Who Needs a Garage When You Can Have a Fake Town With Cars in the Basement

Luxury real estate assets are more appealing to future owners if they come with some choice of exotic or rare cars already in the garage, or maybe an equally impressive powerboat docked and ready to go at a moment’s notice. Some of these mansions even sell with wardrobes full of clothes and stocked pantries, with more buyers looking for immediate gratification and the guarantee that they can move in right away.

This Potomac, Maryland mansion is something along those lines, but entirely different. Whereas some listings boast massive auto galleries or offer a rare automobile collection with the offer, this one has a secret – and very fake – town in the basement. If it sounds too strange to believe, you’re not wrong: it is quite a strange thing.

Listed with Washington Fine Properties, this Colonial-style property was built in 1987 and counts on seven bedrooms, eight full baths and three half baths. From the foyer, it’s clear that this isn’t a mansion for the minimalist-loving millionaire: it’s opulent, decadent, plush and overwhelming, from furnishes to styling and amenities.

With 12,089 square feet (1,123 square meters) of living space, it comprises two separate buildings, not counting an above-ground four-car garage: the home and a two-bedroom, one-bath guest cottage. The highlight of the home is not the rich décor or the marble cooking tops, the 10 fireplaces (at least three of which are wood-burning and at least one of them is placed inside a master bathroom) or the heated pool with a poolhouse with full kitchen and another full bathroom.

It’s the fake town in the basement.

There are 15 fake, turn-of-the-century storefronts in the town under the house, actual cobbled streets and at least three entertainment rooms: a billiards room, a playroom with only vintage (rather creepy) toys and a recreation room with another fireplace. There’s also a formal powder room: the owner loved the ideas of powder rooms so much that there are at least two more scattered throughout the mansion, one formal and one informal.

On the cobbled streets, there are “real, working, parked cars” and mopeds. The listing doesn’t offer any details on the vehicles, but presumably they come with the house and are included in the listing price. Photos show a Jaguar E-Type, a Citroen 2CV Charleston Edition and an MG T-Type, so if these are real, working cars, they’re worth a pretty penny on their own.

The whole basement setup has a creepy, uncanny yet quite awesome feel, what with the cars parked there and the amount of detail that went into setting everything up. Based on the photos alone, it’s hard to tell if this project was done in earnest, as some kind of display case (in which case it’s plain creeptastic), or some kind of twisted joke, in which case it’s awesome.

If the secret fake town won’t help sell this mansion, the other features probably will. There’s a music room and a library (with floor-to-ceiling built-in bookcases), a lighted tennis court, a butler’s pantry, a bar, and only the fanciest, frilliest furnishes across the three stories.

“A unique, first-time offering of a magnificent, gated estate on four acres featuring 7 bedrooms/8 baths in the Main house, a two bedroom/1 bath guest house with full kitchen, and a pool house with full kitchen and bath,” the listing says. “A driveway can be added to access the guest house for a private entrance. Opportunity to purchase 2 acre parcel next door for a total of 6 acres.”

Without the extra parcel, the property sells for $4.5 million. For this kind of money, you get a huge mansion perfect to reenact period dramas or maybe even shoot an upcoming season of American Horror Story, and a fake town with real streets and real cars in the basement. You won’t be able to take them out for a drive, but they work. If that’s any consolation.