Weird & Wonderful Roadside Homes

The Golden Age of roadside attractions may have passed with the rise of the multi-lane interstate highway system, but you can still find crazy homes in small towns and along out-of-the way routes. Here are a few to start with — add your favorite bizarre houses in the comments!

Futuro - UFO House, Pensacola Beach, Florida: In the 1960s, Finnish architect Matti Suuronen designed a bunch of these fiberglass flying saucer houses in Florida.

USA's Skinniest House, Long Beach, California: Cited by the Guinness Book of World Records as America's narrowest house, measuring 10 feet wide by 50 feet long.

Confusion Hill Gravity House, Piercy, California: This tilted house makes people feel like they're being tipped over when they step inside.

Nitt Witt Ridge, Cambria, California: Harold Beal devoted most of his life to building this home out of cast-offs and garbage. The house is now recognized by the state as a historic landmark.

Pickle Barrel House, Grand Marais, Michigan: This two-story house is 16 feet tall and was built as a summer cottage for William Donahey, creator of The Teenie Weenies, a Chicago Tribune comic strip.

For many more offbeat attractions, check out RoadsideAmerica.com — a great resource for novelty tourist destinations.

Photos: Gregory Moine used under Creative Commons license (1), DRosenbach used under GNU Free Documentation License via Wikimedia Commons, Foxtongue used under Creative Commons license (3), Janet Planet used under Creative Commons license via Wikimedia Commons (4), Kristina 5 used under Creative Commons license (5)

Comments (11)

Confusion Hill was never an actual dwelling. Why not a post on historic homes across the country, rather than dubious tourist traps?

Winchester House, for example.

we love the ufo house.
over the years we lived in cincinnati, we watched this seriously unique architect-designed 'mushroom house' emerge. check it out at http://www.youlivewhere.com/cincinnatis-mushroom-house/. very cool.

I really want to see the inside of that skinny house!

I was also going to add the Winchester House! I lived in northern Cali for five years and I actually went on the Winchester House tour. It was pretty interesting.

I have actually lived in a townhouse that was 11 ft wide - not really that hard.

USA's Skinniest house (#2) makes me wonder how the layout is distributed... i'm sure they have a spiral stair or extremelt compact stair inside... I've also seen a home where it was no wider that 11 feet or so because of zoning(located in Miami somewhere)

Futuro looks like something out of the Jetsens, and makes me think if it would go airborn in a category 5 hurricane.

Confusion Hill just looks like an abandoned mine out of the 1800s.

I'm looking forward to seeing more! Thanks for this post.

There is a home in the northern Chicago burbs that is shaped like a pyramid with all kinds of Egyptian themed statues and whatnot. I think you used to be able to pay to see a tour?

Ever notice that when you head north into Wisconsin, the amount of "giant things" -as I call them- multiply? Strip clubs that are in the shape of a badger peeking over a log, large fiber glass deer mounted to everything, Paul Bunyan, etc?