Ever wonder where the world’s greatest treehouse is to be found? Ever wonder who the tenacious soul behind it is? Could you even, in a moment of fantasy, have gotten yourself to fancy the long tree house you made as a kid as being the world’s greatest treehouse?
Well, if you did find yourself fancying your childhood treehouse as the world’s greatest, you may find yourself having to think again after getting to see the treehouse Horrace Burgess has built around Crossville in the United States state of Tennessee.
You start to appreciate the greatness of the treehouse Horrace Burgess has built when the figures are brought in. Standing at 97 feet in height, one agrees that the structure Horrace Burgess has built is the structure to beat, if you want to lay a claim to owning (or even having seen) the greatest treehouse in the world.
The greatness of Horrace Burgess treehouse is not subject to the tree on which it is based alone though. As it turns out, while the tree in question does contribute something to the height of the treehouse, the owner’s efforts also go a long way towards this greatness possible. The tree’s contribution to the 97 foot edifice is only 80 feet, so that the other 17 feet on top of the basic 80 foot are from Horrace’s sheer effort. To be sure, we can’t begrudge the base tree of a claim to greatness too: a tree towering at 80 feet in height and with a diameter of over 12 feet is a real wonder. But it is the structure on top of the tree that is the greater attraction.
The treehouse in question is 11 floor tall, a sky crapper even by some cities’ standards – only that this time, it is built on top of a tree. There are even some other trees grown on the floors of the edifice, of course in addition to the primary tree on which it is based. The 11 floors made from Horrace Burgess tree house create an upwards of 8,000 square feet. To put together this edifice, the guy behind it says that an upwards of a quarter million (250,000+ nails, that is) have been used.
A building of over 11 floors would be expected to have some extra amenities – and the treehouse Horrace has established is no exception. This particular one comes complete with a mini basketball court – if you thought playing you would never live to see guys playing basketball on top of a tree!
The owner of the edifice is a 56 years old landscape architect by the way, and he say an upwards of $12,000 has gone into building the treehouse. Asked about where he got the inspiration to build the edifice, he cites a prayer vision he got in the early 90s – going further to say that he built it ‘for God.’ Nobody is arguing with him – and nobody is contesting the assertion that it is the world’s greatest treehouse either. Meanwhile, building work has not stopped at the 11th floor…the building is still a ‘work in progress!’
October 27th, 2009 at 3:45 am
lol, sky crappers?
October 27th, 2009 at 4:00 am
SOOOOOOOOO….Where IS THE F******TREE???? THEY use it 4 firewood or building F’in materials?????????? Where r the a**h*** treehuggers??????? Must B made by a global warming B**** driving a f’in hummer????
October 27th, 2009 at 4:25 am
I love America
October 27th, 2009 at 4:51 am
This is unbelievable
October 27th, 2009 at 5:09 am
I want one
October 27th, 2009 at 5:53 am
Very cool
October 27th, 2009 at 6:37 am
My 12 year old son has almost finished his tree house. it’s double the size of that piece of c***! and he’s painted it!
October 27th, 2009 at 11:51 am
Unbelievable! What an incredible space! thanks…
October 27th, 2009 at 12:40 pm
for all the gaylords saying ah its crap blah de blah my 12 year old son can do better, (excellent parenting btw allowing a child to climb such height etc! moron) ya are just pathetic. Its been posted for people to see / admirer. Keep your criticism for your own sad and pathetic lives and dont bother others!
October 27th, 2009 at 1:00 pm
Lol, sky crapper.
October 27th, 2009 at 1:44 pm
Looks like an oversized homeless shelter, the only thing missing are soiled blankets, and shopping carts full of trash bags.
October 27th, 2009 at 3:05 pm
congrats neil, but has it occurred to you that your son is escaping your special kind of loving demeanor? go hug your son, neil, before it’s too late.
October 27th, 2009 at 5:32 pm
I think this tree house is boss. You guys are quite petty to be bickering on a comment board. You are taking away from the subject.American ingenuity at its finest, this is the American dream incarnate, just think of what can be accomplished with Jack Daniels on local tap and an endless supply of properly cooked backwoods crank.
October 27th, 2009 at 6:33 pm
Honestly, I think it’s amazing. To do all that, and it not topple? That’s an awesome feat right there.
October 27th, 2009 at 6:56 pm
Impressive! I used to go skiing up in Crossville, but I guess this would have been a baby tree fort back then. Does it have running water or electricity?
October 27th, 2009 at 7:33 pm
My engineering degree makes me think: does he have a license? That looks unstable as hell.
My law degree makes me think: lawsuit.
My imagination make me think: wow!
October 27th, 2009 at 8:13 pm
i would love to see the floor plans for that property. that’s not a tree house, its a house with a tree! looks great though
October 27th, 2009 at 8:24 pm
I agree, where’s the tree? It’s sorta cheating if it touches the ground, isn’t it?
October 27th, 2009 at 11:06 pm
The tree is in the center of the house. You can see it’s branches snaking out around the edges.
October 28th, 2009 at 12:57 am
This is not a tree house.. it’s a tree mansion.
October 28th, 2009 at 2:56 am
Congratulations, Chris, you have two degrees that have almost nothing to complement each other, meaning you’ve effectively wasted 4 years of your life (or more if you did it as a combined degree, because then both are useless – tee hee).
Love from Chris
On topic, imagine if that man’s son and grandchildren continue building it till it becomes a futuristic tree-house hotel with flying car docks and everything? OK, maybe I just ended up sounding s******, too
.
October 28th, 2009 at 10:30 am
Unless its supported, totally, by a tree, its not a treehouse.
October 28th, 2009 at 12:24 pm
Looks like something straight out of a Series of Unfortunate Events. And even though I think it’s wicked cool, I don’t think calling a treehouse just because it’s built with a tree up the middle is really very fair. It’s a house, with a tree growing through it. But still very cool.
October 28th, 2009 at 1:30 pm
“you have two degrees that have almost nothing to complement each other, meaning you’ve effectively wasted 4 years of your life”
Since when learning is a waste of time ?
…
October 28th, 2009 at 1:54 pm
Umm OMG, Ok the first thing I thought was “this is definately in TN or KY” (no offense). Number two, looks like the house that CRY BABY lived in. HAHA! Number three, I half exspect someone from “the Hills have Eyes” to go running across the balcony’s! Ekk! Other than that it is every boys dream tree house, ‘cept really creepy. It should be used as a haunted house around Haloween!
October 28th, 2009 at 2:12 pm
I wonder how much the permits costed to make this. He DID get the appropriate permits, correct?
I can’t beleive that this is allowed to stand – if it’s made of wood, it cannot be safe!!!
October 28th, 2009 at 3:11 pm
Awesome! We used to go to this treehouse all the time! The people that are around it are super sketchy but generally pretty cool. When you get up in it you can see out in the fields where they have planted flowers to spell out “Jesus” and stuff like that. There are all kinds of rooms and random places you can hide in it. If you ever wanted to go see it, it’s only like 2 miles off of Interstate 40.
October 28th, 2009 at 3:24 pm
Amazing job the owner did. I mean seriously, just look at it. We don’t get to see the entirety of the rooms etc, which would make it even more fantastic. Need more pics and information, heh. I was looking at it, thinking to myself… how in the heck did he get it built.
October 28th, 2009 at 3:40 pm
ummmm, what does the local building department think of this? Or are building permits not required for tree houses
October 28th, 2009 at 3:43 pm
ummm… as much as this guy put a lot of work into this, and even if it STARTED as a structure fully in a tree, it does not qualify as a treehouse if the tree (or trees) that it is built upon are not 100% responsible for holding it up. In other words, if it uses the GROUND for structural support, it just becomes a house built around a tree. Again… kudos for all the hard work… not a tree house.
October 28th, 2009 at 4:15 pm
Ridiculous. Waste of wood. Not a treehouse.
October 28th, 2009 at 4:28 pm
Photoshop is amazing…
October 28th, 2009 at 4:39 pm
LOL waste of wood. This thing is amazing! Just might have to start my own xD
October 28th, 2009 at 4:46 pm
It’s trees grow into his house, what a mistake!
October 28th, 2009 at 4:50 pm
Chris: Engineering is I’m guessing a BS while in the US a Law is always a graduate degree. So now he didn’t waste anything especially since as I understand it law firms love people with engineering undergrads. Patent law with an engineering undergrad degree pays very well.
October 28th, 2009 at 4:59 pm
It’s just a matter of time before someone burns that to the ground. It looks like a third world shanty.
October 28th, 2009 at 5:31 pm
Just because a house is built around a tree doesn’t make it a “Tree House”
I’ll give him props for ingenuity but it’s not a Tree House. It sits on the ground!!!!
October 28th, 2009 at 6:00 pm
It didn’t use to sit on the ground. It started in the tree and he just used scrap wood and different things to make it to what it is not, or so I was told by the crazy guys that used to stay in it.
October 28th, 2009 at 6:06 pm
HAHA SKY CRAPPER!
October 28th, 2009 at 6:07 pm
Great work!!! Too bad its based on religious fanaticism…
October 28th, 2009 at 6:18 pm
Amazing! Would like to see more interior pics
October 28th, 2009 at 11:33 pm
He did this on a vision from god? how much you wanna bet when 2012 comes around this thing will be 100 times as big as it is now and itll save thousands of people when the flood hits.
October 28th, 2009 at 11:37 pm
ok maybe not 100 times but itll be bigger lol ^^
October 29th, 2009 at 1:11 am
That is amazing! I want one!
October 29th, 2009 at 3:43 am
Would love to see where they have the woodfire…
October 29th, 2009 at 3:52 am
Looks cool; I don’t really think this constitutes a real “treehouse” though. Doesn’t a real treehouse have to actually be built IN the tree? Like not having a base on the ground (?)
October 29th, 2009 at 5:07 am
Hey Chris2, as a civil engineer, I can tell you that Chris1 will be making some serious money with that degree combo. He will be sought after by contractors and engineers and lawyers as a consultant. If he’s halfway decent at what he does, I estimate he’s pulling in 75-85 thousand a year.
October 29th, 2009 at 9:47 am
Awesome! Utterly insane, but awsome. I’d love to explore it. Soon, before it falls down.
On reflection – so, you don’t have termites there? Cos I sure don’t see any termite barriers.
Also, having built a moderate (two levels, stairs, walls) treehouse entirely suspended in a large gum tree some years ago, you know what happens to treehouses over time, right? The tree grows, changes shape quite a lot, and sheds piles of leaves and bark, which get in the treehouse nooks and compost. The treehouse turns into a wrenched and rotting mess, in about a decade. Recently had a poke around in my old one again, and found earthworms up there. How did earthworms get 20 feet up? Didn’t know they could climb, or that climbing would even occur to them. They must have gone up the trunk, because I took the rope ladder to the first floor away ages ago.
This construction is going to be totally spooksville in that condition. If it doesn’t burn down or blow over before then.
October 29th, 2009 at 1:48 pm
Wasn’t this in the movie “Willow”?
October 29th, 2009 at 2:03 pm
This. Must. Be. Burnt. Down.
October 29th, 2009 at 2:28 pm
Why is it so small? They should make it bigger.
October 29th, 2009 at 2:38 pm
I went to college studying structural engineering about an hour from this thing. I went to see it about a year ago, and it is pretty awesome. We spent about two hours going through the whole thing. As we were leaving, the builder showed up and we got to talk with him for a few minutes about it. One of the coolest things I have ever seen.
Everyone that is degrading it for whatever reason … it’s cooler than anything most of us have ever done. Yeah it was built cause he supposedly saw a vision, ho cares, it’s still pretty awesome.
October 29th, 2009 at 4:49 pm
I’m with Cody on this one, you really do need to see it in person.
October 29th, 2009 at 5:51 pm
seriously whats the point you might as well own your own house thats nicer, i like the thought of a small tree fort not a house, literally.
October 29th, 2009 at 6:59 pm
Ha. I was merely giving multiple perspectives on it. I wish I had the time and balls to just go out and build something like that instead of worrying about licenses/laws/etc.
But yeah. Engineering + Law = Patent law.
October 30th, 2009 at 12:26 am
I am happy to see this site so much. It is always nice to hear such good news as your site.
October 30th, 2009 at 12:37 am
Luv the tree house heard about it this morning on the radio BigD & Bubba were talkin bout it
October 30th, 2009 at 4:41 pm
I hope they don’t have a lot of tornadoes in that area lol
October 30th, 2009 at 5:03 pm
I used to go to a tree house like this but the guy who owned it wanted me to pour my coke into a bag so he could sell the bottle
October 31st, 2009 at 2:52 am
Wow this is a dream come true I want to see this place in person.
October 31st, 2009 at 5:59 pm
this is a really cool tree house i wish icould go there and live there for lifeit is so toatly awesome dont you think people
November 1st, 2009 at 8:54 pm
@Buka Muka: the trash is inside of your brain, you are revelaing it by what you see/comment. it seems that you are missing the trash so much that you can’t resist asking for it. you might want to do some soul searching in your mental backyard.
November 2nd, 2009 at 5:19 am
I really don’t understand how building this wooden house, mildly impressive as it might be, is meant to generate for its builder an God points at all? He saw a vision… ok cool… and then he built a wooden house… ok cool… and then he wrote Jesus’ name in some flowers… ok cool – how does that equate to anything religious at all? Seriously, I’m asking in all sincerity. I am an aetheist, that’s my standpoint, but I am Australian, so three of my mates in the surrounding suburbs are Muslim, two are Jewish, some others have held onto the tenets of our Catholic school more so than I have, all good religious people of various types… no big wooden structures. One of the main ways America is being painted internationally recently is in terms of the rising evangelical christian movements which seems to thrive on ridiculous gestures and rightwing extremism. All I’m saying is this: be a christian, that’s awesome, people are free to believe what they want – but something like this just screams of attention seeking. It’s been a while, but isn’t there a place is the Bible where Jesus scolds a man for praying aloud? Stating that he who does the good deeds in private without thought for reaction is he who is most deserving of our praise (clearly that’s not a direct quote). So yeah, sorry to ruin the ‘this is a cool house’ thing, but I saw this and couldn’t help but see a country who measures worth on Christianity and measures Christianity on how big your Jesus structure is.
November 2nd, 2009 at 10:53 am
This is a very stupid thing. Stupid spent of wood. Stupid risk for people and, over all for the tree ( that seems to be an ancient one ). Shows a little respect for nature. How long those cuarter million of iron nails will keep this monster up?. who many people lives in ? none?
November 5th, 2009 at 8:11 pm
Well, that is a amazing piece of art, I wouldn’t live there, but wow…
For people talking trash on this, please don’t, it not here for you to talk gibberish about it, that what myspace was made for.
November 10th, 2009 at 9:40 am
its the kids next door tree house…. for those who haven’t seen the kids show
November 19th, 2009 at 8:34 am
Okay, this is just freaking amazing.
Who cares if it’s no longer entirely contained within a tree & touches the ground?
Who cares if it was based on religious fanaticism?
Who cares if it isn’t “perfect”?
It is GINORMOUS, and most likely far more than 95% of the people who are commenting here have EVER accomplished (myself totally included there).
Stop criticizing. Old adage, always holds true: if you can’t say anything nice, just don’t say anything at all.
And did anyone else catch the fact the man’s a landscape architect? This means he’s had training in not only landscape design, but very likely in designing bridges, transit structures, dams, highways, reservoirs, and ecological design. He’d also be aware of basic preservation tactics, and of local zoning and permits, too.
My inner moppet is jumping about and “squee”ing and desperately wishing to go play in it. *shrug* The outer adult is agreeing
November 28th, 2009 at 6:42 am
Want floor plans for this. quite the impressive feat. personally, I would not have the basketball court. maybe 12 stories in the main house and a 20+ story tower off the side for a great view? this is american ingenuity at its finest.
I gotta do this myself
hearty congrats on the house to the maker though, he has quite the house, and I most admire that he made it.