The year was 1997. The Simpsons reached its ninth season, "the beginning of the end" according to many fans. Fox decided to organize a contest, and requested Kaufman & Broad to build a replica of the Simpson house to give as a prize. The colors, the interiors… nothing escaped the eyes of the designers who did solid work, but not even the popularity of the series prevented the house from ending with a more generic destiny, so to speak.
The ninth season of The Simpsons began on September 21, 1997, in the United States, and as a celebration, Fox joined forces with Pepsi and Kaufman & Broad to launch a national contest that gave as a prize a replica of the Simpson house. That's right: The unforgettable home of 742 Evergreen Terrace had arrived in the real world in Henderson (Nevada), not far from Las Vegas. Kaufman & Broad built it in less than two months, and more than 15 million people competed to get its keys. The winner was a woman from Kentucky named Barbara Howard, and when she was allowed to choose between the house (with an approximate value of $120,000) and a cash prize of $75,000… took the money because she couldn't move far from her farm, and her family was not in a position to make such a move.
The house was sold on the general market three years later (after removing 1,500 elements related to the series), and became one of the first houses of the new urban development that had begun in the area. Now, can we say that it was an exact replica? Perhaps on the inside that is true, but the trained eye will quickly detect some important differences on the outside, ranging from the scale and number of windows to the shape of the chimney (fake). The current owners of the house, who have so far taken the occasional visits of fans very calmly, created a Facebook page where we can find additional details. As part of a HOA (Homeowner Association), the house had to adopt a more neutral color, in line with the rest of the neighborhood.
As expected, the Simpson house is not the only large-scale development inspired by the series. In the city of Ituzaingó (Buenos Aires, Argentina), a fan named Rubén Díaz had the idea to create a replica of Moe's Tavern. The opening was supposed to be last December 13, but we have no news about it. What we do know is that Díaz is not satisfied with the tavern, and has proposed the creation of "La República de Springfield", a thematic tourist area completely dedicated to The Simpsons, which will include Krusty's burger joint, Apu's supermarket, Bart's school and the donut shop, as well as another clone of the Simpson house.
