History & Updates
Following a recent visit Royse City Instagram user @turtletop_g20 posted some photos of the Futuro.
They also added that during their visit they had spoken to a construction worker who had told them «they’re moving it to storage soon to put a parking lot in its place, and it’s for sale! Just $20,000.»
Interestingly the Futuro’s Facebook page makes no mention of this. When you add that fact to the idea that the price, even for a shell, in our opinion seems to be too low we have some doubts as t
One of the things that has always fascinated us about the Futuro is the extent to which it inspires all manner of artistic expression.
In this case we recently came across a 040521 article on the Korea Joongang Daily website that reported on an exhibition at Gallery Baton in Hannam-dong, central Seoul, South Korea.
Among the works on display was a three-channel film «Once Called Future» (2019) by New-York-based Korean artist Jaye Rhee which includes footage of this Futuro.
Apparently alongsi
This rather cool little bit of drone footage of this Futuro was posted to Instagram 060120 by rcb_stuff who, aside from any interest in Futuro, clearly has an interest in VW’s; the original post can be found here.
The Royse City Futuro is our «local» Futuro; it sits a little under 60 miles from our home or about an hour one way. With a few days away from the «day job» for Thanksgiving we decided it was time for another visit so 112519 we took the short trip out to Royse City. The two photos below show the Futuro as it appeared that day. It was nice to see that the exterior was still graffiti free. Not so the interior as can be seen in this photo. During this visit we did come across one very interesting a
This video by Dave Nelms popped up on Youtube recently.
The video contains some nice recent footage of this unit and it also highlights a feature that we had not previously seen (or if we had we had not actually «noticed» it). That feature is two «strings» of flashing lights above and below the windows; not sure if that is a temporary addition, perhaps for the holidays, or intended to be a permanent feature. These lights can be seen at various points throughout the footage; they first appear at
The recent «facelift» this Futuro received garnered a great deal of attention in local DFW media and even made it to TV. The local NBC affiliate broadcast a segment on this Futuro on 073019.
And, on an entirely different note, Futuros have featured along with various «cool» cars in photos from time to time but none has had quite the same «contrast» between the futuristic and the vintage as Bill Blanton’s awesome photo of his 1929 Ford Model A «posing» in front of this Futuro.
It is always great to see a recent photo of any Futuro; in the case of the photo below taken June 2019 by Tom Van Daele we not only have a recent shot of the Royse City Futuro but also a pretty darn good photo in and of itself. Thanks for sharing this Tom.
However, a recent photo is only «recent» until the «next one(s)»! In this case the «next one(s)» are significant in that they show that mid July 2019 this Futuro got a new paint job.
This video below was posted to the Planet Rockwall (Dead L
This video, published to Youtube 040319 by Driveway TV, gives us a glimpse of the current (at the time of writing) condition of both the exterior and interior of the unit.
The Royse City Futuro recently made an appearance in Season 10 Episode 5 of the TV Show «The Daytripper» which was broadcast on our local PBS station here in DFW back in November. There does not appear to be an embeddable version of the video anywhere for us to share here but it can be viewed on PBS through 031119 and downloadable (but likely not legal) versions can certainly be found in various corners of the web but you will have to find those yourself.
That said there is only 1 minute of foo
This video, published to Youtube 082318 by suetube provides a recent view of both the exterior and interior of this Futuro which, sadly, has once again been overrun with graffiti.
It is always nice to see recent photos of Futuros; this pair of photos of the Royse City Futuro were taken 110517 by Kristin Lavitola and sent to us a few days ago.
This video was recently posted to YouTube by Sisco Was Here.
As can be seen in the photo and the video below the framed wooden «entry chamber» like structure inside this Futuro has now been completely demolished. The photo is by Steve Rainwater and the video was posted to Youtube by Scott J.
Austin based band Tele Novella’s style is described on the website northerntransmissions.com as «macabre-pop». Not too sure what that means but the official video for the lead track on their album House Of Souls, Heavy Balloon, features this Futuro as a backdrop several times.
Austin artist Denise Prince is currently working on a project titled L’enfant Terrible which will be presented 102216 at Austin’s Scottish Rite Theater. The project is described on Denise’s website as:
«… an immersive, one-night-only multi-media experience that will allow attendees to spend an evening within a work of art as creative collaborators.»
The Royse city Futuro is being used by Denise in some scenes and a video shoot took place at the Futuro a few weeks ago. A video preview of L’en
DFW ABC affiliate WFAA/Channel 8 ran this news story, titled Weird Wednesday: The Mysterious Futuro House, 080316. Though we live in DFW and often watch WFAA we missed this story but Daniel Robinson kindly sent us a «heads up»; thanks Daniel. Unfortunately the video does not provide any new information or insight.
When I posted photos taken during my last visit to this Futuro on 061314 I mentioned a small pipe and vent that, for me, was a puzzle; I simply could not figure out its purpose. That mystery was solved for me this week by Eric Ritchie who emailed me a few days ago. Eric wrote:
«… This is a sewer vent drain, below the floor it would be connected to both the sink/s and the toilet. It allows sewer gasses to escape the drain system and for drains to drain water without gulping air (like when you
We received an email from Jimmy Powell (thanks Jimmy) this week with a «snippet» of Royse City history. Jimmy wrote:
«I do not know when the Royse City house was installed there, but I do know it was in place and used as a local landmark prior to 1987. My wife’s parents lived in the area and «turn right before the spaceship» were part of the directions get to her house. We were married in 1987. It was being used as the office of a used car lot at that time.»
This is interesting and suggests th
Futuros have featured in several music videos including the Aland Islands Futuro in «Saucer» (Fuerteventura) and the Matsalu Futuro in «The Year Of The Apocalypse» (Jimi Tenor).
This Futuro makes an appearance in a video posted to YouTube today by Dallas band Long Sword Spectacular for their cover of the Krokus number «Screaming in the Night».
Life is full of coincidences and this week we received two Royse City related updates and also added a Royse City related item to our collection of «Things Futuro.»
In a Forum Post (a rarity) globalsunset told us the unit had been repainted and included a link to a photo. Our thanks to globalsunset for the information.
Shortly after that AJ sent us a link to a UK Television program just broadcast the day before that included footage of a Futuro; thanks AJ. The program, George Clarke’s Amazing
In the 2001 Dallas Morning News article referenced in the 110412 update below the writer indicated that this Futuro had previously been located in Garland, Texas but there was no indication as to exactly where it was located or when it might have been relocated.
Jeff Lowe contacted us some time ago and told us that he recalled the Futuro in Garland and was able to provide its exact location. The Garland Futuro was located at 609 E Avenue D, Garland, TX 75040 (32°54’32.49″N 96°37’27.25″W). Jeff
Seems like the Royse City Futuro was the «butt» of an April Fool’s joke this week on the part of PlanetRockwall.com who reported on a Rockwall County government «expedition» to «retrieve» the Royse City Futuro from its Hunt County location and place it outside the Rockwall County Courthouse.
The image below is by PlanetRockwall.com and «shows» the Futuro at its «new» April 1st location; read the full article here.
A recent picture taken 031713 by Molly Block confirms that the Royse City Futuro is still on site. It’s condition appears to be pretty much unchanged although someone has stood up the steps since I was there in September 2011. Thanks for the photo Molly.
We have often seen references to a 2001 Dallas Morning News article about the two Texas Futuros, this one and the Rockwall one, but we have never been able to find a copy of the paper. We still have not found one but we did discover that the Dallas Morning News archives it’s articles and that they can be accessed online; of course it costs more for a single article online that it did to buy the whole newspaper but we guess that is just a sign of the times.
Anyway having found the text of the ar
A nice new set of photos by element321 dated 092812 confirm this Futuro still on site as of that date.
Through all our past and ongoing research for this project we have come across what we can only describe as a little confusion regarding the Futuro House (or houses) in Rockwall County, TX. References are made to as few as one and as many as three but blogs, blog comments and forum threads often seem to confuse one with another or consider two to actually be the same one. Mention is made of Futuro’s located in Quinlan, Rockwall, around Lake Tawakoni and many other places.
We were able to locate
Photo Gallery
