Crossville, Tennessee (USA) is home to the biggest treehouse on earth.
Horace Burgess, the owner, asserts that God gave him the authority to construct the home. “The Minister’s Tree House” is another name for it.
The ten levels of the house, which are supported by a base of six oaks, were constructed since 1993 using around 250,000 nails.
Image courtesy of Chuck Sutherland
There are more than 3000 square meters of “living space” in total on all of the floors.
Even though it was made entirely of wood, it was said to have cost roughly $20,000 and taken 14 years to complete.
Who exactly would design anything like that? You think she might be nuts.
According to Horace Burgess, God gave him the order to build the tree house in 1993.
So far, it appears that God has honored his promise.
The structure contains a penthouse on the tenth level and a huge middle area that is used for both basketball games and prayer.
It also comes with a half-ton church bell.
The various wood planks that make up the building now display signs of past visitors.
The house, which had been open for quite some time, was forced to lock its doors in 2012 due to violations of the local fire code.
The local fire brigade warns that a huge fire could develop, which would be disastrous for a building made entirely of wood.
When architect Harold Burgess stated in an interview that “If you build a tree house, you’ll never run out of material,” construction got under way in the early 1990s.He did as instructed.
Using locally donated raw lumber, the Minister’s Treehouse was built over the period of two decades.
The mansion had five stories and eighty rooms, including bedrooms, classrooms, and a kitchen, all held together by an 80-foot-tall white oak tree.
The levels were connected by a wide, wraparound porch and a winding staircase. The interior decor, which included a hand-carved Bible, a massive crucifix, and wooden pews, skillfully mixed the eccentric and the holy.
Underneath the structure, the word “JESUS” was spelt out in meticulously groomed grass.
The fact that it was utilized for church services attracted people looking for a different kind of experience to the treehouse.
Tourism at the treehouse was halted in 2012 by state fire marshals due to numerous breaches including a lack of a load distribution system, uneven flooring, and fall dangers, exceeding regulations, and the absence of a licensed design professional.
The state fire marshal ordered the building closed, so Burgess put up a sign saying “Closed by the state fire marshal. File your complaints with them.”
When police in the area were contacted to report the fire, Captain Derek Carter of the Cumberland County Fire Department was already there.
“It was basically a pile of rubble when we pulled up. The fire was so intense we had to park 500 yards away,” says Carter. It took firefighters almost 15 minutes to put out the fire once firefighters arrived at the scene.
Pigeon Forge native Macy Leatherwood spent Christmas 2018 with her family at Cumberland Mountain State Park.
The Minister’s Treehouse, according to Leatherwood, was “the highlight of the trip” because of its size and novelty.
Although she could only see the home through the fence, she still had a lovely view.
When she heard the news that the house had burned down, she was distraught. “It will definitely be a cherished memory of a family trip, and I’ll never forget that treehouse.”
Captain Carter, who was off-duty when he visited the treehouse as a tourist before it was closed to the public, described it as “a deathtrap.”
He summed it up by saying, “It was very cool, but also very dangerous.”
Please SHARE the once largest treehouse with Family and Friends!
