1. Howard Hughes – The Reclusive Tycoon Who Took Over a Las Vegas Empire
Howard Hughes wasn’t just eccentric; he was obsessed with control and privacy to the point of building his own bubble within America, Robert Macy of The Los Angeles Times explains. In the 1960s, Hughes holed up in a penthouse at the Desert Inn in Las Vegas and bought up surrounding hotels, casinos, and land—without ever really leaving his suite. He effectively turned parts of Vegas into his own private kingdom, managed via memos and whispered orders. He even tried to influence local laws and policies through his economic power.
What’s wild is that Hughes operated from behind drawn curtains, never seen, yet completely reshaping a city. He used his fortune from aviation and Hollywood to build his Vegas fiefdom by proxy. His paranoia and germophobia grew so intense that it only fueled his need to dominate from a distance. In the end, his kingdom crumbled, but his legend lived on, wrapped in velvet curtains and sealed hotel floors.
2. L. Ron Hubbard – The Sci-Fi Writer Who Created a Religious Empire
Before becoming the founder of Scientology, L. Ron Hubbard was a prolific science fiction writer with a vivid imagination. In the 1950s, he parlayed his stories and theories into Dianetics, and then into a full-fledged religion that gave him near-total control over his followers, Mary C. Ware explains in EBSCO Research Starters. By the 1970s, he was operating from sea aboard a fleet of ships dubbed the Sea Org, effectively floating his own authoritarian state on international waters. Crew members had uniforms, ranks, and rituals—just like a naval kingdom.
What’s remarkable is how Hubbard blurred the lines between fiction and governance, ideology and power. He built a tax-free empire with real estate, legal muscle, and celebrity converts. His floating “kingdom” avoided government oversight and answered only to him. It was a fantasy world turned reality—at least for a while.
3. George W. Vanderbilt – The Gilded Age Royal Who Built America’s Largest Home
In the 1890s, George Vanderbilt, heir to a colossal shipping and railroad fortune, decided to play European lord in North Carolina. He built the Biltmore Estate, a 250-room mansion with its own village, dairy, and forest. At the time, it was the largest private home in America, and it still is today. He basically imported a slice of the French countryside into the Blue Ridge Mountains.
Vanderbilt didn’t just want a house—he wanted a self-sufficient, utopian estate, according to Lauren Northup of Garden & Gun. He employed hundreds of workers, brought in famed landscape architect Frederick Law Olmsted, and even tried to create a scientific forestry program. His “kingdom” was less about political power and more about grandeur and isolation. Still, it functioned like a sovereign realm of refined, cultivated life.
4. A. G. Gaston – The Business Mogul Who Built His Own Black Oasis
A.G. Gaston, a millionaire businessman during the Jim Crow era, built his own empire in Birmingham, Alabama. He created a compound that included a bank, motel, insurance company, and funeral home—all Black-owned and operated. In a segregated world, Gaston offered something radical: a parallel economy where Black Americans could be served with dignity, Marisa Peñaloza and Debbie Elliott of NPR explain. His motel even became a headquarters for civil rights leaders like Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.
Gaston’s vision was more practical than utopian, but it was kingdom-like in its autonomy and impact. He used his wealth to foster self-reliance and community infrastructure that rivaled what white institutions offered. While other millionaires sought fantasy realms, Gaston built his American kingdom out of necessity. And it changed lives.
5. John McAfee – The Antivirus Tycoon Who Went Off the Grid
John McAfee made millions from his antivirus software, but his life got far weirder after he cashed out. He moved to Belize, set up a compound with private security, and surrounded himself with guns, dogs, and young girlfriends. He talked openly about building a new kind of society free from government control. Eventually, he fled Belize after being named a person of interest in a murder case.
McAfee’s later years were a descent into paranoia and delusion, but they were undeniably an attempt to live like a king on his own terms. He tried running for U.S. president multiple times, pitched his own crypto coin, and even floated plans for floating libertarian colonies. His story reads like a dystopian novel—but it was real. Whether you call it a kingdom or a meltdown, it was his world, and we just watched from the outside.
6. William Randolph Hearst – The Media Baron Who Built a Castle
William Randolph Hearst didn’t just dominate newspapers—he built a Mediterranean-style castle on a hilltop in San Simeon, California, that screamed old-world nobility. Hearst Castle had 165 rooms, imported ceilings from Europe, and a private zoo. It was his answer to European aristocracy: an American Versailles. He hosted lavish parties with Hollywood stars and politicians in what was basically his own feudal domain.
Hearst used his media empire to shape public opinion, but at home, he lived like a monarch. He even constructed an entire village below the estate to house workers and guests. His wealth gave him a kind of soft power few could challenge. The castle, now a museum, is a monument to a time when one man could build his own empire—and fill it with lions.
7. Leona Helmsley – The Hotel Queen Who Tried to Rule by Fear
Leona Helmsley, nicknamed the “Queen of Mean,” ran a real estate empire with her billionaire husband, Harry Helmsley. She treated her hotel staff like serfs and famously said, “Only the little people pay taxes,” which didn’t go over well with the IRS. Her penthouse in New York was a gilded fortress, and she expected total obedience. She even left $12 million to her dog, Trouble, as a final show of dominion.
Leona didn’t build a kingdom in the traditional sense, but she ruled her empire like a tyrant. Her wealth insulated her from the consequences—until it didn’t. She was eventually convicted of tax evasion and sent to prison. But for a time, she reigned supreme, feared more than loved.
8. Glenn Curtiss – The Aviation Pioneer Who Built a Florida Dream City
Glenn Curtiss, a self-made millionaire from the early aviation industry, turned his attention to real estate in the 1920s. He co-founded the city of Opa-locka, Florida, designing it with Moorish architecture inspired by Arabian Nights. He envisioned a fantastical, themed city where imagination and technology would shape modern living. It even had streets named Ali Baba Avenue and Sinbad Boulevard.
Curtiss believed in progress through innovation, and he tried to engineer a city that reflected that. His “kingdom” was a planned urban wonderland, blending fantasy and functionality. A hurricane in 1926 and the Great Depression crushed the dream, but remnants still stand. His boldness earned him a permanent place in America’s strangest real estate lore.
9. James Strang – The Self-Proclaimed King of a Mormon Sect
In the 1840s, after Joseph Smith’s death, James Strang claimed to be the true successor to lead the Mormons. He led a breakaway group to Beaver Island, Michigan, where he declared himself king—literally crowned in a ceremony. He issued his own currency and enforced laws with his own militia. It was a full-blown theocratic kingdom within U.S. borders.
Strang’s reign was controversial, and local residents weren’t thrilled about a monarch in their backyard. Eventually, tensions boiled over, and he was assassinated by disgruntled followers in 1856. His island kingdom collapsed, but it remains one of the strangest footnotes in American religious history. For a brief time, an eccentric prophet ruled like royalty in the Great Lakes.
10. E.W. Grove – The Patent Medicine King Who Built a Mountain Utopia
E.W. Grove made millions selling “Grove’s Tasteless Chill Tonic,” a supposed cure for malaria. In the early 20th century, he decided to build a health resort and city in Asheville, North Carolina. He constructed the Grove Park Inn, still famous today, and planned a model community called “Grove Arcade.” He imagined a clean, orderly society run like clockwork—free of disease and chaos.
Grove saw health as the foundation of a good society, and his developments reflected that belief. His kingdom was a commercial utopia, full of stonework, fresh air, and modern amenities. While his vision didn’t completely pan out, much of it endures. He used his wealth not just to escape, but to curate a better version of America.
11. Joseph Smith – The Prophet Who Built a Theocratic City
Before James Strang’s rebellion, Joseph Smith himself was no stranger to building kingdoms. In the 1840s, Smith founded Nauvoo, Illinois, as a refuge for his new religious movement. He ruled it as both prophet and mayor, with a militia called the Nauvoo Legion. It was a proto-theocracy, and Smith even ran for president in 1844.
His leadership was both spiritual and civic, and the city functioned almost independently. Smith’s vision was of a God-guided society, governed by revelation and communal values. The U.S. government didn’t take kindly to such power, and he was eventually killed by a mob. But Nauvoo was his American kingdom—a holy city on the Mississippi.
12. Elon Musk – The Tech Billionaire Building His Own Company Town
Elon Musk, never shy of ambition, has been quietly building a town called Snailbrook near Austin, Texas. The town is intended to house employees from SpaceX and The Boring Company, essentially creating a modern company town. Leaked documents show plans for homes, schools, and town amenities—with Musk and his executives controlling much of the land. It’s not a legal city yet, but it walks and talks like a private fiefdom.
Musk has long flirted with creating worlds—on Earth, Mars, and the digital metaverse. Snailbrook represents a return to an old American model with a very 21st-century twist. If he gets his way, it may become a literal Muskopolis. For now, it’s just another eccentric bid to reshape the American map—one plot at a time.
