The Abandoned History of Xanadu: House of The Future - Orlando's Extinct Futurist Space Attraction
ฝัง
- เผยแพร่เมื่อ 6 มี.ค. 2021
- Join us on a new Expedition Extinct as we look at the abandoned history of Xanadu: House of the Future - Orlando's Futuristic Space-based home Attraction. This house of the future was designed to showcase the 21st-century technology that would come to houses but eventually was outdated and later abandoned.
Join the Expedition -
expthemepark
www.patreon.com/expeditionthemepark
expeditionthemepark
To find out more check out the video links below.
Credits -
www.roadsideamerica.com
RetroVintageTreasures - • Xanadu Home of the Fut...
Mr Brian in Orlando - • Retro Orlando - Xanadu...
Orlando Streets - • Flying over Hwy 192 fr...
DamianBrunoColdwell - • SOLD Sedona Dome Home ...
RetroVintageTreasures - • Exploring the abandone... - บันเทิง
I've had dreams inside this house for YEARS, and I'm just now realizing it's a real place I visited with my family as a little kid.
lol
Lucky
I had a similar effect with a memory. I remembered an enormous mall, with a huge handpainted mural inside that was done by a local school. It was Mall of America, and there was a mural from one of the schools at the time, but the mural threw me off identifying the place for decades until I saw a video from the time on YT, and there it was. The mural. Mystery solved.
Actually, you're still dreaming... This isnt real life
I've had dreams of the Southgate Shopping Center in South Florida, but never been there. But I have seen Edward Scissorhands so?
something I will always love about old 'futuristic' things and scifi is the wildly varying expectations in how technology would develop. teleporting to work or taking the hovercraft? absolutely! a computer small enough to fit in a coat pocket? inconceivable!
Literally watching this video from a small computer that fits in my pocket 😂
192 is always an odd stretch of road. It tried to be the Disney away from Disney but ended up just being a depressing area where the people who work at the parks go home after work.
Ha, yep - I lived across the road from this place years ago when I worked at Disney. We thought it was creepy even then. We never visited.
My parents worked at Disney and lived in Kissimee in 1977 and I was born there, funny to see it is still a location where Disney employees.....excuse me, *cast members*, live. Cheaper I suppose than in Orlando?
I'd live in it. I love dome homes, hobbit houses, rock houses and other oddities. I have a regular old Victorian terrace, decorated and furnished in period style but full of voice activated lights and other smart tech. So updating something like this would be right up my alley! The only concerns I would have would be 1/. It's in Florida, which is hot, swampy and full of crazy people and killer wildlife, and 2/. I can't imagine Seventies foam being especially fire resistant...
You would be surprised!
Highly flammable and room acoustics that will drive one on the edge of sanity. Aaaah the future :D
Exactly 😆
Only to be outdone,by the insanity I've just witnessed on youtube by Instagram users. Here's an idea, group them all together and settle them there. Exibit of " The Future of Structural and Mental Instability"
Obviously the reason it failed is because it wasn't a roller disco.
With an art gallery.
And a soundtrack by Jeff Lynne
No, no, no. You’ve got it all wrong. It should have been a mansion owned by some newspaper mogul who loved his sled.
@@emmarose4234 Rosebud...
With ELO playing 24/7
Wow well that took a dark turn for Roy...
upon further research, a close acquaintance of his hit him with a hammer twenty five times...dark. While the house became outdated, you have to admire Roy and Bob's ambition
That was going to be my next google hole. Thanks for the cliff's notes. Dark indeed!!
It sounded like Roy and Bob had creative differences. Bob started the project but then Roy sort of made it about himself and his own vision. A personality like that can piss off the wrong person (In this case someone he might of owed a lot of money to) and it didnt end well for Roy.
I'm from Kissimmee (born and raised) so I always love watching these videos you do about all of our weird and quirky attractions. Thank you for the nostalgia.
I visited the WI one several times as a kid. One of my favorite childhood memories. I loved the curved shapes, especially the bed and seating area, and the "tree." As a kid I dreamed of living in such a cool futuristic home. As an adult all I can think about is what a nightmare it would be to clean, or to easily store stuff in curved spaces.
Xanadu creeps me out, something about it just unnerves me, even before it was left abandoned. Good video though!
I was scared to death of it as a kid, I can’t place why either. My dad joked about going once, I was freaked out at the thought.
Look up the centrifuge brain project if u want to feel unnerved again
Thank you for the time travelling episode. We visited this home in 1986 just before our sons set off into their life journeys. Ironocly I have just been archiving our family pictures and came across the pictures of us all in different parts of the 'house'. Fun times, I had hair and was young, one constant my good lady is still beautiful. On to the future "what we're about too become Great Grandparents .....................Weeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee!
aw this is cute!thanks for sharing paul. I hope you and your family are doing well, including those great grandkids!!
I appreciate how you drop in the fact that he was murdered in his own home with such detachment. That was (unintentionally I'm sure) utterly hilarious
I remember this place, well, remember seeing it on 192. It’s sad to see something like this torn down since what it predicted/shown exists and it’s proven now that homes like that can withstand a Cat 5 hurricane because of its design.
I totally remember this house. My family visited EPCOT in August of 1983 just as Xanadu was having its 'Grand Opening' and we just happened to stay on Hwy 192 less than a mile away. We had previously been in the Wisconsin Dells area in 1981 and had heard about the Xanadu there. Although bigger, this one just looked more bizarre and did have more of a tourist trap feel to it, if that is possible. The whole thing was very hard sell.
Ironically I went on to become an Architect, but I can't say I was inspired by this structure. However, I did know about the hammering death of the designer as he was notorious in the late 80's vanguard construction scene. I did see that Xanadu one more time about 5 years later, and it oddly looked outdated even then. Like so many others, we simply drove by on our way to EPCOT. I remember seeing a local TV commercial they were running at the hotel where they had celebrity impersonators talking about the building. All very odd. As the video says, it was the house of the future but from the mindset of the 1950s - all very push button and not very autonomous. Oddly fitting that Roy ended up living in a conventional home in Hawaii.
As far as costs go, as of 2020, the average cost per square foot for home construction in the USA was $123, when adjusted for inflation (forgive the pun) this balloon shaped home of 6000 s.f. cost $110 a square foot, a slight savings but not enough to offset the complexities and awkwardness imposed by the design, configurations, and general look - classic example of a designed fixated on the design of space and not the use of it. Modern variants and composited insulated building units and true AI home automation have replaced the spray and pray construction. (pray it will stay 'standing' that is)
Great video that was a strong memory from my 8th grade summer.
Want to come inside to one? It’s gonna cost though.
@@cartersbread1432 I've been in others and even in a restaurant made the same way so not needed.
I was so sad to see them tear this down. The height of its popularity was when it was abandoned.
It all came true via todays "Smart Home" and " Internet of things". Great vid showing concept to fruition over the decades.
Fails or not, this guy was a visionary. Were it not for people like him, everything today....basically wouldn't be like everything is today. Good for him for trying.
I remember visiting this place when I was a kid. I was in awe of the Commodore64's in every room! So glad that you did this episode as this place was a constant landmark in all our visits to Orlando!
Same! Well, my family never visited, but I remember passing it and always wondering what it was! It stuck with me all this time, lol
LOL I just watched and commented something similar. Visited as a kid in the 80s like "OMG will we have a computer someday mom, that will be so rad! We can all use it!" My mom was like ""those are for rich people, so if you're rich someday, sure." And now we all walk around with pocket-sized computers more powerful than those yellowy square ones, and my mom is 70 now and you'd have to pry her iPad out of her cold dead hands😂 Looking back, it feels like we moved at warp speed from floppy disks to "Siri, tell me a joke."
I predict in the future...
that Expedition Theme Park will remain one of the best channels on YT
There was also one of these in Gatlinburg, Tennessee when I was a kid in the late 70s / early 80s we went through Xanadu while there on vacation. I remember as a 10 or 11 year old kid it was amazing and so "Jetson's" futuristic.
Want your house to burn to the ground in under ten seconds... build it out of polyurethane foam.
Fact❗
🔥🔥🏠🔥🔥
"Oh the huMANity!"
Seeing a log fire stove surrounded by foam actually gave me chills 😂
Not just unsafe and impractical, but ugly AF.
I read an article that a fire resistant substance was sprayed on the walls and ceilings.
My home state may have some of the most ridiculous news stories come out of it, but boy do we have some interesting relics!
When we would go to Orlando as a kid, my dad and I would stay at the 4 story pyramid shaped Days Inn just down the road from this. Always wanted to check it out.
You see, this is why you never showcase what could be "The Future." It ironically dates you, fast.
Instead, build your showcases about "The Past". That way, you'll never be dated.
My wife has a high school yearbook that has senior pictures of students inside of the Xanadu in Gatlinburg TN.
I went through that one when I was little. It had a slide in it and it amazed me. I’d love to see some pictures of it to see if it looks like how I have it pictured in my memory
I’m loving the space themes from Defunctland and Expedition!
Space Week I guess!
Me too! Love it!
I went there several times when I was young and loved it. I never knew there was actually another one. The actual sign for it was actually still there and visible until just a few years ago. I mostly remember playing in the small "cave" like areas.
How awesome would it be if it still existed just as it was when it opened? That would be futuristic nostalgia I guess? To be able to walk through it and see how the future was imagined in the early 80's with the knowledge that an Amazon Alexa is all you need today. You also have to love how they imagined that a multi armed robot would wash dishes..lol. Great video! I can't imagine the time you spend researching information. Kudos!☺
Thank you so much!
@@ExpeditionThemePark You're welcome sir! Love the extinct videos!
I remember visiting it in the 90s. The spray foam had been worn away in some of the touchable parts of the house demonstrating one of the many drawbacks to this construction method.
My dad, an architect, took the family there- he continues to live in a 200 year old house in a world heritage area so it clearly did not inspire him!
I visited the original Xanadu in the dells several times growing up. It was a fun place as a kid in the 80s. Lots of fun times with my family there.
Dear god- the aesthetics of this house are killing me. I hate it so much but its so interesting. So violently 80's futurism. Makes me want to vomit, but also open the next door and explore the next room, only to vomit again. I hate that I love this
If you want a visit let me know
I do. I visited the 192 location in 2000 but was closed for the day 😢
First time I went to Orlando (1987), it seemed like such a cool place, but we never visited. Shame.
Loved this episode.
Thank you!
Want a visit? Come by in New York
That's funny The Last Starfighter is playing on the TV inside the Xanadu house
I remember going during the summers of the early 90s, and looking back Im glad I got to experience Xanadu. It really was a perfect example of the weird and unique "tourist traps" that surrounded Orlando.
Exactly.
As a 6 year old, I remember the magic of Xanadu. It was like a hobbit house full of talking computers and plants and water features. I wanted to live there.
*In E.T's voice* Foooooam Hooooome!
At 14:05, the house looks like a Lovecraftian Spider Monster version of Baymax.
Haha yeah
"Roy Mason was sadly murdered in 1996" I'M SORRY, WHAT?
Yeoppp
@@ExpeditionThemePark I feel like this was only a small part of the video.
Hit business partner beat him to death with a hammer. Lots of shady business deals finally caught up. Sad really
@@mrimpalarider1606 nah, the guy was just on drugs and wanted money
@@mrimpalarider1606 You pulled that out of your ass. Christopher Robin Hatton (the then 19 year old who murdered Mason) was not a "business partner". Newspapers referred to him as a "close personal acquaintance", though he may have also been romantically involved with Mason at one point. We don't know all the details, but Hatton was not a "business partner".
Please talk about more stuff from Wisconsin Dells! “The waterpark capital of the world” is sure to have a ton of abandoned attractions to cover!
Ah, my childhood when I lived in WI!
YES!!! The Dells are ripe for this channel!!
yes please! When I saw the name Xanadu, I of course though of the one in the Dells also. That's the sign we drove past a few times a year as I was growing up (road trips to visit relatives, etc). We never actually went into it, but it wasn't really an "attraction" like a go-kart or water slide is :D
I went to Xanadu at Wisconsin Dells growing up.
Don’t forget Noah’s Ark
The future is here! Where do you want to go next on Expedition Extinct?
Bubbleworks? Toyland Tours?
It would be cool if you made a video based on the Scottish theme park M&d’s
I will do both after a break from Towers videos
Metroland :D
@@ExpeditionThemePark how about the old eurosat?
I have a promo video from when this place was opened. It goes through and talks all about the house features etc
Would love to see it!
Post it!
I remember visiting Xanadu when I was like 7 maybe. I know the building was there for years after they closed. I was so sad when they finally removed it. It was a part of the Kissimmee/Orlando experience, you were almost there. I would always get excited and knew Disney/ I4/ International Drive, were very close.
I went to this home as a teen and LOVED some of the concepts and the hurricane resistance. The upper room with visual access thru out the house was great!~Truly sad to see it in this shape..
My entire childhood, that foam house sat atop a huge hill in the Dells (WI) which was everyone's summer vacation spot around here. In all the years I never once saw it open or a car in the lot, and we visited the Dells frequently. It wasn't something anyone did, I guess that's why there is such a lack of photos. Pirates golf was a welcome attraction that sits on that plot of land today.
0:23 why does Xanadu look like a crack house on Tatooine?
Hahah who knows
I was thinking brothel, personally...
A crack house? In Florida? No way! It would be a Meth House instead.
@@deandupont5503 a brothel? Man, the pimps must be cheap as hell if they leave at that state. Can't be too difficult to get a discreet cleaning service or staff.
@@chiroquacker2580 Heisenberg:¿did someone say meth? *Starts sounding the breaking bad theme*
I never got to go here when it was open, sadly. I remember seeing it (rotting/decaying) every time my step father went to work at the hotel next door. I was always so curious as to what it looked like when it was new. Hell, given the changes on 192, I would find it difficult to even prove it ever existed to my wife and daughter without videos like this.
The Arizona house was much more pleasing to the eye. The Orlando one looks kind of cool from far away, but once you get close it looks honestly pretty hideous.
Agreed
Loppoll
A place where nobody dared to go
The love that we came to know
They call it Xanadu
(It takes your breath and it'll leave you blind)
And now, open your eyes and see
What we have made is real
We are in Xanadu
(A dream of it we offer you)
A million lights are dancing and there you are, a shooting star
An everlasting world and you're here with me, eternally
Xanadu, Xanadu
(Now we are here)
In Xanadu (Xanadu)
Xanadu, Xanadu
(Now we are here)
In Xanadu
Xanadu, your neon lights will shine for you, Xanadu
The love, the echoes of long ago
You needed the world to know
They are in Xanadu
(With every breath you drift away)
The dream that came through a million years
That lived on through all the tears
It came to Xanadu
(The dream you dream, well, it will happen for you)
A million lights are dancing and there you are, a shooting star
An everlasting world and you're here with me, eternally
Xanadu, Xanadu
(Now we are here)
In Xanadu (Xanadu)
Xanadu, Xanadu
(Now we are here)
In Xanadu (Xanadu)
Now that I'm here
Now that you're near in Xanadu
Now that I'm here
Now that you're near in Xanadu
Xanadu!
Disney Corp. did build their city, called Celebration starting in the 90’s and it is still growing (>10,000 live there currently). It is more like Mayberry than Xanadu though. Median home sold price is around half a mil with many selling north of $2.5 million.
Or Golden Oaks or Windamere.
I'm glad I was able to visit this home as a kid when my Mother brought my Brother and I to visit Disney.
You can see that games like Fallout and the first bioshock game were inspired by the predicted designes for the future at that time.
Crazy.
We call that retro-futurism
Fantastic content as always, thanks ETP!
I remember my parents stopping by this to find it closed in the 90’s when we went to Florida for a holiday. It was cool as we went to Water Mania instead and I rode the Wipe Out same day I was 13. After the Wipe Out I felt like a man and no longer a boy!
Awesomely done
Thank you!
I drove by this all the time when I used to do deliveries in Kissimmee. I had no idea what it was so this video was very cool.
I went to the one in Gatlinburg, TN as a kid... went every single trip... magical memories.. thank you!
Great video 👍
Hell yeah!! A new Extinct video!
Yesss
Really great video
That is crazy. I drove by it so many times, yet never went into it. It was so outdated, yet so on point with the future of what is now, at its time. This was another awesome video. Thank you again.
I think I remember watching a video on TH-cam a long time ago about someone exploring this abandoned place. Pretty cool that your covering it now.
The folly of trying to predict the future. An infinate number of variables to consider. Like video calls, it's available for everyone with a cell phone, but most prefer to use voice only or text.
I'd need the face mask like Jane Jetson had to answer the phone before I put on my make up. 🤣
Love your videos.
Yay!!! You finally got to do Xanadu!!!!
Omg I’ve seen the title, had to pause the video and go for a wee, back in a bit........
Right I’m back, can’t wait to see this one Sam
This was fantastic, thank you. I saw the house on Blue Peter and always wanted to visit. When we started going to Orlando a million years ago we drove past this place hundreds of times but I’m sure it had closed down by then. I think the sign is still there as a momento of the past.
Cheers Sam.
We live right down the road from here. Drove by it often as a teenager but never visited. Had many a date night at King Henry's feast down the way. Great video.
We went there when it opened in the mid eighties and I was blown away. I was also six.
I remember as a kid driving by it so confused and curious about what the hell it was. By that point it was abandoned and decrepit but I still wanted to go inside!
Haha I think most people had that same experience !
I went to Orlando when it was open, we still just drove past it (at least twice a day.)
I live in Florida and went by it a few times on the way to the major attractions. Go inside of it? Yes. Pay to go inside? No.
Yes!!!!!! I was waiting for someone to do this justice. Thank you!!!!!!
Sam, just wanted to say I’m a big fan and thanks!
Man, they had the right idea with finding a way to make homes affordable at least. Which is, and still was, let's be real, something that seems out of the grasp of modern architects.
Great video! When I was around 13 in the early to mid '80s I visited the one in Gatlinburg. Having grown up watching the original Star Wars films I thought that house was so cool.
This is a really cool look into Xanadu! It was Adam The Woo's TH-cam channel a handful of years ago that first made me aware that Xanadu was even a thing. He went to the location where Xanadu once stood and all that he could find there were some light fixtures and electrical boxes in a field of grass. Still, even if it was gone by that point, Adam me curious about this defunct attraction. And I thank Expedition Theme Park to finally giving me the look into Xanadu that I desired!
And also, this place looks like a building designed by Akira Toriyama and found on Planet Namek. XD
@Expedition Theme Park really love what you do with this channel :) also I would watch more abandoned buildings / strange builds type vids.
YES!! This has always been one of the coolest defunct roadside attractions to me. God what I wouldn't give to go back in time and check out this place (abandoned or not) so unique, so out there, so otherworldly in its design. I probably wouldn't want to live in a house like this, but man, it would be cool as hell to visit.
Now, when's the video on World of Orchids coming? 😁🌸 (the old website is on wayback, fyi)
I remember, as you said, driving by it but never going in. Thanks for this retrospective.
I’m glad that this was never built as a standard or widespread. It would be an internet of things based always on-DRM based surveillance nightmare.
I have been to the Wisconsin dells one when I was a child. My mother kept going on about no closets in the house and who would build a house without storage space.
There are no pack rats in...The F U T U R E .😳
I remember hearing about this place as a kid, but I'm not sure if we drove past it when we went to Disney for the first time in 1996. Might've been torn down already. I have a vague recollection of the sign, but that could be from a documentary or something on tv. I am so fascinated by the idea of Xanadu, it should've been bigger than it was. Sad to hear about Roy Mason, may he RIP.
The sign (seen at 18:38) actually stood until around 2015 or 2016.
This is a very pleasant surprise. I grew up in kissimmee and would pass this place everyday. I never got to see the inside as it was closed in the 90s. Thanks for covering this place
Tha k you for watching
Passed this a ton of times and could never get my pop to stop there.
🎵🎶Xanadu... Xanadu... (Now we are here) In Xanaduuu...Xanadu, your neon lights will shine, for youuu, Xanadu!🎶🎵
The love, the echoes of long ago. We needed the world to know they were in Xanadu!
So ahead of its time, yet so very much of its time.
Sounds more like they were trying to recreate The Jetsons.
Its funny i remember Water Mania from my youth living in Orlando, but i vaguely remember this ,my mom remembers it
Haha yeah
Water Mania was more fun.
That ending where you note that the new condos were made of regular building materials and not made of foam really made me chuckle.
😆😆
I've been to the one in Wisconsin Dells back in my childhood. I still remember it to this day.
we passed by this house for decades and never went it. it got so old so quickly it became a running joke, "house for the future from the 80's!"
This is EXACTLY how I would have described it! We passed it, for years, to get to Disney. Never went in.
I visited this when I was a kid. I loved it back then. I love things that were different and modern. Sad that it is gone
I love crazy weird stuff like this!
I remember driving past Xanadu on Disney trips in 1993, 94, 95, 97, 98 & 2000. The 1st few years it looked open and if I remember right, had tourist brochures in the hotels I stayed in - I may have one or two in my plethora of ephemera I saved from those years. Gonna have to dig around in my garage.
I got to visit the Dells’ Xanadu house when I was 11 or so. Very cool back then!
This place always intrigued me aa a kid
I wonder where the blue attraction sign went off to and if it's kept somewhere in a museum or private collector's home.
Its amazing how much they got right.
I went there as a kid, on a family trip to Disney World. I was a nerdy kid, and to be honest, I liked Xanadu. I figured the tech was mostly fake, because it wasn’t actually the future yet. Surprising, really, how much they got right. Our aesthetics are more traditional, but we have stuff like Alexa, and really, I am typing this on a tablet straight out of ST:TNG after watching a short video over a global computer network.
Also, looking back, this Really looks like it belongs on the cover of a Yes album. And I love Yes album covers. I wonder if that was an influence.
The music you used at the end reminds me of the music from the end of the dark ride portion of Living with the Land (which has somewhat outdated narration about the future of agriculture, so, fitting!)
Always wanted to visit Xanadu but never had the opportunity...great story on its history ✌🏻
I visited there when I was a kid! It was very inspirational
There Wisconsin Dells one