Is the Underground Home still underground? The New York City Parks Department doesn’t think so, but others do. The home, built as an exhibit for the 1964-1965 World’s Fair held in New York, has ardent fans who think it’s still buried underneath the city’s Flushing Meadows-Corona Park. Now, one expert is seeking the permits and funding to do a radar and/or camera survey to check.
As a certain fictional FBI agent would say, we want to believe. Why not? The Underground Home was a 12,000-square-foot, totally underground house built in the aftermath of the Cuban Missile Crisis, as Narratively reported in 2012. With an air filtering system its makers advertised as able to filter fallout particles, the Underground Home tapped into American fears of the times. In addition, the home had 10 rooms, windows made of screens that could show different scenes, and a Steinway piano. The Underground Home was both weird and baller.
It may also still be around. You should check out the Narratively story to learn about how, why, and those who want to find out.
Among the would-be discoverers is historian Lori Walters of the University of Central Florida. Last month, Walters talked with Inhabitat about her plans for surveying the stretch of dirt where the Underground Home may lie buried:
Should Walters get to do her project, ordinary folks may get to take a look, too. The historian told Inhabitat she wants to set up the endoscopic camera so that visitors to the New York Hall of Science are able to control it. She hopes the project will teach kids about archaeology. She previously worked on creating a 3-D rendering of the World’s Fair grounds, so modern kids can “visit” the fair and get excited about science and technology. You can download the virtual fairgrounds for free online.