5 ms·

What's Inside This House On Wade Avenue?

73 points by sethbannon 13y ago

mrjatx 13y ago
Ha, pretty neat. I used to do work on cellular towers and you'd be really surprised at how they manage to hide towers. I'm talking fake trees, church steeples, etc. When you do tower surveys you're given GPS coordinates and every so often I'd wind up having to comb an area up and down to figure out where the tower was.
andr 13y ago
In the earliest days of the London Underground, trains used steam engines, which would collect steam and release it only at specified openings above tunnels, so as to not suffocate everyone. In posh areas, fake housefronts like this one: http://www.urban75.org/london/leinster.html http://www.urban75.org/london/leinster.html were built with a hole behind them, and trains would release steam as they passed under the hole. More such cases in Brooklyn and Paris: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2388179/When-house-home-The-fake-townhouses-just-hidden-portals-underground-world.html http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2388179/When-house-h...
- andr 13y ago
  Also, a military bunker in Moscow, masked as a house: http://englishrussia.com/2011/11/18/declassified-bunker-of-the-ussr/ http://englishrussia.com/2011/11/18/declassified-bunker-of-t...
- christiangenco 13y ago
  Fun pop culture fact: 23/24 Leinster Gardens were just featured in the British Sherlock series: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/His_Last_Vow#Sources_and_allusions http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/His_Last_Vow#Sources_and_allusi...
IbJacked 13y ago
There’s a “house” a couple of miles from mine which is actually a power sub-station. It's located in a heavily wooded, up-scale neighborhood, and would have looked really out of place if it wasn't concealed. But, the fake house still looks a little strange, as it doesn't have quite the level of finishing of a real home.
- pstack 13y ago
  Which is kind of bizarre, because how much extra effort would it have taken them to pave a walkway to the door and have some lights on a randomized timer during the night, to give the impression that someone uses the home? Although, I guess that would be creepy if you lived in the neighborhood and never saw the people, too.
  - DonGateley 13y ago
    I wonder what the threshold of detail is to remain effectively invisible or beyond notice. That's all that's needed. I'm sure that's been deeply studied by the military.
brubaker 13y ago
"The ordinary-looking house on Wade Ave actually disguises a pump station for the city of Raleigh public utilities." That was a really boring reveal.
mindcrime 13y ago
Damn, I've driven by there hundreds of times and had no clue anything was unusual about that house. Never even noticed that there was no driveway. When I first started reading this article, I had a feeling it was going to be something to do with AT&T, possibly related to The Big Hole[1][[2]. Nothing quite so exciting though... Still, pretty neat. [1]: http://www.indyweek.com/indyweek/big-hole-deep-secret/Content?oid=1182760 http://www.indyweek.com/indyweek/big-hole-deep-secret/Conten... [2]: http://www.abovetopsecret.com/forum/thread188702/pg1 http://www.abovetopsecret.com/forum/thread188702/pg1
- gjmulhol 13y ago
  I have, too, and for some reason always assumed it was either some sort of abandoned funeral home or a sort of religious organization artifice, a meeting or banquet hall or something. It was always just a bit to clean, dark, and empty to be a regular house.
  - eitally 13y ago
    Me, too. I kinda assumed it had been annexed by the church next door. One of the churches in "downtown" Cary had done something similar (bought a number of the surrounding homes for extra meeting/education/banquet space).
mnemonicsloth 13y ago
> Why Keep It Hidden? Because yuppies. It's all of two blocks from the biggest Whole Foods Market in the Triangle.
- anigbrowl 13y ago
  I'm not sure why you were downvoted. Having spent some time there this seems like an eminently reasonable answer.
  - rosser 13y ago
    I'm not sure why you were downvoted. Because smugness?
- pstack 13y ago
  Because nobody but yuppies would prefer not to have a giant substation or maintenance station of various sorts slammed right into the middle of a neighborhood? Also, for things that would otherwise simply not be covered at all, it keeps kids and vandals away and other potential liabilities.
- eitally 13y ago
  As the article states, not because yuppies, because church and general environmental sensitivity on the part of the city management. They planned to disguise it forty years ago when it was planned, as I'm sure many communities have similarly done. Imho, this is similar to the practice of disguising urban cellular towers, a la http://twistedsifter.com/2012/08/examples-of-cell-phone-tower-disguises/ http://twistedsifter.com/2012/08/examples-of-cell-phone-towe...
- moocowduckquack 13y ago
  I just looked up the company Whole Foods Market that has those premises, they started in Austin in 1980, so presumably the City of Raleigh must have some of the best public officials in the world, given they can predict both yuppies and the future location of specific businesses.
- TDL 13y ago
EvanAnderson 13y ago
There are telco central offices disguised as houses, too. This one, in Anaheim, CA, US is a good example (CLLI code ANHMCA17RS3): http://www.co-buildings.com/ca/714/ http://www.co-buildings.com/ca/714/ https://maps.google.com/maps?q=33.8449,+-117.741&ie=UTF8&ll=33.842493,-117.741637&spn=0.011424,0.01929&t=m&z=16&vpsrc=0&layer=c&cbll=33.842569,-117.741567&panoid=vQ-5BsS7PnbrdxkgcSX4sw&cbp=12,312.91,,0,-1.94 https://maps.google.com/maps?q=33.8449,+-117.741&ie=UTF8&ll=...
pstack 13y ago
This is entirely common, all over the world. Maintenance, accesses, and vents to the New York subway system are hidden behind non-existent town and row-houses and you can discover them if you pan around Google Maps for awhile. http://www.messynessychic.com/2013/01/29/the-fake-townhouses-hiding-mystery-underground-portals/ http://www.messynessychic.com/2013/01/29/the-fake-townhouses...
ivanbrussik 13y ago
We had this in the town I grew up in, only it was a house with the "mechanical room" for our water tower. People broke in all the time.
dm2 13y ago
How much more expensive would it have been to build this underground (with an access door somewhere) and make the above area a park or open land? Are underground structures partially avoided because of the potential for them to collapse if not properly maintained or if a large truck drives over them for whatever reason? I've always had the desire to build a basement that I can slowly expand overtime and have a huge underground facility. I wonder if this is possible? Didn't they do it at the White House and Vice President's house?
- michaelt 13y ago
  If you believe London's Evening Standard (not the most reliable of newspapers) in expensive areas of London it's common for people to buy 19th century mansions then build underground "mega-basements" [1,2,3,4] with features like pools, tennis courts and classic car museums. So it's possible. It may be expensive. [1] http://www.standard.co.uk/news/london/kensington-digs-in-with-ban-on-mega-basements-8544091.html http://www.standard.co.uk/news/london/kensington-digs-in-wit... [2] http://www.standard.co.uk/news/london/daimler-heir-wins-fight-to-dig-vast-basement-with-50ft-pool-at-30m-georgian-home-8483082.html http://www.standard.co.uk/news/london/daimler-heir-wins-figh... [3] http://www.standard.co.uk/news/london/billionaires-chelsea-basement-plans-scrapped-before-planners-get-the-chance-to-reject-them-8392628.html http://www.standard.co.uk/news/london/billionaires-chelsea-b... [4] http://www.standard.co.uk/news/london/tetra-pak-heir-hans-rausing-to-install-mega-basement-at-home-where-wifes-dead-body-was-hidden-for-months-8794350.html http://www.standard.co.uk/news/london/tetra-pak-heir-hans-ra...
  - rmk2 13y ago
    It made it onto Channel 4's "Grand Designs"[1], so there is little doubt this is happening, being filmed and all. Also, the Guardian has something about it as well: http://www.theguardian.com/artanddesign/2012/nov/09/billionaires-basements-london-houses-architecture http://www.theguardian.com/artanddesign/2012/nov/09/billiona... [1]: Grand Designs S12E06 -- "The Edwardian Artist's Studio" [2] [2]: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eEzcu9hWo-E https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eEzcu9hWo-E [3] [3]: GOTO [1]
- kaishiro 13y ago
tux 13y ago
Kind of reminds you of house in "Resident Evil". O_o
asmithmd1 13y ago
Here is an odd "house" I noticed years ago in Falls Church, VA. Being right outside Washington and one town over from the CIA headquarters I thought it must have something to do with the them: https://www.google.com/maps/preview#!q=320+N+West+St&data=!1m8!1m3!1d3!2d-77.18168!3d38.891952!2m2!1f147.18!2f81.73!4f75!2m9!1e1!2m4!1sgfQH0jSQ6c-fJTlDJs9MXw!2e0!9m1!6sNorth+West+Street!5m2!1sgfQH0jSQ6c-fJTlDJs9MXw!2e0!4m15!2m14!1m13!1s0x89b7b4db2115a83f%3A0x387b2552761cc7a5!3m8!1m3!1d3!2d-77.179864!3d38.892837!3m2!1i1440!2i802!4f90!4m2!3d38.892595!4d-77.179891&fid=5 https://www.google.com/maps/preview#!q=320+N+West+St&data=!1...
- eitally 13y ago
  My wife grew up practically across the street from that house and the way it was discussed in the neighborhood was that it is/was a CIA safe house. A utility station seems much more plausible.
cma 13y ago
this is sort of Cyberpunk inverted

73 points by sethbannon 13y ago

Ha, pretty neat. I used to do work on cellular towers and you'd be really surprised at how they manage to hide towers. I'm talking fake trees, church steeples, etc. When you do tower surveys you're given GPS coordinates and every so often I'd wind up having to comb an area up and down to figure out where the tower was.

andr 13y ago

In the earliest days of the London Underground, trains used steam engines, which would collect steam and release it only at specified openings above tunnels, so as to not suffocate everyone. In posh areas, fake housefronts like this one: http://www.urban75.org/london/leinster.html http://www.urban75.org/london/leinster.html were built with a hole behind them, and trains would release steam as they passed under the hole. More such cases in Brooklyn and Paris: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2388179/When-house-home-The-fake-townhouses-just-hidden-portals-underground-world.html http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2388179/When-house-h...

andr 13y ago
Also, a military bunker in Moscow, masked as a house: http://englishrussia.com/2011/11/18/declassified-bunker-of-the-ussr/ http://englishrussia.com/2011/11/18/declassified-bunker-of-t...
christiangenco 13y ago
Fun pop culture fact: 23/24 Leinster Gardens were just featured in the British Sherlock series: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/His_Last_Vow#Sources_and_allusions http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/His_Last_Vow#Sources_and_allusi...

IbJacked 13y ago

There’s a “house” a couple of miles from mine which is actually a power sub-station. It's located in a heavily wooded, up-scale neighborhood, and would have looked really out of place if it wasn't concealed. But, the fake house still looks a little strange, as it doesn't have quite the level of finishing of a real home.

pstack 13y ago
Which is kind of bizarre, because how much extra effort would it have taken them to pave a walkway to the door and have some lights on a randomized timer during the night, to give the impression that someone uses the home? Although, I guess that would be creepy if you lived in the neighborhood and never saw the people, too.
- DonGateley 13y ago
  I wonder what the threshold of detail is to remain effectively invisible or beyond notice. That's all that's needed. I'm sure that's been deeply studied by the military.

brubaker 13y ago

"The ordinary-looking house on Wade Ave actually disguises a pump station for the city of Raleigh public utilities." That was a really boring reveal.

mindcrime 13y ago

Damn, I've driven by there hundreds of times and had no clue anything was unusual about that house. Never even noticed that there was no driveway. When I first started reading this article, I had a feeling it was going to be something to do with AT&T, possibly related to The Big Hole[1][[2]. Nothing quite so exciting though... Still, pretty neat. [1]: http://www.indyweek.com/indyweek/big-hole-deep-secret/Content?oid=1182760 http://www.indyweek.com/indyweek/big-hole-deep-secret/Conten... [2]: http://www.abovetopsecret.com/forum/thread188702/pg1 http://www.abovetopsecret.com/forum/thread188702/pg1

gjmulhol 13y ago
I have, too, and for some reason always assumed it was either some sort of abandoned funeral home or a sort of religious organization artifice, a meeting or banquet hall or something. It was always just a bit to clean, dark, and empty to be a regular house.
- eitally 13y ago
  Me, too. I kinda assumed it had been annexed by the church next door. One of the churches in "downtown" Cary had done something similar (bought a number of the surrounding homes for extra meeting/education/banquet space).

mnemonicsloth 13y ago

> Why Keep It Hidden? Because yuppies. It's all of two blocks from the biggest Whole Foods Market in the Triangle.

anigbrowl 13y ago
I'm not sure why you were downvoted. Having spent some time there this seems like an eminently reasonable answer.
- rosser 13y ago
  I'm not sure why you were downvoted. Because smugness?
pstack 13y ago
Because nobody but yuppies would prefer not to have a giant substation or maintenance station of various sorts slammed right into the middle of a neighborhood? Also, for things that would otherwise simply not be covered at all, it keeps kids and vandals away and other potential liabilities.
eitally 13y ago
As the article states, not because yuppies, because church and general environmental sensitivity on the part of the city management. They planned to disguise it forty years ago when it was planned, as I'm sure many communities have similarly done. Imho, this is similar to the practice of disguising urban cellular towers, a la http://twistedsifter.com/2012/08/examples-of-cell-phone-tower-disguises/ http://twistedsifter.com/2012/08/examples-of-cell-phone-towe...
moocowduckquack 13y ago
I just looked up the company Whole Foods Market that has those premises, they started in Austin in 1980, so presumably the City of Raleigh must have some of the best public officials in the world, given they can predict both yuppies and the future location of specific businesses.
TDL 13y ago

EvanAnderson 13y ago

There are telco central offices disguised as houses, too. This one, in Anaheim, CA, US is a good example (CLLI code ANHMCA17RS3): http://www.co-buildings.com/ca/714/ http://www.co-buildings.com/ca/714/ https://maps.google.com/maps?q=33.8449,+-117.741&ie=UTF8&ll=33.842493,-117.741637&spn=0.011424,0.01929&t=m&z=16&vpsrc=0&layer=c&cbll=33.842569,-117.741567&panoid=vQ-5BsS7PnbrdxkgcSX4sw&cbp=12,312.91,,0,-1.94 https://maps.google.com/maps?q=33.8449,+-117.741&ie=UTF8&ll=...

pstack 13y ago

This is entirely common, all over the world. Maintenance, accesses, and vents to the New York subway system are hidden behind non-existent town and row-houses and you can discover them if you pan around Google Maps for awhile. http://www.messynessychic.com/2013/01/29/the-fake-townhouses-hiding-mystery-underground-portals/ http://www.messynessychic.com/2013/01/29/the-fake-townhouses...

ivanbrussik 13y ago

We had this in the town I grew up in, only it was a house with the "mechanical room" for our water tower. People broke in all the time.

dm2 13y ago

How much more expensive would it have been to build this underground (with an access door somewhere) and make the above area a park or open land? Are underground structures partially avoided because of the potential for them to collapse if not properly maintained or if a large truck drives over them for whatever reason? I've always had the desire to build a basement that I can slowly expand overtime and have a huge underground facility. I wonder if this is possible? Didn't they do it at the White House and Vice President's house?

michaelt 13y ago
If you believe London's Evening Standard (not the most reliable of newspapers) in expensive areas of London it's common for people to buy 19th century mansions then build underground "mega-basements" [1,2,3,4] with features like pools, tennis courts and classic car museums. So it's possible. It may be expensive. [1] http://www.standard.co.uk/news/london/kensington-digs-in-with-ban-on-mega-basements-8544091.html http://www.standard.co.uk/news/london/kensington-digs-in-wit... [2] http://www.standard.co.uk/news/london/daimler-heir-wins-fight-to-dig-vast-basement-with-50ft-pool-at-30m-georgian-home-8483082.html http://www.standard.co.uk/news/london/daimler-heir-wins-figh... [3] http://www.standard.co.uk/news/london/billionaires-chelsea-basement-plans-scrapped-before-planners-get-the-chance-to-reject-them-8392628.html http://www.standard.co.uk/news/london/billionaires-chelsea-b... [4] http://www.standard.co.uk/news/london/tetra-pak-heir-hans-rausing-to-install-mega-basement-at-home-where-wifes-dead-body-was-hidden-for-months-8794350.html http://www.standard.co.uk/news/london/tetra-pak-heir-hans-ra...
- rmk2 13y ago
  It made it onto Channel 4's "Grand Designs"[1], so there is little doubt this is happening, being filmed and all. Also, the Guardian has something about it as well: http://www.theguardian.com/artanddesign/2012/nov/09/billionaires-basements-london-houses-architecture http://www.theguardian.com/artanddesign/2012/nov/09/billiona... [1]: Grand Designs S12E06 -- "The Edwardian Artist's Studio" [2] [2]: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eEzcu9hWo-E https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eEzcu9hWo-E [3] [3]: GOTO [1]
kaishiro 13y ago

tux 13y ago

Kind of reminds you of house in "Resident Evil". O_o

asmithmd1 13y ago

Here is an odd "house" I noticed years ago in Falls Church, VA. Being right outside Washington and one town over from the CIA headquarters I thought it must have something to do with the them: https://www.google.com/maps/preview#!q=320+N+West+St&data=!1m8!1m3!1d3!2d-77.18168!3d38.891952!2m2!1f147.18!2f81.73!4f75!2m9!1e1!2m4!1sgfQH0jSQ6c-fJTlDJs9MXw!2e0!9m1!6sNorth+West+Street!5m2!1sgfQH0jSQ6c-fJTlDJs9MXw!2e0!4m15!2m14!1m13!1s0x89b7b4db2115a83f%3A0x387b2552761cc7a5!3m8!1m3!1d3!2d-77.179864!3d38.892837!3m2!1i1440!2i802!4f90!4m2!3d38.892595!4d-77.179891&fid=5 https://www.google.com/maps/preview#!q=320+N+West+St&data=!1...

eitally 13y ago
My wife grew up practically across the street from that house and the way it was discussed in the neighborhood was that it is/was a CIA safe house. A utility station seems much more plausible.

cma 13y ago

this is sort of Cyberpunk inverted