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My Precious!

When Can I Move into This Awesome Hobbit House?

by Rebecca Pahle | 12:55 pm, December 15th, 2012


What do you do if you’re a lifelong J.R.R. Tolkien fan who has a ton of memorabilia and is—this part is essential—rich? You have a custom-designed Hobbit house built for you collection, of course!

Stephen Colbert, this isn’t you, is it?

The nameless Tolkien fanatic (he’s kept his name and the location of the house secret to avoid turning it into a tourist attraction, which—good call) hired architect Peter Archer to design the 600-square foot building, which is a short walk from the owner’s actual house, located in the Pennsylvania countryside.

Says Archer, “We wanted a single structure, a relaxing place that was diminutive in scale, for the owner to come and hang out and just be in solitude with his collection.”

Fans have built tons of houses, treehouses, outhouses (OK, I’m not sure about that last one, but someone must have done it) inspired by Tolkien’s work before, but this Pennsylvania Hobbit house is notable for just how high-quality it is.

The house was built using stones from an 18th-century wall on the owner’s property, making it look like it’s been there for years. The mahogany windows were made by a Delaware cabinet-maker, the roof is made with handmade French clay tiles, and a Maryland blacksmith hand-forged a single iron hinge for the (round, naturally) door.

Inside the house are rare editions of Tolkien’s books,

Hobbit figurines, Gandalf’s staff, hooded capes, chess sets, chalices — and of course, The One Ring. The rustic structure cleverly hides its thoroughly modern heating, cooling, electrical and security systems.

Seriously, unnamed owner. I’ll dust the statues, clean the windows. I even promise that I won’t wear the One Ring too much. Just let me live there!

(via: Yahoo!News)

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  • Chris

    The owner’s name is Vince Donovan. He did an interview with CNN a little while back.

    The part about the custom round door and hinge is my favorite. :)

    http://money.cnn.com/video/pf/2011/11/28/pf_uh_hobbit_house.cnnmoney/?iid=HP_River

  • http://twitter.com/MaryKateClark Marykate Clark

    Is he looking for a roommate? =-) I love that house, too.

  • http://twitter.com/MaryKateClark Marykate Clark

    Is he looking for a roommate? =-) I love that house, too.

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