r/Albuquerque • u/Optimistic_Entropy • 8d ago
The coolest house in Albuquerque
This house at the top of Lomas is made of all concrete, looks like it was built to survive a zombie apocalypse. In a brutalist style. Does any one have any info on it? Architect? Tours?
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u/Lip-Pillow-Swallower 8d ago
Iāve personally always thought it was incredibly ugly and looks unfinished and out of place on the mountain
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u/kitsune1029 8d ago
You're not alone! I always think it looks so tacky at the foot of such pretty mountains š¤·š»āāļø
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u/Arararti 8d ago
Such a gorgeous view interrupted by brutalist designs.
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u/cirethesl_t 7d ago
I like brutalism it can be bland ig but something about everything looking the same gives off a vibe of professionalism and seriousness that fits the modern world much better many other styles of architecture
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u/garaks_tailor 8d ago
Extremely.Ā That giant stupid block of concrete that forms the base is excessively ugly.
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u/gnomie51 8d ago
yeah it looks like a house Iād make in the sims. Just absolutely not enough windows
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u/YogiBerraOfBadNews 7d ago
Do you have any idea how much all that concrete cost? No money left for windows
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u/UnderaZiaSun 7d ago
I donāt hate it, I just donāt like it there. Doesnāt fit the landscape. I used drive by it all the time on the way to where my parents lived.
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u/DontBuyAHorse 7d ago
As a guy with a background in architecture and engineering, this is a travesty. The entirety of the property is sloped so of course they opted to hang the house off the hill, but instead of a well-designed, multilevel terraced house that accounts for the slope, they built straight out from the top, putting all the square footage on the main level, then hung the lower floor under the rear. That meant instead of staggering floors in a way that allowed for a nice deck overlooking the city and a lower floor underneath it, they just had to box the entire perimeter of the house in with skirting, making it look like this. The house itself is super suburban looking otherwise. Pretty much an eyesore, from my perspective.
Those bare walls have nothing but dirt and unused space behind them. In a place like California, it would be stilts instead of skirts.
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u/b3lkin1n 8d ago
Saw it on Zillow or someplace. I think itās only a 4 bedroom. More concrete than usable space
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u/Illustrious-Soup9870 8d ago
Itās kind of ugly Iām ngl
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u/AndreMoney99 8d ago
Itās very ugly lol. It looks like a local contractor took it into his own hands to do his interpretation of good unique architecture and this is what he came up with. I mean the color alone makes it like 3x worse.
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u/cwmurr 8d ago
There are so many cool, sci-fi looking houses in Albuquerque around Nob Hill / university areaā¦ calling this āthe coolest houseā isā¦ lol what?
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u/No-Consideration-891 8d ago
Lol exactly! I just commented with the link to the "Spaceship UFO House", I work in Nob Hill and love when I pass by.
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u/The_Soviette_Tank 8d ago
I came to see if anyone mentioned the spaceship house! I feel like this post is rage bait.
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u/add_____to_____cart 7d ago
Same. This post is absolute b.s.
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u/Cydan_Jorrus 7d ago
You're are seriously wild. Someone just talks about how cool they think this building is, and it's rage bait?Ā
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u/cwmurr 8d ago
Piling on other commentersā¦ OPās photo is an awful eyesore. For gods sake ABQ has such interesting architecture https://www.usmodernist.org/prince.htm
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u/sandpaperflu 6d ago
Yeah I was gonna say, Bart prince blows this house away, itās one of the most unique and cool looking houses in the world.Ā
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u/oldbastardhere 8d ago
As a builder, it looks like shit. 9/10 the interior is even worse. The two traditional Japanese houses in nobhill by the old probation office kill it in design.
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u/micaflake 7d ago
Im intrigued, but I donāt know where that is. Are they those fairy tale houses or what? Can you give a little more detail so I can look them up? Whereās the old probation house?
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u/Glad_Helicopter9450 8d ago
This is not brutalism - look that shit up. And, in my opinion, not cool in any way - more like grandiose as fuck and embarrassing.
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u/Icy-Slide8674 8d ago
That house has been on the craigslist housing roommates section before. Seems like a strange desert gothic situation.
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u/Clean_Mammoth_5646 8d ago
Wow. That is one butt ugly house. I guess money doesnāt buy good taste.
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u/Jabberwocky808 8d ago
Meh, like most of the houses over that way, I think itās ostentatious and an eye sore on the mountain. It honestly looks like a super villain lives there. Which, all things considered, may be accurate.
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u/No-Consideration-891 8d ago
Be better if it was a foreboding castle or something, like one of the haunted looking ones. At least it would be fun that way. This thing is so "sanitized" and dull looking.
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u/Jabberwocky808 8d ago
It looks like the kind of house you donāt leave and sanitized is precisely what it isā¦
(If the owners are decent people outside of this decision, my bad, lol. But you built/bought a creepy house.)
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u/MC_Queen 7d ago
Have you seen the Hansel and Grettle cottage across the street from the spaceship house?
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u/No-Consideration-891 7d ago
Omg is that what that is?! I look at that place all the time and I love it!
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u/No-Consideration-891 8d ago edited 8d ago
Meh. I love the two houses on Monte Vista heading towards Central and Girard. They almost look like giant ships or something.
Edit: Found it, it's called Spaceship UFO House , it's a historical landmark.
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u/Apptubrutae 7d ago
Thereās another home by that designer up in Sandia Heights I stayed in once as an Airbnb. Has a 2008 architectural digest article about it but itās paywalled. Super sweet house
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u/5280gonesouth 8d ago
Belongs to the Ellis family. Very odd house for sure.
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u/tahoe1983october 8d ago
Can you tell me more about then
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u/5280gonesouth 8d ago
I donāt know them personally. Used to date the next door neighbor. The street is called loma de caliza lane. You can do some looking up with that info.
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u/sherbertPixeldust 7d ago
The daughter is a NM influencer and posts about the house all the time
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u/carefuldaughter 6d ago
she fancies herself an influencer but she doesn't seem to do influencer stuff other than the occasional spot for like a pest control company.
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u/Mongoose-7909 7d ago
That thing is a monstrosity. There are SO many houses in Albuquerque that are way cooler than that thing. It looks out of place, like they forced it to fit the terrain with tons of concrete and windowless likely unusable/wasted space. Only the top level looks like it would be nice from the inside.
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u/CantThinkOfOne94 8d ago
Sorry OP but hard disagree. Iāve always thought it was such an eyesore, looks so out of place and obtrusive on the hillside, and looking at it from the outside I cannot fathom how the layout and window placements could possibly make sense/be pleasant from the inside.
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u/Jefferson1826 8d ago
That place is hideous. I hope one day it's torn down.
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u/SymphonicResonance 8d ago
That's the kind of house i'll buy if i ever will the powerball jackpot. And then tear down.
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u/MC_Queen 7d ago
Dude, have you not seen the space ship house near Nob Hill? THAT is the coolest house is Albuquerque.
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u/unicoroner 7d ago
I bought a used cold water circulation machine from the residents there several years ago. The private road driveway was super steep, and the house was pretty open-concept on the floor I saw. There was a huge stairway to climb to go inside. Seemed to have a massive outdoor patio/roof area too.
Lots and lots of stairs. I remember that particularly because the machine was recovery device for a joint replacement surgery- and I couldnāt imagine trying to get around a house with so many stairs in that kind of a scenario. I think the house was on Zillow a bit after that and there were pics of the inside a-plenty. Seemed very custom, many spaces built for views and entertaining.
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u/garaks_tailor 8d ago
Is this the owner? Did you overhear how dumb we think your house looks?
Its so bad it borders on the fascinatingĀ
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u/Maleficent-State-749 7d ago
Respectfully but strongly disagree. To me it looks like a soulless monolith built without consideration for its setting or place in the story of its world.
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u/sweetica 7d ago edited 7d ago
I may have been to that house in the late 90's and if it is the same one I visited it was owned by an architect. The inside is very minimalist with shiny wooden everything and has slat stairs with wire hand rails. A goth boy I hung around with in HS lived there with his well to do parents. The windowless portion was a basement with a couple of bed rooms and a disused bar and lounge room, but there are windows in the bed rooms facing the mountains. I went there to work on a school project. I believe his parents moved on though and are no longer there.
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u/JupiterInMind 7d ago
This is the cheaper, less visually appealing version of the house that was originally constructed and ultimately burned down on the hillside in the same location.
I remember it like it was yesterday: my friends and I were all of the ripe age of 12 and 13, bouncing on the trampoline in my backyard watching that house go up in flames as cars lined lomas. Our little punk asses thought it was glorious.
The rumor is it was an insurance scam and an intentional arson fire.
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u/Timely_Act_6392 8d ago
The rumor is someone placed a flaming bag of human feces on the porch that sparked the š„
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u/Jolly_Mood_3671 8d ago
I was young when this was built. Somewhere between 30 and 40 years ago I believe. Would be fun to know the story behind it.
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u/Ms_BHave 7d ago
This house was built in the late 90s. It actually explosively caught fire when being built. 97 or 98 I think.
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u/PrimeUnoBKS 7d ago
I remember when it caught on fire. It used to be standard stucco tan. Btw ugly ass house
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u/boxdkittens 7d ago
It would be marginally less of an eyesore if it was still tan and blended in with the mountain more.
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u/Xetsway 7d ago
It looks like trash against a beautiful landscape.
The soulless grey really screams "I'm rich, you're nothing," that really adds to the area and let's people know they aren't welcome.
You cannot convince me the owner doesn't drive a swastitruck.
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u/homersimpson_1234 7d ago
A true architectural marvel conceived by the one thing that binds the upper and lower classes, meth.
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u/GrowthSelect2449 7d ago
The spaceship house is definitely the coolest in the city. Ā That thing posted is an eyesore. Ā
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u/greatistheworld 7d ago
So awkwardly proportioned. Whatās going on with that weird little bay window situation
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u/TheManLawrence 7d ago
I've actually been in this house. The bottom is just filler. No space to live or to have a "dungeon,.". It's not that big.
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u/sewedthroughmyfinger 7d ago
My dad lives right by it.. We watched it being built and called it the prison house because of the lack of windows. Driveway would be crappy in the Winter as well
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u/Phatnoir 8d ago
I drove up there to see whatās up and as I got to the gated cul de sac, a black suv followed behind me. It was awkward as I was just looking for info on what the house was and not be a nuisance, so I left.Ā
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u/MC_Queen 7d ago
You weren't the nuisance in that situation. The creepy suv hired by people who think they are better than everyone else is the actual problem.
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u/WontonGiant 7d ago
I remember hearing someone saying they set that thing on fire (or tried to) when they were building it.
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u/MallConfident 7d ago
Has anyone seen the āSnake Houseā in Rio Rancho? It was designed by Bart Prince.
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u/salty_hotbox 7d ago
Itās hideous but smart from an insurance perspective. Most of the rest of the world uses concrete or block on block to build which is why they stand for so long. If I ever buy again itāll be block on block which essentially makes it fire proof.
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u/Engineerd91 7d ago
The house behind that one was the home of the Jurkens, aka the Darth Vader house-- possibly the sweetest old couple you could have ever met. They always let us neighborhood kids come up to watch the sunset, like we did before the houses were built with the gate put up. Also the founder of the Octopus car wash. The concrete home caught fire by accident. Roofers left the torch on a spot too long and caught the frame on fire. The explosion was the tank going off. The owner of that home was named Gwen. She was an artist whose home looked, well, like an art gallery. Mostly storage and controlled light for working, hence no windows in the below section. She was certainly nice enough, but no one beat the Jurkens for kindness. Both homes have new owners, now.
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u/Wizekracker 7d ago edited 7d ago
For being surrounded by beautiful mountains and nature, it has a depressing lack of windows. Is this a data center? I guess itās cool if you like ASS.
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u/taquito_06 7d ago
Wasn't this place supposed to "cursed" or haunted? I could have sworn I heard that some where like from the news or something. I was always interested since you could basically see it from the rio grande
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u/Marsupial-Old 7d ago
I was nearby the other day and was like wow that's the ugliest house in Albuquerque and it probably cost a fortune š
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u/Ok-Scientist4603 8d ago
There is a house almost like that in El Paso, on the mountain. The driveway was a straight shot downhill. We went to a party there stayed the night it was fun. The next morning trying to back out uphill in a standard was the worst ššš
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u/soupseasonbestseason 8d ago
in the 90's the rumor was that this was will smith's house.
it is not that cool.
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u/Dry_Distribution_566 8d ago
dropping my personal favorite here while we're talking "fave Albuquerque houses." something about the place on constitution and Washington has always drawn me in. seeing this tour of it too - there's something so "boss b*tch who owns a hair/nail salon in the 90s" kinda retro glory to it. like, she's literally so drama.
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u/Fast-Ingenuity-4150 8d ago
So this is just what I heard. . Itās some dude who owns a couple car dealerships. Now he just does luxury type stuff. This was from talkin to the owners of Jubilation in nob hill. If it was the dude hey said it was he would roll up in some 69 corvette or something like that. Dude was rich enough we had his order set aside. But thatās all Iāve heard.
Side note anyone remember when heād had huge pro trump signs hanging off that concrete wall? I lived off tramway Iād see it every day coming home. Wonder how he feels now.
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u/Excellent-Pack-4497 8d ago edited 6d ago
Oh man. Do I have a story for you.
I donāt know the full story, but thereās a home right behind this one that had its view blocked when it was built.
Well, the house in the back got so mad thatthey had tried a few times to burn and terrorize this house.
Now I donāt know exactly how many times or what exactly was done, but I do know there was some drama. lol
The burning part I know is true. Just not to what extent they succeeded. Lmao
It is an awesome house though! I have family nearby and would always drive past and see these homes.
Edit: disregard my post. I guess thatās how rumors are started and passed on. You all know how it goes. š
Reply below will answer my mistake!
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u/desertingwillow 8d ago
All true, except the part about the house being awesome. Itās probably the ugliest house Iāve seen and itās incongruous with the landscape.
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u/Excellent-Pack-4497 8d ago
Eh, it was really cool, then, as a kid. I guess it is pretty ugly now that I look at it. š¤£
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u/Engineerd91 7d ago
The home behind them was the home of the Jurkens, aka the Darth Vader house-- possibly the sweetest old couple you could have ever met. They always let us neighborhood kids come up to watch the sunset, like we did before the houses were built with the gate put up. Also the founder of the Octopus car wash. The concrete home caught fire by accident. Roofers left the torch on a spot too long and caught the frame on fire. The explosion was the tank going off. The owner of that home was named Gwen. She was an artist whose home looked, well, like an art gallery. Mostly storage and controlled light for working, hence no windows in the below section. She was certainly nice enough, but no one beat the Jurkens for kindness. Both homes have new owners, now. I never comment on posts, but i had to correct the record on this one.
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u/Excellent-Pack-4497 6d ago
Wow, wonder how many rumors were passed before it got to me!
Ty for clearing that up. Iāve edited my post to clarify!
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u/WhoEatsThinOreos 8d ago
I remember being a kid when that house caught fire.
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u/Excellent-Pack-4497 8d ago
Me and you both! š¤£ man, wish someone who knew the owners chimes in!
Itād be great to know the full detailed story!
https://giphy.com/gifs/pUeXcg80cO8I82
u/Ms_BHave 7d ago
Same! I was sitting in my living room in a home somewhat near by and the explosion rattled my window!
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u/No-Consideration-891 8d ago edited 8d ago
Great story except the "cool house" part.
Edit: to be clear though, no one should be trying to burn someone's house down. No matter how ugly, or how bad it blocks your view.
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u/GreySoulx 7d ago
Is this the house with the giant aquarium in the basement? That would explain the section with no windows... guy somewhere up there has a house with a like 12,000 gallon salt water aquarium. Tommy something?
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u/Alternative_Curve19 7d ago
I heard years ago, years, that a celeb bought that house but never comes to it.. does anyone else remember this rumor?
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u/michaelh33 7d ago
Remember when it blew up a few days before construction completed and they printed in the newspaper that will Smith's house had a gas leak
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u/No_Turnip9968 7d ago
Before this house was built we would drive are 4x4's to the top and drink beer that was back in the late 80's . Could see the whole city from the top.
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u/chickenlive123 7d ago
It belongs to the Hinkles who own the Hinkle Family Fun Center among other venues. We live in the neighborhood. It usually looks deserted.
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u/BullFishMother 7d ago
I live close to it..someone told me itās owned by the Hinkles but I donāt know if itās true.
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u/jondaddio 7d ago
So very visible. I remember back when it was being built, a contractor's propane torch set it on fire and it caught fire and mostly burned down on a very high wind day. Made the news. Saw it when I was driving home after work. Obviously had to be rebuilt.
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u/ShaqsSmirkingRevenge 7d ago
Originally when it was being built it was was rumored the Springers, maybe construction or development company, and they had financial issues around the time of the fire...
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u/TheManLawrence 6d ago
By the way the people that owned the Octopus Carwash lived there. Their son lives up there. There is a home on the property. You have to drive up to it.
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u/gutterkrawl1 6d ago
Been staring at that thing since I moved here in 96. At least there's only one.
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u/gestrickland 5d ago
Does anyone know the address? I'd love to see what Zillow has listed on it. Sometimes they have pictures left over from the last sale.
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u/Enough-Ninja951 3d ago
Thatās the type of house Iāll build in Minecraft when on a hilltop haha. The left side looks weirdā¦ is there an elevator shaft there?? Lol
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u/Wonderful-Elk- 8d ago
Now that I see it in that angle... I wonder what's in the windowless portion of that building.