Photographer Visits Underground House Built by Eccentric Millionaire for Nuclear Fallout

Aug 29, 2024

A lavish room with ornate pink curtains opens to a patio area. The outdoor scene depicts a rocky landscape mural. In the patio space, there is green flooring, two white wrought iron chairs, a small table, and a large potted plant. — Life-like scenery is painted on the underground walls of the house. | Alastair Philip Wiper

An underground house — perfect for nuclear fallout — built by an eccentric millionaire was visited by a photographer who documents doomsday locations.

Alastair Philip Wiper visited the site in Las Vegas which was built and lived in by Jerry Henderson and his wife in the late 1970s and early 1980s.

“This would be a dream place to live during the apocalypse — at least, better than any other bunker I have ever seen,” Wiper tells PetaPixel.

“You need to have a penchant for over-the-top kitsch, insane colour combinations and James Bond-villain-lair aesthetics. Which I do.”

A person in a casual outfit sits alone on a cushioned outdoor chair near a glass table at night. The scene is lit by purple and yellow lights coming from the house behind, which has large windows and an open sliding door, revealing a bedroom inside. — Dr. Mark Voelker, who lives in the non-descript house above the nuclear fallout shelter in Las Vegas.

A scenic mural of a mountainous landscape is displayed on a wall, featuring lush green hills under a partly cloudy sky. In front of the mural, there is a green carpeted floor and a decorative white and blue patterned fence.

A cozy living room with light-colored furnishings, including a sofa and armchairs, and a wooden coffee table. The room features a ceiling fan and a standing lamp. Large glass doors reveal a view of a scenic landscape with green hills and an ocean in the background.

A bathroom with green tiled walls features a mural depicting a reclining woman on the back wall. The bathtub has off-white surfaces with gold fixtures. There are potted white flowers and a candle on the edge of the tub.

The subterranean house comes with a bar area, a pool, sauna, BBQ, putting green, guesthouse, pool table, grand piano, and a fountain.

“You could party down here for weeks and not even realise there was a nuclear war going on upstairs,” adds Wiper.

Henderson decorated the 15,000 square feet (1,400 square meters) abode with bizarre features like artificial trees, faux rocks, lighting to simulate different times of the day, and painted scenery to resemble views dear to the businessman.

The house is now owned by an organization called the Church of Perpetual Life, whose purpose is to extend human life and cryogenically freeze bodies in order to bring them back to life when science allows it. A topic previously explored by Wiper.

When Henderson died in 1983, his wife Mary built a normal house on the plot of land above the nuclear shelter house.

“I guess Mary had had enough of underground living,” adds Wiper.

“These days the entrance to the underground house is through an elevator from the house upstairs. I’m not sure what the entrance looked like when the house was built.”

A vintage kitchen with pink and white cabinetry, featuring a central island with a cooktop, white countertops, and pink checkered floor tiles. The ceiling features large white panels with flush lighting. Windows dressed with pink curtains offer a scenic outdoor view.

A nighttime view of a house exterior with large windows covered by vertical blinds. The roofline is illuminated with blue lighting. The garden in front of the windows features lush greenery and vibrant plants, alongside a stone wall adorned with a decorative light.

A luxurious bathroom features a pink toilet, ornate white sink, and elegant curtains. A faux plant sits beside the toilet, and a pink towel is on the wall. The room has intricate wallpaper, a marble floor, and a candelabra-style light fixture. Gold accents adorn the decor.

An indoor pool area with purple lighting, featuring a large artificial tree in the center. The pool is surrounded by a rocky background and has a bridge-like wooden pathway. The ground near the water is stone-tiled, transitioning to a green carpeted area.

A kitchen with a white and pink color scheme features glass-front upper cabinets, solid lower cabinets, and drawers with pink trim. The room has a geometric pink and white tiled floor and a central white door with a four-panel design.

Wiper is working on a long-term project looking at the many interpretations of the word nuclear.

“I’m looking for all sorts of unusual locations that are associated with nuclear, and when I came across the house, it fit perfectly. It’s so eccentric and flamboyant,” adds Wiper.

PetaPixel previously featured Wiper’s visit to a nuclear bunker designed to host Congress if disaster ever happened. Codenamed Project Greek Island, it was kept secret until 1992 when the Washington Post revealed its existence in an article leading the government to decommission the bunker.

More of Wiper’s work can be found on his website and Instagram.

Image credits: Photographs by Alastair Philip Wiper.