By The Beachwood Unaffordable Housing Affairs Desk
“James Onan of Wadsworth, Ill. was inspired to build his 17,000-square-foot home in the 1970s after reading a University of Wisconsin study suggesting that pyramids generate energy,” Parade reports in “Home, Strange Home.”
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Through the years . . .
Publication: Los Angeles Times
Date: September 18, 1988
Headline: “A Man Who Believes in Power of the Pyramid Builder Lives in One”
Excerpt: “Outside the main entrance is a 200-ton statue of Ramses II. The pyramid is an island perched on a concrete foundation in the middle of a 20-foot-deep, spring-fed lake with access by causeway. The 12,000-square-foot glistening roof is made of stainless-steel plates electroplated with gold. There are three garages, all pyramids. Eighty miniature Sphinxes line the driveway to the main structure home. [James Onan] also is building a replica of King Tut’s tomb on the property.”
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Publication: Chicago Tribune
Date: January 17, 1990
Headline: “Tourist Trade: 1 of the world’s 7 wonders”
Excerpt: “People said I was nuts,” Onan recalls. “If I’m nuts and people pay $7 apiece to come here, what are they?”
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Publication: Chicago Tribune
Date: April 22, 1991
Headline: “4 hurt in crash of small plane”
Excerpt: “Four people were injured, one critically, when their small plane crashed Sunday in a farm field near Gurnee after apparently experiencing engine problems, authorities said.
“The victims were sightseeing and taking pictures of James Onan’s famous Gold Pyramid house, a replica of the Great Pyramid of Cheops in Egypt, said Lake County Sheriff’s Lt. James Christopherson.”
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Publication: Chicago Tribune
Date: February 28, 1993
Headline: “Wadsworth millionaire offering nation a dose of pyramid power”
Excerpt: “James Onan, owner of the Gold Pyramid House in Wadsworth, has thrown down the gauntlet for the spendthrift lawmakers in Washington, D.C.: Show some financial responsibility and the pyramid is yours, no money down and no payments forever.
“‘. . . My wife and myself offer today, free and clear, with no tax deduction or credit, the Gold Pyramid House!’ Onan wrote in the statement. ‘We make this offer in the hope that the federal government will use the Pyramid House as a successful fundraiser, in much the same way as the state of California uses the Hearst Castle.’
“Onan said he hopes that money generated from tours of Lake County’s own San Simeon-a scaled down replica of Egypt’s Great Pyramid of Cheops-will help erode the mountainous national debt.”
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Publication: Haunted Places: The National Directory
Date: August 27, 2002
Author: Dennis William Hauck
Excerpt: “Then, an underground spring bubbled up out of nowhere at the center of the pyramid. The water from the spring formed a natural moat around the structure that was so pure that owner James Onan was allowed to bottle and sell it. In 1986, hordes of black birds started attacking anyone using the north entrance to the Chariot Room. According to legend, such birds protected the north entrance to the real tomb of Tutankhamen. Some believes in the ancient powers of pyramidology have felt powerful energy at the north wall, and also in the middle of the meeting room, which is directly over the source of the spring.”
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Video 1: Featuring James Onan.
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Video 2: Exclusive interior shots.
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Comments welcome.
Posted on May 4, 2010