The Pensmore Mansion in Missouri's Ozark Mountains has been under construction since 2009

Photo of Chateau Pensmore (2020).Photo byEggventura, CC BY-SA 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons.

The Pensmore Mansion is supposed to be one of the largest mansions in the country. In the fall of 2022, it was still a work in progress. Also referred to as Chateau Pensmore, it’s located near Highlandville, Missouri (southern Christian County) in the Ozark Mountains. The mansion is a 72,215 square feet home containing 13 bedrooms and 14 bathrooms all housed in five stories of living space. The exterior walls are 12 inches thick and intended to withstand tornadoes, earthquakes, or even bomb blasts. That’s tough and it should stand for centuries, according to the owner.

It started in 2008

The Steven T. Huff Family LLC applied for a construction permit to start building the Pensmore Mansion in 2008, and construction started in 2009. It’s an insulated concrete form structure. It’s also supposed to be bullet and blast-proof. It’s fire-resistant and resistant to bugs (the little things matter too). It was Huff's belief that we should want a lot of our buildings, especially our homes, nursing homes, schools, and the like, disaster-proof (e.g., tornado-proof).

In the spring of 2015, a lawsuit was filed by Huff alleging the construction crews shortened the key ingredient intended to make the home disaster-proof. That lawsuit was settled in 2017.

Huff and his family reside in Virginia otherwise. It's been said Huff only planned to live in the mansion a quarter of the year. It's okay it's been a long-term construction because it can be. It's certainly a castle of a mansion.

Steven T. Huff

Huff is a multi-millionaire, inventor, and philanthropist. He’s had a career with the United States Army and Central Intelligence Agency. He founded defense intelligence-associated companies that he has sold. He also runs the Pensmore Foundation which has a focus on philanthropy, voluntarism, and grant-making.

Huff grew up in Brunswick, Missouri, and moved to the Ozarks when he was 10. He received a Bachelor of Science degree in physics from Hampden-Sydney College in Virginia. He also attended the California Institute of Technology and received a Master of Science degree in physics.

After college, from 1975 to 1978, he served in the U.S. Army Intelligence Agency, and from 1979 to 1983, he served in the CIA.

Huff was a co-founder of BDS, Inc. In 1985, he founded Sensor Systems, Inc. which merged with another company he founded, Overwatch Systems, Ltd. in 1993. Huff served as its vice president and Chief Technology Officer. In 2009, Huff sold Overwatch Geospatial Systems and Overwatch Tactical Operations to Textron Systems and made a large sum of money.

Important to Huff is the energy savings associated with the castle. The sprawling property was being constructed with the help of TF Forming Systems, a company Huff purchased in 2008.

The purpose of the construction was to also show people that something of that magnitude could have a high energy performance, withstand weather elements like tornadoes, and if that’s the case, maybe that type of construction could be used on other buildings.

Pensmore Mansion is a unique and ambitious project that has been in the works for over a decade. This massive home is one of the most advanced and eco-friendly homes probably ever built. Pensmore Mansion is sure to be an impressive feat when it is finally completed.

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