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These unique structures gained prominence in response to the state's vulnerability to hurricanes. It was constructed in 1980 by the now-deceased oil producer Bob Lee, as an eco-friendly local landmark which was the dream vacation home for Bob Lee’s family. The house consists of six white painted concrete stouts that are interconnected, and included three bedrooms and three bathrooms inside. Lee purchased a barge to move the necessary supplies to build the dome homes. The masterpiece consisted of six connected dome structures for 2,400 square feet. The Cape Romano Dome House was a unique architectural masterpiece.
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The Marco Island area offers something for every interest, from fresh seafood to gorgeous white sand beaches to the most unique shopping opportunities around. However, one attraction that everyone in your group will be interested in is the vanishing Dome Homes at Cape Romano. This slice of history is just one part of what makes the Marco Island area special, and you simply can’t miss it while you’re in the area. Best of all, it’s easy to get to from any of our Marco Island vacation rentals. The history of the crumbling cluster of domes at the tip of Cape Romano is the subject of several urban legends.
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“With the goal of building a holiday house, Bob Lee, a now-deceased former oil producer, spent a significant portion of the years 1978 and 1979 surveying and buying land on Cape Romano. He didn’t care about the feasibility of the property he was building them on; all he cared about was having a facility that was solar-powered and self-sufficient. He constructed a full-scale replica on property he owned in Gatlinburg, Tennessee, before completing the Cape Romano Dome House. Bob, Margaret, and their kids started building a vacation house near to Morgan Island in 1980.
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The three-bedroom, three-bathroom home with solar panels and a cistern for rainwater was purchased by John Tosto in 2005 for $300,000. The 2,400-square-foot once-interconnected concrete dome home, built by Bob and Margaret Lee in 1980, seemed to be impenetrable until Hurricane Andrew's Category 5 winds ripped across Florida in 1992. According to the Florida DEP, the Cape Romano dome home site is on land that previously was uplands but has become submerged due to erosion. Although once planted firmly ashore, the dome home now sits more than 180 feet offshore, and nature has taken its toll on it.
According to his family, oil producer Bob Lee was an inventive, innovative man who was forever taking on new projects and testing out novel ideas. In the late 70s, Bob Lee decided to build a distinctive dome-shaped vacation home on Morgan Island in Florida. Bob Lee was committed to making his eye-catching retreat sustainable and hurricane proof.
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Monte Innes had built a windmill as a partial power source and used the porches to catch water to drain into their cistern. The property also featured multiple aviaries that contained toucans, African greys, finches, and macaws, along with chickens, geese, turkeys, ducks, pheasants, peacocks, a black swan, skunks, and emus. After the Cape Romano dome house was completed in 1982, the family used it as a vacation home for a time, but the Lees eventually sold it just two years later. The new owners struggled financially, and three years after they’d sold it, Lee and his family foreclosed and moved back in. This would be the Cape Romano dome house, a genuine curiosity, idiosyncratically designed by an amateur inventor who loved to tinker. In September 2022, the remains of the famed Cape Romano dome house were destroyed by Hurricane Ian, a category 4 storm that reached peak intensity while over the house’s location in southwest Florida.
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Hall said the plan was to cut off the top of the domes, clean them up and set them into a pattern offshore in feet of water with other material to create a reef. A few months after he purchased the home, another Category 5 storm — Hurricane Wilma — struck the domes, causing more damage and eroding the underlying beach . Although the dome home was still standing after Andrew, the windows broke, allowing flooding and destroying the interior. Some of history’s most powerful hurricanes have contributed to the impending demise of the domes.
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Discover Florida’s Mysterious Dome Home Before It Sinks Into the Sea - Dwell
Discover Florida’s Mysterious Dome Home Before It Sinks Into the Sea.
Posted: Thu, 04 Jan 2018 08:00:00 GMT [source]
For all you curious explorers out there, we recommend taking a guided boat tour to Cape Romano Island. At low tide, you can see the tops of the Dome house partially submerged underwater. The house had been standing for over four decades, weathering hurricanes and tropical storms. However, over the years, the beachfront had eroded, and the sea level had risen, causing the house to become partially submerged in the water. In 2022, Hurricane Ian proved to be too much for what remained of the iconic structure.
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He had plans to preserve the home, however, Hurricane Wilma struck a few months later and made it impossible. Nikki Webster is a travel writer who covers how to travel while grinding a day job without breaking the bank. Nikki is always in search of off-the-beaten-track experiences and unique stays. She is particularly fond of Florida and writes extensively about the state. She flies around 60,000 miles annually and has visited 74 countries, 50 states, and six continents.
In 1987, the new owners came into financial trouble, and Lee repossessed the home, moved back in, and remained there till 1993. That was the year Hurricane Andrew hit Florida, but as Lee intended, his dome home withstood the storm. But, other problems with erosion on the small island eventually forced Lee to leave. For several years, Lee and his family used the dome home as their vacation house, and even then, the family heard wild stories about the very house they lived in. In an interview with a local magazine, Coastal Breeze, Lee’s daughter, Janet Maples, told a story about overhearing locals discussing her home.
The choice of white concrete enhances the building’s connection to its coastal surroundings, creating a striking contrast against the blue sky and turquoise waters of the Gulf of Mexico. Today, the Cape Romano Dome Houses are a unique site frequented by boaters and tourists, and they have now become a popular place to photograph. You can book your own boat tour to see the Domed Houses while they still exist.
You can read all about her travels at or follow along on Facebook, Pinterest, and Instagram. If you plan on visiting Cape Romano, you will have to get there via water. It could be as much as a five to seven-mile trek depending on where you start, so plan carefully. Here are some maps to see before deciding if you will go solo or take a tour.
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