[1] Bob Lee, a retired oil producer, spent much of the years 1978 and 1979 surveying and purchasing land on Morgan Island in hopes of constructing a vacation home.

[3] Lee's daughter Jane Maples recalled the construction: Building it was the fun part for my dad, but he also loved the seclusion of living on the island; fishing, shelling and watching the weather.

The rooms felt very large and open.Before erecting the Cape Romano structure, he built a full-scale model on land he owned in Gatlinburg, Tennessee.

[5] Gutters were installed which drained rainwater into a large tank, which purified the water, and then pumped it into all the home's sinks, baths and showers, and water-consuming appliances.

[citation needed] The house's domes were not only aesthetic but practical as well; their sturdy concrete walls and rounded tops providing superior hurricane protection.

[citation needed] The house was completed in 1982[6] The floors were tile and carpet, the walls painted white, and the rooms had large windows on all sides.

In addition upgrading the appliance loads, Dell installed the new lighting, which at the time was state-of-the-art, compact fluorescent lamps.

[2]The home originally was built as a vacation house for Bob Lee, his wife Margaret and their children, including daughter Jane.

Jane Maples, née Lee, told Coastal Breeze News about the local attention and controversy the house attracted during its early years.

[2] That year was marked by Hurricane Andrew, which left barely a scratch on the sturdy home's walls and foundations, but utterly destroyed the interior.

[7] Tosto intended to renovate the home, and Lee advised him to construct a sea wall to end the erosion that had been ebbing away at the island for years.

[2][7] Tosto decided against this, and instead hoped to move it, using a crane, from its current location to a higher piece of land on the island on high concrete pillars.

[2] In 2013, Florida Weekly reporter Cynthia Mott wrote in an article that while snorkeling at the site, she discovered the ruins now served as a reef, with diverse marine life.

[5] She remarked as follows: I've snorkeled Grand Cayman, Mexico and Fiji, yet have never witnessed a more diverse, crowded concentration of undersea life than what has taken up residence under the remnants of those domes.

To make the sight even more remarkable, swirling like iridescent tornado clouds around the gathering were millions of shimmering, silver baitfish.

[9] After Hurricane Irma hit the area in September 2017 as a Category 3 storm, two of the westernmost domes collapsed into the ocean, leaving four standing.

[citation needed] In 2018, the Collier County Code Enforcement division closed the case on the domes and ownership transferred to the state.