No, 1031 Second St. in downtown Hudson, Wisconsin, doesn't belong to Bauhaus frontman Daniel Ash. For now, the home known as the Goth Castle is owned by larger-than-life beauty/real estate/social media tycoon Brooke Fleetwood.
Update (7/22/24): The Goth Castle has since been rebranded as the Barbiecore Castle, and it's currently available for $1.1 million.
Until recently, Fleetwood owned a constellation of short-term rentals around the St. Croix River valley: The Pink Castle, the Goth Castle, and the Afton Farm, though she just unloaded the latter estate. Her regulatory battles with the city and county have been well-documented.
“I wanted a darker, sexier, deeper feel for the Goth Castle–not too scary, but not too girly," Fleetwood says of the property that's about to hit the market for $1.1 million. "I designed the whole thing: the furniture, the wallpaper, everything. It rents out just as much as the Pink Castle."
Built in 1900, the unmistakable Victorian boasts seven bedrooms and four bathrooms across 5,611 square feet of living (dead?) space. There's a movie cavern, pool, hot tub, and, of course, the singular décor choices that include pitch-black and blood-red paint jobs, skeletons, crucifixes, and taxidermied beasts. "The current use is LICENSED Airbnb," the listing from Edina Realty's Jennifer Martin notes with a knowing emphasis. Fleetwood acquired the property for $614,000 in 2020, according to county records.
The Pink Castle has become a bachelorette party destination, Fleetwood says, while, organically, the Goth Castle became a bro-down hub for bachelor parties.
“Guys love the Goth House," she says. "It’s downtown, walkable distance to the bars. Go swim, hot tub, have fun with your friends.”
Fleetwood, who owns nearby BB Makeup Aesthetics & Cosmetics, isn't getting out of the lucrative STR game. In fact, she recently launched a satellite Pink Castle in her hometown of Seymour, Indiana. But she's curious to see if she can flip the darkest pillar of her investment portfolio.
"I was like, 'OK, let’s let’s see if we can sell the Goth Castle as a business, because this is thriving. I don’t need to sell it, but we’ll just see if it sells and someone else can have the funness of doing it,'" she says, adding that she'd never sell her signature Pink Castle. "But the Goth Castle? If I can double my money, why not? It’s a business move, I’m a business woman."
In true biz-woman fashion, Fleetwood notes: “If the buyer wants the furniture and the bookings for the business, that’s extra.” (We failed to ask if the silver stripper pole, which stands bolted outside one of the bedrooms, is included.)
Let's take a photo tour of the Goth Castle, courtesy of Edina Realty:
