Single Mom Bought an Abandoned Hotel for $5000 — What She Found in the Penthouse Was Worth $180M…
When Claire Donovan first drove past the old Riverside Grand Hotel, she didn’t see what the rest of the town saw. To most locals in Dayton, Ohio, the place was a ruin: broken windows, a roof sagging in places, and ivy climbing over its faded white facade. It had been closed for over twenty years, abandoned after a fire in the kitchen and a string of bankruptcies that followed. But Claire, a thirty-eight-year-old single mother working two jobs, saw possibility.
She had been living paycheck to paycheck since her divorce three years earlier, raising her eight-year-old son, Mason, in a cramped two-bedroom apartment. When the county announced that several neglected properties would be auctioned off for back taxes, she found herself scrolling through the listings late at night. Most of the homes were still priced well beyond what she could afford. But then she saw it: Riverside Grand Hotel. Starting bid: $5,000.
It seemed absurd—an entire hotel for less than the price of a used car. Claire did her research. The place was condemned, riddled with mold, and the plumbing and electrical systems were outdated. Restoring it would cost a fortune she didn’t have. Still, something inside her whispered that it was worth the risk. On the day of the auction, with shaking hands and Mason by her side, she raised her paddle. No one else bid. The gavel fell. She was now the owner of a derelict, twenty-four-room hotel.
The first time she unlocked the rusted front doors, she felt both pride and terror. The lobby smelled of damp wood and mildew, but the marble floors peeked through beneath the grime. The grand staircase, though coated in dust, still curved elegantly toward the second floor. Claire imagined weddings once held there, jazz echoing in the ballroom, travelers checking in with heavy leather suitcases.
But reality quickly set in. Buckets lined the hallways to catch rainwater from the leaking roof. Squatters had left graffiti and trash in several rooms. Mason wrinkled his nose but clutched her hand tighter, as if sensing her mix of fear and determination.
Then, as they explored the upper floors, they found the locked door to the penthouse suite. The key didn’t fit, and the hinges were rusted shut. Something about it made Claire pause. She told herself she would return to it later—when she had more courage, when she had tools to pry it open. For now, she focused on the enormity of what she had taken on. She didn’t know it yet, but that door hid the secret that would change their lives forever….To be continued in C0mments👇