Underground House

Just off Las Vegas’ bustling Flamingo Road, surrounded by family homes, apartment complexes, and stores, an unassuming two-story house sits on top of what may be the city’s most peculiar home. 

Some 25 feet beneath a typical Las Vegas-style yard of gravel and palms, an elaborate underground compound waits to shield its residents in luxury from the ravages of nuclear war. With three bedrooms, four baths, a casita, and a fireplace, a 6000-square-foot home looks out at trees, flowers, lawns, boulders, a fountain, and murals of scenes from the original owner’s residences from around the world.

The sprawling 15,000+ square-foot artificial environment features 12-foot ceilings and skies with lighting to simulate sunrise, day, sunset, and night, as well as a swimming pool, putting green, and two spas. If that isn’t enough, there’s also a sauna, wet bar, dance floor, a barbecue grill, a billiard room, and seating for over 120 people. Since this is a fallout shelter, it also includes a generator, fire and smoke alarms, an intercom system, and large food storage pantries.

Up at ground level, the clues that something is different about the unassuming two-story house are the turbine vents in the yard and the odd sloped structure that houses the stairwell down to the underground lair. Google Maps satellite view shows several AC Units on the ground and a message to passing planes.

The unique home was built in the 1970s by Girard “Jerry” Henderson, a former Avon executive. He and his wife Mary lived in this underground mansion as their primary residence. He was a majority partner with Underground World Homes, Inc. in the 1960s, which promoted subterranean health and safety benefits as well as “the ultimate in true privacy.”

After Jerry’s death in 1983, his wife Mary and Best Man Tex Edmonson built, then lived in the two-story house above ground level. The underground property was last purchased in 2014.