Prepping in Style? $6.5M Kentucky Mansion Has Huge Fallout Shelter
The fallout shelter that stands at the ready beneath this massive mansion measures 2,000 square feet and is built 26 feet underground.
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Prepping in Style? $6.5M Kentucky Mansion Has Huge Fallout Shelter
By Tiffani Sherman
Nov 10, 2021
As you wend your way up the driveway, this Kentucky mansion isn’t particularly remarkable. Sure, it’s big and imposing, but so are many other multimillion-dollar homes.
However, this home in Richmond, KY, comes with an underground secret.
The 14,300-square-foot home is listed for $6.5 million, which also might seem on the high side—based on what you can see from the exterior.
“It was built by someone who wanted the ultimate fallout shelter. He wanted it to be very secure, and he wanted it to have things that none of the other ones had,” explains the listing agent, Marilyn Hoffman with Hoffman International Properties. “It’s a nuclear, biological, and chemical fallout shelter.”
The fallout shelter that stands at the ready beneath this behemoth measures 2,000 square feet and is built 26 feet underground. It features 39-inch solid concrete ceilings and 15-inch walls.
“It’s reported to be the most secure home on the market,” Hoffman says. “It’s built to withstand a earthquake. It has three air-filtration systems imported from Switzerland. It has two escape tunnels, and one is approximately 100 feet long. You couldn’t find a more secure place. It also comes with about $50,000 worth of food that will last about 25 years.”
The owner and builder of the shelter is Clinton Wesley Morgan, a former member of the Kentucky House of Representatives. He ran for the state’s U.S. Senate nomination in 2020 as a Republican, against Mitch McConnell.
Hoffman says Morgan built the shelter right after 9/11.
“I guess he thought the world was coming to an end,” she says, “and he needed to protect his family. He spent over $2 million on it.”
She adds that it would probably cost double that to build it today.
(Spencer Young)
(Spencer Young)
(Spencer Young)
(Spencer Young)
(Spencer Young)
(Spencer Young)
(Spencer Young)
Way below the earth, the shelter is equipped with the essentials to live for a seriously long time in case of emergency. There’s a full kitchen, dining area, living space, bedrooms, and bathrooms.
“The shelter is very large and luxurious,” Hoffman says. “You don’t feel closed in at all, like you would in a panic room or in another fallout shelter. Most of them are small and dinky and ugly. This one’s beautiful and very spacious and very luxurious.”
The agent says she was astonished when she first visited the house.
“I’d never seen anybody build something like this for their personal use,” she says. “I’ve seen fallout shelters before built for corporations or for companies that needed a lot of people, but this was strictly built for a family.”
In the interest of self-sufficiency, the 200-acre property also has two natural gas wells, two 1,000-gallon underground propane tanks, an 8,000-gallon pressurized water tank, and three generators.
(Spencer Young)
(Spencer Young)
(Spencer Young)
(Spencer Young)
(Spencer Young)
(Spencer Young)
Above ground, the stately main house was built in 2014, and features a stone exterior, high ceilings, and an entrance with two-story glass doors.
Hoffman explains that despite the money that was poured into the fallout shelter, “They went overboard on the house.”
In addition to the quality of the finishings, there’s plenty of space, with nine bedrooms, nine full bathrooms, and a separate in-law suite with a complete kitchen. Outdoor entertainment includes a pool and a large lake.
The house is secluded, on a hill at the end of a long driveway, Hoffman says, and perfect for a buyer who desires the utmost in security. A landing strip or helipad could be built on the property, she says, for ease of access should the need arise.
“Let’s hope,” she adds, that the buyer “doesn’t have to use it.”
