Signal Mountain, Tennessee

Spaceship House

Live long and prosper in Tennessee.

By 1972 Star Trek had come and gone and the possibility of alien life was fully lodged into the cultural consciousness. Curtis King embraced this extraterrestrial vibe and built the Spaceship House for his son in 1972, tucking it away in the woods near Signal Mountain, Tennessee.

Complete with a drop-down staircase to enter the elevated spacecraft, the house had every detail to channel futuristic living and cost $250,000 to build. Along with three bedrooms and two bathrooms, the house was furnished with a full bar and entertainment area. Every room and most pieces of furniture in the house are rounded, giving the entire home a strange circular style.

Made of steel and concrete, the structure provides nearly 2,000 square feet of living space. A retractable staircase serves as the entrance to the house, but it is broken and remains in the “down” position. A neighbor says that feature came in handy for one former owner who was having an argument with her husband. She pulled up the stairway, drove her husband’s truck underneath it so he couldn’t get the stairs down and left him stuck inside.

King and his family sold the house, and it changed hands many times throughout its life. In 2008, the latest property owner put up the Tennessee landmark for auction and it was purchased by a Signal Mountain local for $120,000. It is now available to rent for a futuristic vacation in a woodsy spaceship home.