Underground home in Las Vegas, converted from a Cold War-era bunker
At 3970 Spencer St., 26 feet underneath a suburban neighborhood just off the Las Vegas Strip, exists a home like no other. This 70s-era bomb shelter also happens to be a 16,000 square-foot underground estate, complete with backyard, trees (made of plastic), pool, Jacuzzi AstroTurf, a full kitchen, “outdoor” water well, wet bar, and fireplace. The three bedroom home is “self-sustaining,” said Realtor Winston King, and has lighting systems that reflect the time of day.
This house is special, A high-end fallout shelter built in secret, it’s a small monument to the Cold War—as well as the dream of post-War suburbia in the American west.
There are more unusual features, like the sky control system—a dimmer that can be set to “morning,” “dusk,” or “night,” which activates the “stars” embedded in the ceiling. Just above them, a thick concrete shell protects this perfect suburban simulacra from impending nuclear doom.
The home was built in the mid-70s by one Girard B. “Jerry” Henderson, an entrepreneur whose company, Underground World Home Inc., specialized in luxury bunkers. Henderson wasn’t always a paranoid homebuilder. Born in Brooklyn in 1905, he climbed rose through the corporate ladder to become director of Avon and found his own education charity.
Underground living was more of a hobby, until the Cold War—and demand for bunker homes boomed.
