In 1969, the Avon Products executive Girard B. Henderson relocated to Las Vegas, Nevada, and embarked on the construction of the Dawson buildings on Spencer Street and an underground house across the street, which took from 1974 to 1978 to build. Oswald Gutsche, the president of Alexander Dawson Inc., oversaw the building of a new underground residence. This dwelling was inspired by the designs of Jay Swayze and served as a model. He enlisted Frank Zupancic, a private contractor who had previously constructed Oswald Gutsche's home, to undertake the construction. Henderson and his wife chose to reside in this subterranean abode, located on 3970 Spencer Street.
To access the underground home, a stairwell or a  elevator descent takes people below ground level, opening into the entry of the residence. The underground property consists of several key features, including the  home centered in the  space.
After Henderson died on November 16, 1983, his wife Mary lived in the underground house for a short while. Following her death on October 1, 1988, businessman Thomas "Tex" Edmonson (1908–2003) acquired the underground property. As the second husband of Lucy Henderson, Tex Edmonson purchased the property under the Tex-Tex Corporation, becoming the new owner of the underground dwelling.
An article appeared in the The New Yorker magazine, which talked about Susan Roy, a magazine editor and architecture historian, who saw images of family fallout shelters including this one back in 2003, in Nest magazine (published from 1997 to 2004). The experience resulted in a book she wrote, Bamboozled: How the U.S. Government Misled Itself and Its People into Believing They Could Survive a Nuclear Attack.