Urban Mansions

In city settings, mansions are less-expected dwellings, especially in densely populated downtown areas where many people live crammed on top of one another. There, the thought of a 10,000-plus-square-foot building housing just one family is excessive. Some people prefer excess and have the fortune to back it up, and those families have left a legacy of impressively ornamented historic homes. The ones intact today are like time capsules back to a bygone era of magnificent opulence. We've collected a lineup of them here, including no less than three mansions built on beer fortunes.