I-Team: Underground Las Vegas Home For Sale

[zorgon]

I-Team: Underground Las Vegas Home For Sale
By George Knapp, Chief Investigative Reporter

Okay so... never heard of this place but I think we need to buy it for a Pegasus head quarters

LAS VEGAS -- One of the most recent home listings in Las Vegas is a 16,500 square foot home selling for $1.7 million. However, there is one major catch -- the home is underground.

The mysterious subterranean home is almost like a time capsule. The east Las Vegas property has been the subject of whispers for many years, but it has never been open to the general public.

It's part palace, part bomb shelter. From the street level, the house at 3970 Spencer St. doesn't stand out from its neighbors, but once you cruise through the iron gates, there are clues such as the 15 or so air conditioning units tucked behind boulders, the curious turbine-driven ventilation portals and the artificial trees.

"Mostly they are downstairs," said Winston King of Kingly Properties.

That's right, trees downstairs.

"You are standing on the roof," King said.

The 2,800 square foot house on the full acre lot is nice enough, but once you get past the magnetic doors, climb into an elevator that seems to drop through the earth, you emerge into a luxurious underground Shangri La which totals more than 16,000 square feet.

8 News NOW

http://www.8newsnow.com/story/23148804/i-team

[Amaterasu]

Oh, I would LOVE it!!!!!

I have had dreams long ago of a place like that.

[Gigas]

So this property is from the cold war era and it sits atop 1 acre which comes to 43,560 square feet above ground but Mr Money bags opened 16,000 square feet under the ground. The underground part must a been scoured when Mr Money owned the surrounding lots cause that 16,000 comes to .4 acres if my maph is right.

Wonder what the neighbors think now.

[sky otter]

saw this on extreme homes on hgtv years ago..will keep rtying and find the episode

til then.. here's some stuff i have found



http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Girard_B._Henderson

Underground living[edit source | edit]
In 1964, Henderson pioneered underground living and sponsored the Underground Home exhibit at the New York World's Fair.[5] At the height of the Cold War and fearing nuclear war or other catastrophe, Henderson built and lived in underground homes in Colorado and Las Vegas, Nevada; the latter is a 16,500 square foot mansion with magnetic doors that he built to be bomb-proof and earthquake-proof while also having creature comforts such as a swimming pool, putting green and luxurious finishes.[6] When his friend, recording artist Johnny Mann, released At the bottom of the fair, he wrote on the back side of the album, "The first time I was in an underground home was in the Colorado Rockies under a mountaintop 9500 feet above sea level! And it was here that I met the owner, Mr. Jerry Henderson. As his guest, I soon became aware of the fantastic possibilities of underground living, and at the same time struck up a lasting personal friendship with Jerry."[citation needed]









http://www.lasvegasmercury.com/2003/MERC-Jul-24-Thu-2003/21776691.html

Thursday, July 24, 2003
Copyright © Las Vegas Mercury

Tales of Vegas Past: Going underground


By Gregory Crosby


About 25 years ago, drivers traveling in southeast Las Vegas were confronted with the curious sight of a well-landscaped desert plot filled with large rocks and trees, surrounded by a wrought-iron fence. An electronic gate stood closed over what could only be a driveway, but a driveway to what? Had they happened by at the right moment, perhaps they would have seen an elderly couple point a hand-held remote at one of the larger boulders and gaped in amazement as the rock face slid open, revealing a corridor that ended at an elevator that soon whisk the couple 25 feet below the surface of the Las Vegas Valley to another world: a 16,000-square-foot underground house complete with its own artificial yard, painted panoramic views and enough steel sheeting to withstand an earthquake and nuclear fallout.

When summer temperatures reach 115 degrees, the logic behind such a house in Las Vegas seems apparent. But it was the threat of nuclear destruction, the long shadow of the Cold War that swallowed up most of the second half of the 20th century, that was the primary motivation behind Jerry B. Henderson's underground house. Henderson, with his second wife, Mary (a former Beverly Hills hairdresser to various stars in the 1940s), built the house in the late 1960s, in the vicinity of the Alexander Dawson office buildings he had developed (named, as is the school Henderson endowed, after his father Alexander Dawson Henderson). Though a large, traditional house lies atop that desert plot today, the underground house remains intact, a hidden time capsule from another era.

Henderson, who made his fortune in various enterprises, including Avon cosmetics (on whose board he sat for 35 years) and Gulfstream aircraft, had long been fascinated with the idea and desirability of living underground. Convinced, as many were, that a nuclear war was inevitable, he joined the cultural tide that created fallout shelters around the nation, each a longshot bet on survival in the coming radioactive apocalypse. But Henderson saw no point in creating a bunker that you may or may not get to in time when the mushroom clouds bloom; why not live there year-round, a permanent state of readiness that also ensured total peace and privacy?

When Henderson met the brothers Swayze, Kenneth and Jay, two building contractors from Plainview, Texas, who had pioneered the concept of full-time underground homes, he immediately seized on the idea as both a lifestyle and a business venture. Henderson contracted the Swayzes to build him his first underground house on his 320-acre property near Boulder, Colo., in 1964, the same year he married Mary. Such was their enthusiasm that they formed Underground World Homes, a company devoted to the concept. Henderson then entered into the history of the future by sponsoring the Underground Home Exhibit at the 1964-65 New York World's Fair, where visitors could discover for themselves the answer to the question, "Why Live Underground?" But a burgeoning market in subterranean living failed to materialize, and the company soon disbanded.

These houses were no mere shelters. Luxurious and technologically state of the art, Henderson's underground houses featured every comfort of the contemporary ranch-style home. The Las Vegas house is surrounded by an open area of astro-turf, with a heated swimming pool and rock waterfall in the "back yard," two hot tubs, a sauna, a barbecue grill vented through one of several artificial trees, a small putting green, a fountain and even a separate one-bedroom guest house in the far south corner. It was in this guest house that the artist Jewel Smith, a Texas artist then in her 70s, lived during the three years it took for her to paint the panoramic murals on the surrounding walls, murals that depicted places from Henderson's past: Los Angeles, Colorado, his boyhood home in New Jersey, even a sheep ranch he owned in distant New Zealand. When the home's "outdoor" lights are dimmed, the lights in these cityscapes glow. Though phosphorescent paint was unavailable in the early '70s, Smith used mercury taken from broken light bulbs to paint each street light.

Complete with computerized lighting, turning day into night and night into day at the touch of a button, its own generators and a dozen air-conditioning units, the house has the quiet air of a basement combined with the slightly creepy sanctity of a tomb. The three-bedroom house itself, filled with antiques and mementos from Jerry and Mary's lives (Jerry died in 1983 at age 78, and Mary in 1989), is now owned by a distant relative, who occasionally leases the space for corporate events (no public tours, alas, are available). It stands now as a strange shrine to a mid-'60s vision of tomorrow that like all projections says more about the tenor of its own times--fear mastered by technology--than the future. Yet there's something weirdly appropriate about the artificiality that is Vegas' stock in trade extending its roots deep beneath the glitzy faãade, another fantasy, hidden in the dark, to mirror the ones on the Strip above.

[sky otter]

getting closer



http://www.lasvegasadvisor.com/qod.cfm?qid=268


Question of the Day May 22, 2005


Q:
Is it true there are homes built underground in Las Vegas?
A:
There's only one underground house in town that we know of, but what Las Vegas lacks in quantity, it certainly makes up for in weirdness.
Located at a secret location, today the 16,000-square-foot Underground House is concealed 25 feet beneath an innocuous-looking modern home. But back in the early '70s when it was built, the only clue to the dwelling's buried existence was a wrought-iron fence and electronic gates that seemed to mark the beginning of a driveway leading to nowhere.

The explanation for this strange phenomenon lies back in the 1960s and the era of Cold War paranoia. Having amassed a fortune from Avon cosmetics, Gulfstream aircraft, and various other sources, business tycoon Jerry B. Henderson and his wife Mary became convinced of the threat of imminent nuclear destruction and grew fascinated with the concept of living underground. Their dream was not simply to build an austere nuclear bunker to run to in case of emergency; they wanted to live in a permanent state of subterranean security, privacy, and peace. So they turned to Texan building contractor Jay Swayze, pioneer of the atomic habitat or "Atomitat." Swayze and his brother had already built a 3,400-square-foot home 13 feet underground in Plainview, Texas, and they now turned their talents to realizing the Hendersons' dream, first on their property in Colorado, then with a more ambitious design in Las Vegas, where Jerry and Mary resided until their deaths in the 1980s.

Today, if you step out of the elevator and into the house, it's like entering an opulent time capsule. The expansive living room is decked out with antiques, '60s collectibles, and yellow shag carpet, while the pink bathroom features original '70s Avon cosmetics and a necklace that once belonged to Elizabeth Taylor. There's a heated swimming pool, sauna, and spa complete with a 15-foot waterfall, two hot tubs, a putting green, and a barbecue that's vented through one of a number of artificial trees. The property features original '70s state-of-the-art technology throughout, including computerized lighting that simulates different times of day and illuminates the panoramic murals that grace the surrounding walls outside the windows, to give the impression of real views. And it's all built to withstand nuclear explosions and radioactive fallout.

The bad news is that no public tours of the house are permitted. The good news, however, is that it is available to hire for cocktail receptions and dinners for clients with a minimum budget of $15,000 and groups of 25 to 225 guests. If you're interested, Activity Planners of Las Vegas is the exclusive agent for the Underground House. For further information and booking inquiries visit their Web site at www.activityplanners.com

The Underground House has also been featured in a segment called Low Down in Las Vegas, as part of an HGTV Special called Subterraneans: Underground Digs.

[zorgon]

Well maybe we can hold a Pegasus secret meeting there

[The Seeker]

I think it would make a splendid HQ for Pegasus, Viceroy Z; I have always been interested in underground housing, have several books on their design and construction...

in the desert environment that you reside in, underground or earth-sheltered is actually a very green way to live, for it takes very little to cool in summer and likewise very little to warm in winter, in general are almost sound proof, are storm proof, and do make for a domicile that is easy to secure; have a well drilled inside the floor plan before constructing the house.

construction is also rather simple and cost effective if one uses a geodesic dome for the actual shell of the dwelling. 

maybe we should put underground construction on the list as a Pegasus enterprise...


seeker

[zorgon]

Here is one from Nick Pope...

Seems the MoD has one for sale as well

Inside MOD's tube station

Maybe we can make this the UK Headquarters

With the historic property going up for sale next month, we take a last look around MOD's Brompton Road site. Last week, the Ministry of Defence announced that it will be selling one of its central London sites at 206 Brompton Road, after the property was declared surplus to military requirements.


The station building, designed by architect Leslie Green, sports distinctive semicircular windows and oxblood red tiles


Original tiling at the platform level [Picture: Shell Daruwala, Crown copyright]

History
Brompton Road station opened on 15 December 1906. However, it proved to be too close to Knightsbridge and South Kensington stations so it closed its doors to commuters less than 30 years later, on 30 July 1934.

Just before the Second World War, the building, together with the lift shafts and lower western passages, were sold to the War Office for use by the British Army's Air Defence Formation, The 1st Anti-Aircraft Division. During the war, the station became the Royal Artillery's Anti-Aircraft Operations Room for central London who stayed in the building until the 1950s.

he sign on this doorway deep underground in Brompton Road station still warns of wartime hazards long after their removal [Picture: Crown copyright]

https://www.gov.uk/government/news/inside-mods-tube-station

Ceratinly not as pretty as the Vegas one but still... it IS an old bunker

[rdunk]

So this property is from the cold war era and it sits atop 1 acre which comes to 43,560 square feet above ground but Mr Money bags opened 16,000 square feet under the ground. The underground part must a been scoured when Mr Money owned the surrounding lots cause that 16,000 comes to .4 acres if my maph is right.

Wonder what the neighbors think now.

well Gigas your math is right (.38 acres), but you equationn result is backwards. The 1 acre lot is almost 3X the space needed to do the underground 16K sq feet. So, no infringement upon underground neighbor space would be necessary.

[robomont]

so a usa headquaters and great britain headquarters.in one thread.that house is awesome.i agree.the underground part would cost almost nothing to cool.and dect out in 60's furniture.sounds kinda james bond.
we can at least dream.