A TikTok video about a Zillow ad for a former sanatorium on sale in Minnesota has gone viral on the social media platform, as users marvel at the price of the property and its history.
TikTok user Riot Addams posted a video of the Zillow ad for the property in Pine City, Minnesota, asking other users to join forces with them to purchase the mansion. "Wait, hold on, somebody buy this property with me," Riot Addams said. "It says 36 bedrooms, 8 bathrooms, 12,702 square feet [for] $120,000. I'm not even joking, let's make something happen." The video has been viewed over 6 million times.
The property—which technically qualifies as a mansion for its number of rooms and the size of the plot of land it stands on—was listed on Zillow on December 6, 2023, and its sale status is now pending, according to information available on the listing.
The mansion, which stands on 10035 Pokegama Lake Road in Pine City, is 119 years old, according to the listing, as it was built in 1905 as a sanatorium. The property "lies amongst mature trees" and has "beautiful views of the popular Pokegama Lake," the listing reads.
A sanatorium was a specialized hospital for specific diseases like tuberculosis, usually located in the countryside. The Pokegama Sanatorium had space for 36 patients, who paid a fee between $30 and $50 per week, according to information from city authorities. The facility closed in 1943 when it was sold to Redemptorist Fathers to be used as a school for priests.
The property was later used as a chemical dependency treatment center under the name of Pine Manor. It shut its doors again in April 1986 due to financial difficulties.
It has access to a community well, city sewer, the backwaters of the Snake River, and is "centrally located between the metro area & Duluth just off of I35 just west of Pine City," but the listing admits that the property has "plumbing but no actual bathrooms or bedrooms." There's also no current heat source.
According to the listing, there is "a wide range of possibilities available" for the property as "there are no longer any association documents attached" to it.
TikTok user Riot Addams described the mansion as "a zombie fortress" and highlighted how the pictures on the Zillow listing show the property's many "flaws"—including graffitied walls and the fact that all the windows "are busted."
"Looks like it's been abandoned for a very long time," they said, adding that the building though "is indestructible." "The floor, the stairs, the ceiling, the entire building is made of concrete. She's indestructible, she's structurally sound, she's earthquake-proof, she will not collapse," they said.
The majority of the thousands of comments on the TikTok video about the property comment on how the former sanatorium is probably "haunted."
"36 beds, 8 baths, 4 demons, 3 poltergeists, and 28 spirits for only $120k, what a deal," said one user. "Old sanitarium = ghosts and bad juju," wrote another. The TikToker who originally posted the video responded to one of the comments saying that "without a doubt several people died there" as the property was "basically a hospital."
Newsweek contacted the Pine City Area History Association and the property's real estate agent on Zillow for comment by email on Tuesday, while Riot Addams was contacted by direct message on TikTok.
Uncommon Knowledge
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Newsweek is committed to challenging conventional wisdom and finding connections in the search for common ground.
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Giulia Carbonaro is a Newsweek Reporter based in London, U.K. Her focus is on U.S. and European politics, global affairs ... Read more
