thx to illicitohio blog!!!  :-o  :mrgreen:

 

 

    Mike Tyson Mansion

 

   

 

    Mike Tyson/Paul Monea Mansion

 

    Where: Ohio

 

    When: December 2007

 

    Status: Abandoned

 

While website over the past 10 years or so, I have never once struggled so much with the decision of whether or not to post pictures of one of my trips like I did with this one. I came extremely close to not posting these, or at the very least delaying the posting. The reason being, this place is very easy to find, in good condition, and unfortunately very ripe for some idiot going through it and stealing stuff and/or vandalizing it. I have the feeling the idiots will find it either way, but I really don't want to aid them. In the end, I decided to stay dedicated to those who continue to come here for new material. I doubt that my posts will make any difference in the longevity of the former Mike Tyson home.

 

So with that said, what are you seeing here. What you are seeing is the former home of Boxer Mike Tyson. Tyson has not owned the home since the late 1990s. The home is actually owned by a business man name Paul Monea... actually, its owned by the Monea Family Trust, and currently, it may or may not be in the posession of law enforcement because it is, or was, at the center of an investigation involving Mr. Monea.

 

Confused? Well lets see what we can figure out. Let it be known that everything here is the best of my very limited understanding and should be taken with a grain of salt.

 

 

Main Gate with Tyson's name still shown today.

 

Paul Monea was a business man who once made some money selling TaeBo workout tapes featuring none other than Billy Blanks... remember that craze? Paul Monea was the mastermind behind it, and it made him quite a bit of cash from what I understand. One of his purchases was the former home of Mike Tyson in 1999 for the price of 1.3 million. Tyson had since moved to Vegas and the home was For Sale. Monea didn't buy it because he needed a home... he already had a much nicer home. I suppose it was to be an investment property? Regardless, from what I understand he never lived in the home. There was a period of time in 2005 when it was for sale on Ebay, but the home didn't sell.

 

 

10,000 square foot swimming pool room. Complete with Sundae bar, furniture, bath, shower, changing area, two dives, a huge hot tub, plants, a waterfall, and two fountains.

 

Fast forward to 2006 or so, and Paul had come up with another plan. Now I hate to take sides, but in my opinion the guy got a raw deal here. Paul had a diamond. A really really big one. So big that it had its own website. It was a 40 Carat Diamond... yes you're reading that correctly... 40 Carat. HUGE! So Paul decides he's going to sell both the Diamond and the property. Unfortunately the buyer was an FBI agent working undercover. What's the problem with that you may be asking... well at some point the buyer (aka agent) decides to inform Paul that he will be buying the home with Drug money. According to reports Paul advised the agent that he didn't want to know where the money was coming from and even feigned a hearing problem saying something to the effect of "A RUG dealer?".

 

I don't know much about the law... obviously, but it seems like that isn't something you should go to prison for. If I put a car on craigslist and the guy that comes by to purchase it says he's a drug dealer, is it really my responsibility to say nevermind? I guess so. If this is the sort of thing that the FBI is doing though, why aren't they on craigslist all day baiting sellers in to selling them things for drug money? I guess I'm failing to see how this sort of thing benefits society unless Paul Monea was going out trying to find drug dealers to sell things to and encouraging people to sell drugs to buy his stuff. I'm off topic.

 

 

his is an entertainment room complete with zebra or tiger striped carpet, a huge tv, stairs leading to the master bedroom, a wet bar, and funny looking lights.

 

 

 

So back to the house. In the end, Paul was busted, and it appears that now the home may be in the hands of the authorities along with the Diamond. The story is actually much more confusing than what I'm telling here, but this is a good enough overview. The important part is that some time during all of this, the house became abandoned. How abandoned? Well, the doors are wide open, there is no power, the lawn hasn't been mowed, and no one seemed to question me walking around it, including a Cop who I'm fairly certian saw me leaving and didn't seem to mind. As with all of my trips, I was careful, didn't touch a thing, and even wiped my feet... seriously, I'm that dumb.

 

So here are about 3 pages of pictures with descriptions. As with all of my trips, there is an archive of pictures at the link below. I watermarked these for the first time ever because I suspect people will steal the pictures and post them everywhere. I also suspect that you'll see other people featuring this on their sites very soon with their own pictures, but I can tell you that as far as I could tell, after searching far and wide, these are the only pictures on the net of the inside of this house as of the time I'm posting this.

 

 

The living room of the main house portion. The layout sort of has a main house with a giant movie room attached, and a giant pool room attached to that.

 

 

 

The pictures that you see here are actually the product of two separate trips. I took trip one without a tripod and quickly realized that the place was too dim to photograph without a flash or tripod. I took flash photos, and they sucked. I went out, bought a tripod, and it made a huge difference. I'd never used one before, and I'll never go without one now. Most of the pictures are from trip two. Both trips were snowing, so it was easy to tell that no one had been in or out of the home recently. The first was very windy and I eventually got too spooked to go through everything. On trip two, I got the nerve to explore a little more.

 

Like with any of my trips, I had a few disasters. People seem to enjoy my misfortune, so let me just knock the three major ones out for your amusement right now. First of all, when I walked in to the master bedroom and started taking pictures, an old smoke detector that was laying on the bed suddenly went off. I'm assuming my body heat or something confused it, but it scared the absolute hell out of me. Picture being alone in this house on high alert, and hearing that. I freaked.

 

Disaster two was on my way back to the car. It was snowing, and the ground was completely covered. I decided to take a path through the woods. Suddenly I see a guy running a piece of heavy machinery at the end of the path, so I take a detour just to avoid being in his way. I walk directly in to a swamp and instantly feel ice cold water creep through my shoes and pants and doubled up socks. I'm about 3/4 mile from my car at that point. I went back to the Tyson property and just walked out the main gate and to the main road and jogged to my car with heavy wet cold feet.

 

Disaster three was minor... on the way to the house a lady swerved to avoid me (even though I was completely off the road in the grass next to the road) and managed to hit the slush that had built up in the road from the snow launching a huge wave of slush all over me, the camera, etc... and I mean AT LOT of slush.

 

With that out of the way, enjoy the following pictures. Please don't go vandalize this place or steal stuff from this place and make me regret posting these.

 

 

A tub overlooking the back yard, BB court, tiger cages, etc... yes tiger cages.

 

*** clik for more pictures....

 

http://illicitohio.illicitohio.com/tyson.htm

 

 

 

 

 

Whoa.

Didn't we already discuss this? :?  I pretty sure this was posted before. 

 

It was a mess then and its a mess now!  A big old monstrosity out near Youngstown!

Nice...sort of.

 

Its a bit Liberace, isn't it?

Cheap! You can see the metal framework on the building (a generic structure) covered in veneered wood or a very thin layering.

 

Ugh, what hideous decor.

Cheap! You can see the metal framework on the building (a generic structure) covered in veneered wood or a very thin layering.

 

Ugh, what hideous decor.

 

Well before we give decor critiques....lets think.  This style was in when the house was built.  It hasn't been renovated in at least a decade.

The inside shots of the pool and "living room" areas remind me of those Five Seasons country club banquet halls. Very corporate-retreatish.

 

Awesome pictures!  :clap:

MTS, that was in style back in the 1990s?

 

Ugh.

Mmmmm, classy.  Christ on a bicycle, look at that carpeting! If that didn't trigger seizures, nothing would.  Not too surprising though, for a guy with one side of his face tattooed, and gold frame teeth.  I do like the bathtub with the windows overlooking the yard. 

 

 

** some follow-up -- i found them while looking at faded signs on forgotten ny blog tonight.  :mrgreen:

 

"Who would have thought that Mike Tyson would be featured on a faded sign in FNY? This sign was painted when Tyson was the heavyweight champion during the late 1980s. Lexington and Stuyvesant Avenues, Bedford-Stuyvesant, Brooklyn.

 

(This was specifically painted to be featured in Spike Lee's 1989 feature film set in a Bedford-Stuyvesant pizzeria and its immediate neighborhood, Do The Right Thing.)"

 

 

"Here's a rather more distinct view of this painted sign." it's from untitiledname blog:

 

 

Man, Tacky is tacky... reminds me of Scarface, but worse.  Paul Monea was going to use that home as a webcam internet show.  My brother got that information from his daughter Brooke Monea.  Mr. Monea was a sleazy individual, he is also responsible for MTV's pimp my ride among other things.  I was invited to a party at his lake home in Jackson township, talk about way too nice.  He was in jail for tax evasion when I saw the place, then he went right back for money laundering.  2 of his kids lived in a mansion all by themselves.  The lake home in jackson township had a car rare jaquar sportscar in the main entryway and statues of the Blues brothers and Lora Croft... Tacky new money.  There was also a tree home about the size of a typical bungalow perched up in some oak trees.

Still has to be one of the most unique photo threads on here, really cool!

^Well, the house photo part isn't exactly unique on here: http://www.urbanohio.com/forum2/index.php/topic,15674.0.html

 

But definitely cool!

MTS, that was in style back in the 1990s?

 

Ugh.

to some people.  Usually those with little or no taste nor an ounce of creativity!

Fugly.

Where was this? I was always under the impression it was in Southington in Trumbull County.

Where was this? I was always under the impression it was in Southington in Trumbull County.

 

You got it Neville, just down the road from where my ex-girlfriend grew up. 

Hah... my mom grew up in Southington... graduated from Chalker High School in 1980.

That same ex-girlfriend graduated from Chalker a few years later.  Also, she graduated with a girl that used to live in this house (before Tyson).     

Hah. Small world.

I remember seeing these photos awhile back.  I'm surprised that unattended property hasn't been smashed to pieces yet.

Why didn't you go for a swim mrnyc?  That pool water looks crystal clear :-D

 

better hope the copper thieves don't attack the house.

Cheap! You can see the metal framework on the building (a generic structure) covered in veneered wood or a very thin layering.

 

Ugh, what hideous decor.

 

No those are actually large wooden glulam beams. 

 

 

That house is so ugly. 1.3 million for THAT? Who wants to live in a house with giant barn-looking rooms with wall to wall zebra carpeting outside of youngstown? LMAO

That house is so ugly. 1.3 million for THAT? Who wants to live in a house with giant barn-looking rooms with wall to wall zebra carpeting outside of youngstown? LMAO

 

Thats your problem whippersnapper, you only see "what you see in front of you" not what the possibilities are.  It the same as buying any house.  It's not what it looks like prepurchase it's what the new owner visualizes and make it into!

Other than the zebra carpeting, I could live there.

 

And yes, I actually do miss the 1970s.

I'd demolish the large additions.  And they do appear to be additions when you look at the full set of photos.  The original house has potential, but I never understood how someone could enjoy living in a space so large.  You lose the comfort a proportionately scaled house offers.  I don't mean big houses are bad.  I mean rooms way out of scale are bad.

 

I agree with David, Keep the original part and demolish all the rest.  It's an architectural disaster and has no renovation potential.  It's cheaper to start over and make something better....and also a lot better for the environment since it would cost way to much to head/ac the place as it stands.

It looks like a modern church, with a pimp for a minister.

 

And looking at the photo of the pool room baffles me- if those trees are real, how have they survived all this time?  Who waters them?  If they are fake, why are the leaves falling off the tree in the foreground? 

^That is a damn good question.

I guess it has only been recently vacant?

There is water in the pool also, that has got to be a cesspool! Btw - this is located near Warren, not Youngstown. From the above it sounds like it has been vacant since 1999.

I would expect it to be dusty.  Looks pretty clean for it not being occupied for ten plus years.  Terrible decor by the way. 

It looks like a modern church, with a pimp for a minister.

 

Exactly what I was thinking