A ranch house on Spencer Street that is only the lid to a perfectly preserved, 70s underground bunker, twenty-six feet below. An elevator opens onto a yard that is not a yard: painted sky, fake trees, murals of other houses the owner original once had, a pool in a room larger than most of the homes on the block. The light is on a timer – sunrise, day, dusk, night – because the desert above is not invited.
It was built as a place to wait out a war and live well while waiting – it’s the OG Backrooms, before Backrooms were a thing.
Girard “Jerry” Henderson, an Avon heir, had already lived underground in Colorado. After the Cuban Missile Crisis he backed Jay Swayze’s atomitat idea; after Swayze had shown an Underground World Home at the 1964 New York World’s Fair. This one, the largest of a handful, went up between 1974 and 1978. Concrete and steel, about 15,000 to 16,000 square feet, bedrooms, a guest casita, pool, spas, sauna, dance floor, barbecue, a boulder that was the original front door, and a tunnel once linking it to the building across the street.
Henderson died in the bunker in 1983, and his wife built and lived in the ordinary house up top.
Viewings of the bunker have been ‘by appointment only’. However, it was purchased in 2026 by Zak Bagans (Ghost Adventures & The Haunted Museum), who has talked about opening it as a museum.
Photo credits: https://www.phototours.vegas/product/underground-house-photo-tour/ – best known photo that’s frequently shared on liminal threads, https://www.atomic-ranch.com/real-estate/the-underground-house/ , Google Maps , The official website for the house appears to be here: https://www.undergroundhouse.vegas/
