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The most Craptastic house in the history of houses, now on sale for $862,000

(post put together from several articles so may seem disjointed)

Midwestern castle built by Indianapolis pimp-turned-construction magnate drops asking price to 2,000 from $2.2million

The recent price-slashing of the famous "pimp house," or "dolphin mansion" on Indianapolis’ Northeastside has generated some interest among potential buyers.
Tiff Atkinson has had the listing of the home at 4923 Kessler Boulevard E. Drive [Indianapolis IN] since March 31.

The house is five garden-variety ranch houses cobbled together by former pimp Jerry "Mr. Big" Hostetler. He created a giant campus-o-fun, with balconies, spiral staircases, wet bars, a grotto with a hot tub, a ballroom, a swimming pool, dolphin statuary and on and on.

"One cannot even begin to describe" the place, said Atkinson, who then tried to describe it: "Lots of architectural design, very private, two or three parking garages."

But it is no hot property. In February, 2024 seller Chad Folkening, an Indiana-born, Florida-based tech entrepreneur, put the house for sale at $2.2 million. In December 2024, the price came down to $1,295,000. Last week, it was lowered further, to $862,000.

Starting from a three-bedroom ranch house, where he lived in the ’60s, for a short time with a wife and infant daughter, Hostetler gradually bought up his neighbors’ houses and combined them.

By the time his creditors closed in on the place, Hostetler was up to some 23,000 square feet.

After the foreclosure he landed in a small ranch house on East 80th Street, which he immediately began expanding, adding his signature balconies, an eight-car garage, and so on.

Hostetler converted its original garage to a party room set off by a very large, very round window, giving it the feel of an aquarium.

In the backyard he built a new garage, one capable of holding eight cars (Hostetler at one point drove an Excalibur; he told people he bought it off Neil Diamond, and knowing Hostetler, he may have).

He built a second story above the huge garage and ordered the addition painted gray, but one day the work just stopped. "Whether they were out of paint, or out of pay, I don’t know," said Kirklin.

He built another equally large, two-story structure adjacent to the garage and tacked it on to the ranch house. Its standout features are its enormous, carved, wooden doors that look like they came from an ancient Buddhist temple, and knowing Hostetler, they may have.

And then there were all those balconies, none of them with railings. "Apparently, Jerry didn’t like railings," said Kirklin. "It was pretty clear from the start Jerry had his own ideas about architecture."