Single Mom Bought an Abandoned Hotel for $5000, What She Found in the Penthouse Was Worth $180M

When Claire Donovan saw the abandoned Riverside Grand Hotel, everyone else saw a ruin. She saw a second chance.

Divorced, raising her son alone, she bought the place at auction for $5,000. Inside was rot, mold — and hope.

While others told her to give up, she rebuilt piece by piece. Then she found a locked penthouse door.

Inside: a trunk filled with paintings signed E. Sargent.

An appraiser’s verdict stunned her — original John Singer Sargents, worth $180 million.

Five years later, the restored hotel reopened as an art center.

Her son asked, “Do you ever miss the old days?”
She smiled at the grand staircase.
“No. This is what it was meant to be.”