Want to Live Like a Hobbit? This $775K SoCal Home Is Straight Out of Middle Earth

Location: 1025 Alpine Boulevard, Alpine, California

Price: $775,000

Year Built: 1979

Designed by: James Hubbell and Robert W. Thiele

Footprint: 800 square feet (2 bedrooms, 1 bath)

Lot Size: 0.66 Acres

From the Agent: "The Davidson family embarked on a multiyear endeavor of building a home for themselves. While that sounds fairly routine, what followed was anything but. Following their purchase of two thirds of an acre along Old Highway 80, Carl and Marilyn Davidson connected with multimedia artist James T. Hubbell to develop a sculpture that the couple and their four daughters could reside within. Working together under the banner Earth Form Builder, Hubbell and architect Robert W. Thiele created a set of plans for an oval-footprint dome-like sculpted structure of steel, rebar, wire mesh, and gunite. Beyond the redwood cabinetry and stairs, almost every surface is brought to life through a richly textural and colorful palette of stone, tile, copper, steel, and glass. Standing as one of only a handful of structures to see the artist’s vision fully realized (and still intact), the home symbolizes a bygone era while remaining timeless. The surrounding acreage of native plant species draws visitors to the lower portion of the land—the idyllic Alpine Stream, which creates the property’s southern boundary."