Freeport, New York, was built to stop the city from being designed as a grid system.Known as both the Freeport Spite House and the Miracle House, developer John Randall built this Victorian-era home at the turn of the 19th century.Randall reportedly built the two-story house to prevent the city from being laid out in a grid. The structure, which still stands today, was placed on a triangular plot of land.The Plum Island Pink House has its origins in a marriage that ended poorly.The Plum House, located in Newbury, Massachusetts, was built in the 1920s as a replica of a couple's former family home, according to Atlas Obscura.The legend states that a woman's soon-to-be ex-husband had to build a replica of the house as part of their divorce agreement, but the court didn't specify where the house had to sit.To spite his former spouse, the man built the house on top of a salt marsh and used saltwater for the plumbing, making it uninhabitable.The Edith Macefield House has been compared to the floating house from Disney's "Up" after the owner refused to vacate her property to make way for a developer.In 2006, Edith Macefield was reportedly offered $1 million to sell her Seattle, Washington, home to a developer that wanted to turn the lot into an office building.The property was built around her house, inspiring comparisons to Carl Frederickson's home in "Up." Passersby even hang balloons on the fence outside of the house as a nod to the Disney film.The house remained on the property even after Macefield's death in 2009, as she bequeathed it to the construction superintendent for the project, as reported by Seattle PI.Read more:15 obnoxious houses that were built just to annoy the neighbors A woman is accused of leaving a $5,000 'revenge tip' on a $60 check with her boyfriend's credit card8 of the ugliest, most hated buildings in the worldDisappointing photos show that tiny homes may not be everything they're cracked up to be
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