The Geodesic Biodome, which rests on the back of the 577 Foundation property has its origins in an unlikely source — John Denver.
According to Samantha Day, organic garden horticulturalist for the 577 Foundation, Virginia Stranahan was friends with the singer of “Saturday Night in Toledo, Ohio,” who had a biodome in the backyard of his Colorado property. Stranahan loved the structure and had one installed on her Perrysburg property.
Designed by acclaimed architect Buckminster Fuller in the 1940s, the Geodesic Biodome is a self-contained eco-system, similar to the structure Pauly Shore and Stephen Baldwin got stuck inside in the 1996 comedy Bio-Dome .
Entering the humid structure, which averages around 60 degrees, Day points out the various exotic floral and fauna contained within the Biodome. There’s a tall banana plant with its trademarked huge green leaves growing out of the ground. It takes about a year for a bunch of bananas to ripen, but Day swears “they are delicious.”
Nearby sit trees bearing citrus fruit alongside a money plant that’s several feet tall. There’s a eucalyptus tree that’s threatening to hit the ceiling of the dome, which stretches 21 feet tall.