A Blast From The Past Makes A Home For Today

The year is 1961. In the midst of the Cold War, the US government is building hundreds of Atlas-F missile silos in upstate New York in the event of a nuclear attack...which never comes. Equipped with air and land access, these silos sit, nestled underground, unused and completely unknown for several years. What the general public won’t know until many years later is that these long-abandoned silos will be prime for human occupation–in accessibility and functionality.

Straight out of a Bond movie, cousins Bruce Francisco and Gregory Gibbons purchased one of the missile silos and converted it into a multi-level underground luxury home. By renovating the 2,300 square foot control center, the cousins made a bleak and vacant space into a two-story, 3 bedroom, 2.5 bath home. Sliding ‘Star War[s]-like doors’ between the open living area and the kitchen serve as entry into a tunnel which accesses the main chamber of the silo–a 20,000 square foot, nine floor steel structure.

I wonder if Alfred Pennyworth, Bruce Wayne’s butler, could be hired to park my bat mobile the dark depths of these silos.

As of 2001, the cousins had listed the property at $2.3 million, boasting:

“(A) new well, 200 amp electrical service, phone, original 1800 gallon functional septic. Contemporary fiber optic effect lighting along with natural sunlight rendition back lighting. High circulation venting (two 18" vent tubes), specifically designed to handle the demands of everyday living as well as those that may be posed in a crisis situation. (i.e. a nuclear or biochemical attack)."

I haven’t been able to determine if they sold it, and if so, for how much. I assume they purchased it from a government property auction, which avails government land and property to citizens looking to buy.

I hope we will never need to consider living in security-enhanced, nuclear and biochemically safe structures, but in the case we do, I suppose it’s comforting to know that they exist. And it doesn’t hurt that they could be kind of swanky in a post-apocalyptic chic sort of way.