Digging a hole

November 24, 2007 9:44 PM

When Baldasare Forestiere started digging a hole in Fresno, CA in 1906, people made fun of him. According to his descendants who give tours of the sprawling subterranean lair, he ignored naysayers and built an impressive underground home that kept him safe from the scorching Central Valley heat. Now, to build a home underground gets you evicted.
posted by bryanzera (26 comments total)

Many places in Coober Pedy are underground - this type of housing in Australia is known as a dugout (scroll down a bit for the dugout explanation).
posted by gomichild at 10:15 PM on November 24, 2007

What is it about mad visionary Italian immigrants building crazy things? Italian immigrant Simon (Sam) Rodia was singlehandedly rersponsible for the amazing Watts Towers.

Unfortunately, Baldasare's mammoth effort didn't exactly pay off for him. The gal he was building it for was, no pun intended, underwhelmed:

"Baldasare Forestiere died at the age of sixty-seven. He died alone. The bride he had chosen from his homeland could not bear to live in the underground palace that he built for her and she returned to Italy, leaving him to his pick and his shovels and his buckets of dirt."

(Above quote from this page.)
posted by flapjax at midnite at 10:20 PM on November 24, 2007

By the way, bryanzera, this is an interesting topic, and you could've done it more justice: a single link to Wikipedia and a local news report? Don't take personal offense or anything, I'm just saying, you coulda done better.)
posted by flapjax at midnite at 10:24 PM on November 24, 2007

Did the evicted guy even own the land he built the underground home on? It sounds like he built it near a park. If he didn't then he probably got evicted more for that than it being an underground home.
posted by gomichild at 10:30 PM on November 24, 2007

I'm pretty sure this was posted previously. It's an awesome achievement, and again, another eccentric Italian.
posted by ReiToei at 10:31 PM on November 24, 2007

..and YAEIUH (Yet Another Eccentric Genius Underground Building)
posted by stbalbach at 10:48 PM on November 24, 2007

I recently bought a house in prohibitively expensive Tokyo, and one of my idle fantasies (ignoring the fact that I have no structural skills and this is an earthquake zone) was gradually building an ant-hill style complex of underground rooms and passages that extend under my whole neighborhood. You could buy the smallest housing lot in the area and end up with a house bigger than the Prime Minister's.

Plus, you could have the "clown car" party effect: invite 500 of your closest friends to a party at your house, and watch your neighbors' befuddlement as people continue to pack into your little 2 story, 3 room hovel.
posted by Bugbread at 10:49 PM on November 24, 2007

You could buy the smallest housing lot in the area and end up with a house bigger than the Prime Minister's.

This is a fantastical and highly attractive idea but for the insane plethora of pipes iunder the city. And they're constantly (as I'm sure you know, my fellow Tokyo-ite) digging them up to repair them get the public works projects money that is continually funneled from the government to the big construction/infrastructure companies. So, you'd be sitting in your cozy armchair one evening (or cross-legged on your tatami floor, depending on your lifestyle choice) when suddenly, through your ceiling you'd be met by an unexpected (nd no doubt very confused and embarrased) construction worker. Oh well, you could just pour him some sake and shoot the shit about sumo and baseball...
posted by flapjax at midnite at 11:07 PM on November 24, 2007

"Daaaaaad! They've dug through the living room wall AGAIN!"
posted by gomichild at 11:10 PM on November 24, 2007

bugbread - Don't try it under Boston. There's things down there.
posted by Artw at 11:33 PM on November 24, 2007

this is what's underground tokyo
posted by delmoi at 11:37 PM on November 24, 2007

I love the homeless guys attitude. So your gonna destroy my house hey no problem I was planning on building another one anyway.
posted by Rubbstone at 11:43 PM on November 24, 2007

this is what's underground tokyo

Not under my little patch of Tokyo!

Cool pics, though.
posted by flapjax at midnite at 11:46 PM on November 24, 2007

I like the way it looks like it could equally be a super-collider or a really cool subway.
posted by Artw at 11:48 PM on November 24, 2007

It's a super-collider and a really cool subway!

Really cool until the subway trains collide, that is...
posted by flapjax at midnite at 11:53 PM on November 24, 2007

Now, to build a home underground gets you evicted.

No, squatting gets you evicted.
posted by Steven C. Den Beste at 11:55 PM on November 24, 2007

I like the headline of the last link, too: "Homeless Man Found Living In Elaborate Underground Home". In what sense is he homeless, exactly? Well, he's homeless now, but he wasn't when they found him...
posted by hattifattener at 11:57 PM on November 24, 2007

flapjax at midnite writes "It's a super-collider and a really cool subway!

"Really cool until the subway trains collide, that is..."

I think they should use steam trains, not subway cars.

That way, if I drove it, I'd be a super-conducting super-collider.
posted by Bugbread at 12:14 AM on November 25, 2007

There was a guy who was living in various state parks around the country, who had made these hidden underground houses, complete with winter stores, bookshelves and a workspace.

My google-fu is failing right now because the fresno guy has hit the web, but in short they found him, kicked him out of a park, and his response was "well, i got 3 more hidden around the country, and I wont tell you where."
posted by mrzarquon at 12:26 AM on November 25, 2007

Hattifattener, I belt that it isn't considered a "home" unless someone is paying taxes on it.
posted by Steven C. Den Beste at 12:42 AM on November 25, 2007

Steven C. Den Beste writes "Hattifattener, I belt that it isn't considered a 'home' unless someone is paying taxes on it."

George Bush is homeless?
posted by Bugbread at 12:51 AM on November 25, 2007

Home is where the tax is.
posted by flapjax at midnite at 12:52 AM on November 25, 2007

Except, uh, Bush's home.
posted by flapjax at midnite at 12:53 AM on November 25, 2007

Thanks for the link. Building an underground home was a childhood fantasy of mine. Every time I tried my dad would come after and fill in the hole, though.

I think I'd like to visit Forestiere's place.
posted by ikkyu2 at 1:23 AM on November 25, 2007

Everybody in the USA needs an underground home like this to protect themselves from Helter Skelter. It's coming down fast.
posted by PeterMcDermott at 1:48 AM on November 25, 2007

Yes it is. Yes it is.
posted by flapjax at midnite at 1:55 AM on November 25, 2007