E Avenue, Catoosa, Oklahoma

This 13,880 square feet "fishing reel house" is having a little trouble hooking a buyer. It's been on and off the market for years, and is currently listed for $5 million. It was built in 1970, or maybe I should say is untouched since 1970.

It was built by watchmaker R.D. Hull. In 1947 he invented a new kind of fishing reel whose line wouldn't snarl or "backlash." He got the idea from watching a meat counter clerk pull string from a stationary spool. His idea was such an innovation that by 1975 he sold 70 million of his spincast reels.

Clearly R.D. Hull had no choice but to celebrate his genius with architecture. (Makes me wonder about Mr. Rubik's home.)

{source}

The house is centered around a swimming pool capped with a 25 foot dome, and the curved motif continues throughout:

Some house hunters would see this and decide to fish in a different pond, but if I landed this place I'd be on the phone to designer Lorenzo Castillo.



He could turn this...

...into this:

...and this bedroom...

...would be updated to this one:

From themed bedrooms to lava rock walls Lorenzo Castillo could (literally) cover it all:

 Castillo would be unstoppable in Catoosa.

R.D. Hull licensed his fishing reel with Tulsa's Zero Hour Bomb Company (named for the electric timers used in oil drilling) later known as Zebco. Zebco's name change may have been a repercussion of sending a labeled package to President Eisenhower that triggered the bomb squad.

Not sure why Hull built his reel-shaped house in Catoosa instead of Tulsa, but I wouldn't be surprised if it had something to do with this:

{Blue Whale of Catoosa}

The listing is here.  The realtor's YouTube video (with appropriate music) is here.