Voted the most unique house in America in 1992:

The landmark PCH water tower of Sunset Beach, converted into a private home and once listed for $8 million, quietly sold in August for $1.5 million, property records show.

Set above the 87-foot-high tower, the water tank replica is a 2,800-square-foot, three-bedroom house with 360-degree views, from the Pacific Ocean to the mountains.

Stories about the quirky home described a 145-gallon curved aquarium and, at the center of the “party room,” a fire pit that could double as a table – or be mechanically lifted to the ceiling to make way for a dance floor.

The old tower once held 75,000 gallons, or more than 300 tons, of water.

It sat empty in the late 1970s and early ’80s, until a pair of investors decided to save the landmark and replicate its look.

In 1995, they sold it to Gerald Wallace for $800,000.

Wallace, a retired fire chief for South Pasadena, closed sale on August 5, according to property records. They show the buyers were OERP LLC and Barrett Woods, whose address matches that of a Lee & Associates commercial real estate office on Inland Empire Boulevard in Ontario.

Wallace tried to sell the property, bordering Sunset Beach and Seal Beach along Pacific Coast Highway, in the late 1990s for $3.5 million. He tried again in 2004 for $5 million, in 2006 for $8 million and in 2008 for $4.5 million. But no one ever bought it.

In recent years, he rented it out for parties or vacations, at about $4,000 a week.

“I don’t want to claim it’s the greatest house in the world, but for a beach house, it’s the absolute ultimate,” Wallace once told an Orange County Register reporter.

“Is this a house you want to live in for 15 years?” he said. “Maybe not. But you’d love it for a week.”

http://www.ocregister.com/articles/foot-727846-replica-bedroom.html

Story on the guy who built it: LINK

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Jim the Realtor
Jim is a long-time local realtor who comments daily here on his blog, bubbleinfo.com which began in September, 2005. Stick around!

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