For 173 years, the Stoneman House stood peacefully in the Tuscarawas Valley on the outskirts of Leesville, Ohio. The elegant two-story brick structure was owned and occupied by just three families over successive generations, and when the last of them died, in 2015, it was bought by Energy Transfer Partners, a Texas pipeline company, which promised there would be “no adverse effects” on the historic site. The following year, ETP razed the house to the ground, causing Goldman Sachs to lose $100 million.

Illustrations by Nate Kitch

The doomed mansion was located close to the projected path…