Im jamie colby, and, today, im driving up a long, steep hill in portola valley, california, near san francisco. Im here to visit the heirs of a man who made the record books with his incredibly strange collection. And if im lucky, i may even get to ditch this s. U. V. And take the controls of a serious offroad ride. My name is allison littlefield. These are my half brothers, david and scott. When our father died, in 2009, we inherited 240 armored military vehicles. Lots and lots of tanks. Hi, allison. Im jamie. Hi. Nice to meet you. Thanks for having me up. This is a magnificent ranch. The ranch is very nice, but im here to see something else. Come this way. These are real . These are real. This is one of several buildings on the littlefield ranch where they garage their strange inheritance. Some guys collect stamps and coins. Their dad, Jacques Littlefield, collected tanks. In fact, what you see here is part of the Worlds Largest private collection of Armored Vehicles. Allison tells m
Innovative architectural designs. They evoke the grandeur of this land, particularly the Pacific Northwest. [ applause ] in 1994, pietro passes away at the age of 94. His lifes work includes over 1,000 buildings. His widow, second wife marjorie, tonys stepmom, continues to live in the architectural masterpiece in portland. But by the early 2000s, the home has fallen into considerable disrepair. That woven wood ceiling in the bedroom is coming apart. The roof is leaking. Its a mess. Marjorie begs tony to come back to portland and fix it up. But portland, and being compared to his father, is exactly what tony has avoided for his entire adult life. I was always of the theory that you can never go home. Tony agrees to fix the roof, but focuses mostly on his career, adding to his impressive list of designs, in chicago and around the globe france, turkey, saudi arabia. After marjorie dies in 2009, tony and his brother peter inherit the house that meant so much to their father. But what to do
Population roughly 50,000. Right here in enid, they have the Third Largest Storage Capacity for grain on the planet. But wedged in between enids silos lies the tale of a cantankerous legend who left his grandchildren with a very strange inheritance. My name is stuart piontek, and in 2003, my brothers and sisters and i inherited something pretty unusual from my grandfather. His name was oliver jordan, and he died at 95. He was a child of the dust bowl. Grandpa would hold on to just about everything that passed through his life, whether it was a tin can, an automobile, a piece of copper wire. And oliver jordan kept it all here. For 60 years. This salvage lot was his home, his sanctuary, his fort knox. Hi, stuart welcome to paradise. I found it the rusted old cars in this shed some of them relics of the roaring 20s are a few of the more than 200 that jordan accumulated over his lifetime. Born in 1908, jordan was raised on a wheat farm. But his real interest was that fabulous new invention
[ bird caws ] im jamie colby, and today im headed into portland, oregon. Im meeting a man whose strange inheritance is not a family heirloom found in an attic, but an entire house, a house that perfectly frames an ageold problem how does a son follow in his fathers footsteps and still escape his shadow . My name is Tony Belluschi. Im an architect, like my father pietro. This house is among the many things he designed in his illustrious career. I only figured out what it meant to both of us long after he was gone. Tonys asked me to meet him here in downtown portland. Hi, jamie. How are you . I usually meet people in their homes. Why have you brought me here . Id like to show you a building my father designed. That building is the 12story equitable, one of americas first glass box towers, built back in 1948. It became one of the most iconic buildings not only in portland, but in the country. Tonys father pietro would go on to design and work on hundreds of landmark buildings, including n