The Abandoned History of Xanadu: House of The Future - Orlando's Extinct Futurist Space Attraction

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  • Опубліковано 30 вер 2024
  • 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house of the future was designed to showcase the 21st-century technology that would come to houses but eventually was outdated and later abandoned.
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    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...

КОМЕНТАРІ • 563

  • @otaking3582
    @otaking3582 3 роки тому +184

    Obviously the reason it failed is because it wasn't a roller disco.

    • @marcussmith5806
      @marcussmith5806 3 роки тому +22

      With an art gallery.

    • @Decipher13
      @Decipher13 3 роки тому +25

      And a soundtrack by Jeff Lynne

    • @emmarose4234
      @emmarose4234 3 роки тому +12

      No, no, no. You’ve got it all wrong. It should have been a mansion owned by some newspaper mogul who loved his sled.

    • @PintoPopProductions
      @PintoPopProductions 3 роки тому +7

      @@emmarose4234 Rosebud...

    • @sailors129
      @sailors129 3 роки тому +6

      With ELO playing 24/7

  • @maxcovfefe
    @maxcovfefe 3 роки тому +327

    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.

    • @shinyprisma6085
      @shinyprisma6085 3 роки тому +5

      lol

    • @jeremygreen8263
      @jeremygreen8263 3 роки тому +4

      Lucky

    • @caiusmadison2996
      @caiusmadison2996 3 роки тому +12

      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.

    • @03stmlax
      @03stmlax 3 роки тому +13

      Actually, you're still dreaming... This isnt real life

    • @michaelacosta393
      @michaelacosta393 2 роки тому +2

      I've had dreams of the Southgate Shopping Center in South Florida, but never been there. But I have seen Edward Scissorhands so?

  • @louckykoneko
    @louckykoneko 3 роки тому +75

    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!

    • @katej23
      @katej23 2 роки тому +7

      Literally watching this video from a small computer that fits in my pocket 😂

    • @Sparty-pi3jq
      @Sparty-pi3jq Місяць тому +1

      The dymaxion house (inside The Henry Ford Museum in Dearborn Mi) is a cool "futuristic" house built by the Beech aircraft company. It's mostly aluminum (like an aircraft) Its a really cool house with a ton of tech, for its time. I'm almost positive it was dreamed up in the 20's but built after ww2.

  • @vireo2543
    @vireo2543 3 роки тому +75

    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.

    • @beezneez2056
      @beezneez2056 3 роки тому +15

      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.

    • @brokedownuptown
      @brokedownuptown 2 роки тому +5

      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?

    • @serenatwilite4005
      @serenatwilite4005 Місяць тому

      @@brokedownuptown Isn't Kissimmee a little closer to Disney than Orlando?

  • @znelson32
    @znelson32 3 роки тому +129

    Want your house to burn to the ground in under ten seconds... build it out of polyurethane foam.

    • @wisdomseeker3362
      @wisdomseeker3362 3 роки тому +4

      Fact❗
      🔥🔥🏠🔥🔥

    • @sandydegener6436
      @sandydegener6436 3 роки тому +6

      "Oh the huMANity!"

    • @kernowmcrae
      @kernowmcrae 3 роки тому +6

      Seeing a log fire stove surrounded by foam actually gave me chills 😂

    • @BillClinton228
      @BillClinton228 3 роки тому +3

      Not just unsafe and impractical, but ugly AF.

    • @joemenzaart
      @joemenzaart 3 роки тому +7

      I read an article that a fire resistant substance was sprayed on the walls and ceilings.

  • @Boom12
    @Boom12 3 роки тому +50

    You see, this is why you never showcase what could be "The Future." It ironically dates you, fast.

    • @bigjohnsbreakfastlog5819
      @bigjohnsbreakfastlog5819 3 роки тому +1

      Instead, build your showcases about "The Past". That way, you'll never be dated.

  • @rich_edwards79
    @rich_edwards79 3 роки тому +81

    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...

  • @AverytheCubanAmerican
    @AverytheCubanAmerican 3 роки тому +95

    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

    • @jobyd2000
      @jobyd2000 3 роки тому +13

      That was going to be my next google hole. Thanks for the cliff's notes. Dark indeed!!

    • @MaxxVelo
      @MaxxVelo 2 роки тому +4

      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.

  • @seriosertyp8145
    @seriosertyp8145 3 роки тому +72

    Highly flammable and room acoustics that will drive one on the edge of sanity. Aaaah the future :D

    • @ExpeditionThemePark
      @ExpeditionThemePark  3 роки тому +10

      Exactly 😆

    • @cowboy4jesus3N1
      @cowboy4jesus3N1 3 роки тому +5

      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"

  • @iqb2001
    @iqb2001 3 роки тому +23

    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.

  • @dwitefry4157
    @dwitefry4157 3 роки тому +52

    Xanadu creeps me out, something about it just unnerves me, even before it was left abandoned. Good video though!

    • @artanisknarf
      @artanisknarf 3 роки тому +12

      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.

    • @chris2edgy756
      @chris2edgy756 2 роки тому +3

      Look up the centrifuge brain project if u want to feel unnerved again

  • @katherinealvarez9216
    @katherinealvarez9216 3 роки тому +55

    0:23 why does Xanadu look like a crack house on Tatooine?

    • @ExpeditionThemePark
      @ExpeditionThemePark  3 роки тому +8

      Hahah who knows

    • @deandupont5503
      @deandupont5503 3 роки тому +1

      I was thinking brothel, personally...

    • @chiroquacker2580
      @chiroquacker2580 3 роки тому +3

      A crack house? In Florida? No way! It would be a Meth House instead.

    • @katherinealvarez9216
      @katherinealvarez9216 3 роки тому

      @@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.

    • @reddragon8488
      @reddragon8488 3 роки тому +2

      @@chiroquacker2580 Heisenberg:¿did someone say meth? *Starts sounding the breaking bad theme*

  • @camillegrinnaux879
    @camillegrinnaux879 3 роки тому +58

    "Roy Mason was sadly murdered in 1996" I'M SORRY, WHAT?

    • @ExpeditionThemePark
      @ExpeditionThemePark  3 роки тому +10

      Yeoppp

    • @kumatank8022
      @kumatank8022 3 роки тому +4

      @@ExpeditionThemePark I feel like this was only a small part of the video.

    • @mrimpalarider1606
      @mrimpalarider1606 3 роки тому +4

      Hit business partner beat him to death with a hammer. Lots of shady business deals finally caught up. Sad really

    • @epicphail2926
      @epicphail2926 3 роки тому

      @@mrimpalarider1606 nah, the guy was just on drugs and wanted money

    • @MrMrMrprofessor
      @MrMrMrprofessor 3 роки тому +3

      @@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".

  • @starshiranui33
    @starshiranui33 2 роки тому +4

    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.

  • @harlowblackadder356
    @harlowblackadder356 2 роки тому +5

    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.

  • @jonrussell1690
    @jonrussell1690 3 роки тому +20

    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.

    • @serenatwilite4005
      @serenatwilite4005 Місяць тому

      They're interesting just for the fact that they did show what people were predicting for the future at the time they were built. Too bad more of them haven't been preserved and kept like museums.

  • @NimrodClover
    @NimrodClover 3 роки тому +16

    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.

    • @cartersbread1432
      @cartersbread1432 Рік тому

      Want to come inside to one? It’s gonna cost though.

    • @NimrodClover
      @NimrodClover Рік тому +1

      @@cartersbread1432 I've been in others and even in a restaurant made the same way so not needed.

  • @thedogdogification
    @thedogdogification 3 роки тому +10

    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.

  • @aidantanny7230
    @aidantanny7230 3 роки тому +83

    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

    • @cartersbread1432
      @cartersbread1432 Рік тому

      If you want a visit let me know

    • @FigmentForever
      @FigmentForever Рік тому

      I do. I visited the 192 location in 2000 but was closed for the day 😢

    • @serenatwilite4005
      @serenatwilite4005 Місяць тому

      @@cartersbread1432 I do, how do I get one?

  • @somecolbyguy1833
    @somecolbyguy1833 3 роки тому +14

    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.

  • @paulbennett4548
    @paulbennett4548 3 роки тому +17

    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!

    • @aidenlav
      @aidenlav 11 місяців тому +4

      aw this is cute!thanks for sharing paul. I hope you and your family are doing well, including those great grandkids!!

  • @doc2w534
    @doc2w534 3 роки тому +16

    I was so sad to see them tear this down. The height of its popularity was when it was abandoned.

  • @GrzegorzDurda
    @GrzegorzDurda 3 роки тому +14

    It all came true via todays "Smart Home" and " Internet of things". Great vid showing concept to fruition over the decades.

    • @serenatwilite4005
      @serenatwilite4005 Місяць тому

      We have the cool technology on the inside but imo modern homes, architecturally speaking at least, are so boring compared to these homes of the future. Too bad, the cool architecture didn't come with everything else.

  • @song4you80
    @song4you80 3 роки тому +13

    My wife has a high school yearbook that has senior pictures of students inside of the Xanadu in Gatlinburg TN.

    • @urmommabear5monthsago
      @urmommabear5monthsago 3 роки тому +1

      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

  • @wesleyjbarisoff
    @wesleyjbarisoff 3 роки тому +11

    Just me or does it feel like a giant bachelor / shag pad? 😆😆😆

  • @camille6910
    @camille6910 3 роки тому +9

    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

  • @g.g.2102
    @g.g.2102 3 роки тому +5

    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!

  • @bobcheapek4334
    @bobcheapek4334 3 роки тому +21

    I predict in the future...
    that Expedition Theme Park will remain one of the best channels on YT

  • @SheilaPairADice
    @SheilaPairADice 3 роки тому +9

    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.

  • @wiifitt
    @wiifitt 3 роки тому +21

    Did you really just casually mention that he was murdered and not expand on that?

    • @adellemontes9879
      @adellemontes9879 3 роки тому

      Seriously this was my first thought

    • @Disneyfreak_8
      @Disneyfreak_8 3 роки тому +3

      This is what I found online:
      In 1996, at age 57, he was killed by a man named Christopher Robin Hatton at the architect's home in the 4200 block of Military Road NW. Christopher Robin Hatton was supposedly a close acquaintance of Roy Mason. A month after the slaying, the killer was still on the run and hunted by the police. Christopher Hatton, in a drug-induced rage and demanding money from Mason, bludgeoned Mason with a hammer twenty-five times (per the autopsy).
      Yeesh

    • @puccipower
      @puccipower 3 роки тому

      I just assumed the guy was a cokehead..

  • @oldarcadeguy9412
    @oldarcadeguy9412 3 роки тому +40

    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!

    • @AwkwardKidAdventures
      @AwkwardKidAdventures 3 роки тому +3

      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

    • @brokedownuptown
      @brokedownuptown 2 роки тому +4

      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."

    • @serenatwilite4005
      @serenatwilite4005 Місяць тому

      @@brokedownuptown I enjoyed reading your post, interesting memory as a comparison of how much things have changed.

  • @lesmokealotesquair8288
    @lesmokealotesquair8288 3 роки тому +9

    I literally pass the spot this use to be at every day 192 is a shell of what it once was hookers and drug addicts Roaming around ruins of what once was I hope it makes a recovery

  • @PancakeRAPTURE
    @PancakeRAPTURE 3 роки тому +10

    My home state may have some of the most ridiculous news stories come out of it, but boy do we have some interesting relics!

  • @minasotah
    @minasotah 3 роки тому +8

    That's funny The Last Starfighter is playing on the TV inside the Xanadu house

  • @TDM1138
    @TDM1138 3 роки тому +13

    At 14:05, the house looks like a Lovecraftian Spider Monster version of Baymax.

  • @TracyA123
    @TracyA123 3 роки тому +8

    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!☺

    • @ExpeditionThemePark
      @ExpeditionThemePark  3 роки тому +1

      Thank you so much!

    • @TracyA123
      @TracyA123 3 роки тому +1

      @@ExpeditionThemePark You're welcome sir! Love the extinct videos!

  • @Tsumami__
    @Tsumami__ 3 роки тому +45

    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.

  • @thisismysea
    @thisismysea 3 роки тому +7

    Was this place related to the "Flintstone House" in California? That's another strange dome shaped building that seems similar, except it's not white.

  • @fifthrider
    @fifthrider 3 роки тому +8

    Few things are more dangerous than a motivated engineer with a bad idea and the funding to make it happen.

  • @Murph1331
    @Murph1331 3 роки тому +57

    I’m loving the space themes from Defunctland and Expedition!

  • @markh5210
    @markh5210 3 роки тому +6

    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!

  • @waterlemonandfriends
    @waterlemonandfriends 3 роки тому +30

    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!

    • @ArtisticlyAlexis
      @ArtisticlyAlexis 3 роки тому +9

      Ah, my childhood when I lived in WI!

    • @benjamingreenwood7370
      @benjamingreenwood7370 3 роки тому +10

      YES!!! The Dells are ripe for this channel!!

    • @chouseification
      @chouseification 3 роки тому +9

      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

    • @jimmymelendez1836
      @jimmymelendez1836 3 роки тому +3

      I went to Xanadu at Wisconsin Dells growing up.

    • @quinnzykir
      @quinnzykir 2 роки тому +1

      Don’t forget Noah’s Ark

  • @davidleibowitz3658
    @davidleibowitz3658 3 роки тому +7

    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.

  • @lunalynn70
    @lunalynn70 3 роки тому +14

    Sounds more like they were trying to recreate The Jetsons.

  • @nunyabusiness2785
    @nunyabusiness2785 3 роки тому +2

    Polyurethane is really flammable. Not something you’d want to use to build a house.

  • @jonathandevries2828
    @jonathandevries2828 3 роки тому +2

    Whoa!!!! you just glossed over the fact he was MURDERED!!! What happened??

  • @xanadurocketship
    @xanadurocketship 3 роки тому +5

    This has my name on it, I’m assuming it’s mine now.

  • @sloucherdotorg7
    @sloucherdotorg7 3 роки тому +11

    First time I went to Orlando (1987), it seemed like such a cool place, but we never visited. Shame.
    Loved this episode.

  • @30framespersecond
    @30framespersecond 3 роки тому +5

    The sign (seen at 18:38) actually stood until around 2015 or 2016.

  • @ExpeditionThemePark
    @ExpeditionThemePark  3 роки тому +19

    The future is here! Where do you want to go next on Expedition Extinct?

    • @FM-10
      @FM-10 3 роки тому +4

      Bubbleworks? Toyland Tours?

    • @fizzo3535
      @fizzo3535 3 роки тому +1

      It would be cool if you made a video based on the Scottish theme park M&d’s

    • @ExpeditionThemePark
      @ExpeditionThemePark  3 роки тому +3

      I will do both after a break from Towers videos

    • @Charners
      @Charners 3 роки тому

      Metroland :D

    • @thesparklingeagle
      @thesparklingeagle 3 роки тому +2

      @@ExpeditionThemePark how about the old eurosat?

  • @ChatGPT1111
    @ChatGPT1111 3 роки тому +4

    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.

  • @119Agent
    @119Agent 3 роки тому +4

    I disagree that Xanadu failed. It inspired a generation of home automation and architecture concepts that are incorporated into today's homes. 16 years is a long time to call something the "Home of the Future". In many ways it really was.

  • @darksideemt
    @darksideemt 3 роки тому +4

    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.

  • @SteveMartinShort
    @SteveMartinShort 3 роки тому +2

    What's more interesting than the house, is Roy the inventor. Murdered in his own home after correctly predicting how future household technically would be... Sounds like a fun rabbit hole.

  • @donovandelaney3171
    @donovandelaney3171 3 роки тому +2

    Epcot was originally going to be a tribute to Atlantis. The park is still growing. So Epcot City would be finished one day.

  • @Knight-of-Sarcasm
    @Knight-of-Sarcasm 3 роки тому +4

    I wonder where the blue attraction sign went off to and if it's kept somewhere in a museum or private collector's home.

  • @derfvcderfvc7317
    @derfvcderfvc7317 3 роки тому +4

    Wasnt there another white multi dome house that was built on the ocean but got flooded out.

  • @danopticon
    @danopticon 3 роки тому +2

    Have none of the people who’ve named their doomed pleasure palaces “Xanadu” ever read the Coleridge poem far enough to get to the “Beware! Beware!” part, right after all the ominous cavern and sunless sea bits? It’s a little like naming your transatlantic ocean liner “Titanic” because you heard somewhere that it’s a big boat name and big boats are always good, so “Titanic!” I mean, just a _little_ research is all it takes, guys…

  • @ArtisticlyAlexis
    @ArtisticlyAlexis 3 роки тому +3

    🎵🎶Xanadu... Xanadu... (Now we are here) In Xanaduuu...Xanadu, your neon lights will shine, for youuu, Xanadu!🎶🎵

    • @marcussmith5806
      @marcussmith5806 3 роки тому +2

      The love, the echoes of long ago. We needed the world to know they were in Xanadu!

  • @hayleywaalen2612
    @hayleywaalen2612 3 роки тому +6

    I always thought it was a song by Olivia Newton John.

    • @rcknbob1
      @rcknbob1 3 роки тому +1

      And ELO, for a bad movie.

    • @NightSprinter
      @NightSprinter 3 роки тому

      Yes

    • @cowboy4jesus3N1
      @cowboy4jesus3N1 3 роки тому +1

      Please tell me you're not in High school yet, and did not take world history.

  • @redenginner
    @redenginner 3 роки тому +6

    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.

  • @bradleyczech1789
    @bradleyczech1789 3 роки тому +6

    I have a promo video from when this place was opened. It goes through and talks all about the house features etc

  • @stewydoo
    @stewydoo 3 роки тому +3

    *In E.T's voice* Foooooam Hooooome!

  • @jasonlescalleet5611
    @jasonlescalleet5611 3 роки тому +3

    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.

  • @wlovins0
    @wlovins0 2 роки тому +2

    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.

  • @SemiShweet
    @SemiShweet 3 роки тому +3

    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)

  • @JadisAmalthea
    @JadisAmalthea 2 роки тому +2

    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.

  • @letsgoOs1002
    @letsgoOs1002 3 роки тому +7

    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!"

    • @billycrna
      @billycrna 3 роки тому +1

      This is EXACTLY how I would have described it! We passed it, for years, to get to Disney. Never went in.

    • @serenatwilite4005
      @serenatwilite4005 Місяць тому

      @@billycrna Unless you were wealthy, who had the money after a trip to Disney? We were so broke after a trip to Disney there was no money left over for any of the other cool attractions outside it. That's what all of those other attractions had to compete with that ran them out of business imo. You either ignored Disney and took advantage of the cheaper attractions to entertain the family or you gave all your money to Disney. Most people on a limited budget were thinking Disney was more like one stop shopping in that regard.

  • @rmannayr2129
    @rmannayr2129 3 роки тому +2

    WELP IT FAILED BECAUSE IT WASN'T FUTURISTIC ENOUGH!

  • @alexharrison808
    @alexharrison808 3 роки тому +33

    It looks & sounds like something that came from Star Wars or Dr. Seuss.

  • @kristinwood8884
    @kristinwood8884 3 роки тому +4

    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.

  • @MaxStax1
    @MaxStax1 3 роки тому +5

    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.

    • @Telcomvic
      @Telcomvic 3 роки тому +1

      I'd need the face mask like Jane Jetson had to answer the phone before I put on my make up. 🤣

    • @serenatwilite4005
      @serenatwilite4005 Місяць тому

      @@Telcomvic Really, most of us aren't that thrilled with our appearance to want to take advantage of it all the time.

  • @fishandgarden4514
    @fishandgarden4514 3 роки тому +6

    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.

    • @mk202
      @mk202 3 роки тому +1

      There are no pack rats in...The F U T U R E .😳

  • @JumboDS64
    @JumboDS64 2 місяці тому +1

    14:15 Took a bit longer than he predicted, but all those things DO exist now... Alexa and its counterparts for the temperature-changing, weather, and timed coffee-making, and smartphones for the newspaper. All those came around 2013 I think, so he was just 13 years off.

  • @Twicken17
    @Twicken17 3 роки тому +3

    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.

  • @MrZip420
    @MrZip420 3 роки тому +3

    One day, you should make a video on a ride called Le Monstre (the monster) that resides in the six flags La Ronde theme park in Montreal, Canada! :D it is the tallest two-tracked wagon wooden coaster in the world and is quite the old coaster, I feel like it deserves its own video! :D

  • @adellemontes9879
    @adellemontes9879 3 роки тому +2

    Murdered?! Can we get more details??

  • @BackSeatJunkie
    @BackSeatJunkie 3 роки тому +1

    They used the building technique to showcase technologies which would/could become standard in our homes...... they should have focused on the building techniques and left the automated computer technology for the future...... Hello ALEXA ! ! ! ! !

  • @delaunfifield3490
    @delaunfifield3490 3 роки тому +3

    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..

  • @lc4351
    @lc4351 3 роки тому +5

    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!

    • @ExpeditionThemePark
      @ExpeditionThemePark  3 роки тому +4

      Haha I think most people had that same experience !

    • @Dazreil
      @Dazreil 3 роки тому +2

      I went to Orlando when it was open, we still just drove past it (at least twice a day.)

    • @chiroquacker2580
      @chiroquacker2580 3 роки тому +2

      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.

  • @SageTheSahash
    @SageTheSahash Рік тому +1

    Xanadu - To stand within The Pleasure Dome
    Decreed by Kubla Khan
    To taste anew the fruits of life
    The last immortal man
    To find the sacred river Alph
    To walk the caves of ice
    Oh, I will dine on honey dew
    And drink the milk of Paradise

  • @heather957
    @heather957 3 роки тому +2

    I missed ALL the good stuff! I'd take a Xanadu house any day over any of the sterile homes of today!

  • @Robert-jz7hq
    @Robert-jz7hq 3 роки тому +8

    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.

  • @charlesfcopeland9756
    @charlesfcopeland9756 Рік тому +1

    I remember going past it in 96. I thought about going to check it out but decided not today. Years later I was coming off the Florida turnpike onto US 192 and had the radio on. "HEY! Anybody out there go to that eyesore tourist trap calling itself the home of Tomorrow or some silly thing? Well, if you never did then you never will. That mistake will be erased soon now it finally sold and planned removal are it's true future".

  • @DavidChipman
    @DavidChipman 3 роки тому +1

    While this house did not turn out so well, including the technology in it, I wonder how much it inspried others interested in home automation.

  • @so-calseany1176
    @so-calseany1176 3 роки тому +24

    Alright! I love Olivia Newton-
    WAIT....

    • @ExpeditionThemePark
      @ExpeditionThemePark  3 роки тому +7

      Haha I never knew about that movie till now

    • @danopticon
      @danopticon 3 роки тому

      @@ExpeditionThemePark - (The “Xanadu” of the Olivia Newton John movie was a roller disco, if the connection I drew was unclear.)

    • @AJ17_
      @AJ17_ 3 роки тому

      @@ExpeditionThemePark HOW IS THAT POSSIBLE?

  • @AmazingKevinWClark
    @AmazingKevinWClark Рік тому +1

    A lot of technology exists today but is still barely used and implicated in building the average home. It's 😔 sad. More than 20 years and we still haven't progressed much in the way of smart homes.

  • @mackpines
    @mackpines Місяць тому +1

    Anyone else reminded of the Ray Bradbury short story "There Will Come Soft Rains" when they see a house of the future attraction?

  • @sharpduds
    @sharpduds Рік тому +1

    Houses of the Future that were designed in the past are generally fascinating, but this particular design is so breathtakingly ugly, which isn't helped by the designer's statement that appearances were secondary. That, combined with such an extreme reliance on computerization, results in less of a potential margin and more of a grand canyon of error.
    The Twilight Zone script practically writes itself.
    Frankly, the true house of the future is most likely rooted in the past, focused more on timeless functionality and simple beauty than cutting edge tech and gadgets. An example that springs to mind is the Walter and Ise Gropius house in Lincoln, MA.

  • @annajoned1122
    @annajoned1122 2 роки тому +1

    After I visited almost 30 years ago when I was a little girl, I've thought about this place now and then. I remember there was some special kind of phone that was part of a display. I don't know why I didn't go back, but I've always wanted to.

  • @dr666demento
    @dr666demento 3 роки тому +1

    It was designed to survive a hurricane... And it did! It was little damaged by Hurricane Charley - but didn't survive lack of tourist interest.

  • @maikeweige1548
    @maikeweige1548 3 роки тому +1

    I think though everyone keeps ragging on how it isn't the home of the future. But, if you consider that this was all developed in the 80's and we are in the 2020s are just now adding these things to our homes. The people involved really did have a good vision of the future. We don't have houses like this yet but notice that now with 3D printed homes, these designs are being played with again.

  • @DocZFlux
    @DocZFlux 3 роки тому +4

    Why do I think fewer drugs were involved in the creation of this Xanadu?

  • @ScottDuensing
    @ScottDuensing 3 роки тому +1

    I still have a bunch of X10 equipment I bought there when I visited as a kid. :-)

  • @greengreen4616
    @greengreen4616 3 роки тому +1

    It would be the future of some Australian school's auditoriums (Binishells).

  • @laurallewien2165
    @laurallewien2165 3 роки тому +1

    Oh I get it....ELO and Olivia Newton John used to roller skate there, pretty cool!

  • @ericfuchs123
    @ericfuchs123 3 роки тому +1

    What is this horrifying Beyond the Black Rainbow shit?

  • @-We.All.Gone.Eat-
    @-We.All.Gone.Eat- Рік тому +1

    I'm glad I was able to visit this home as a kid when my Mother brought my Brother and I to visit Disney.

  • @Ronbo1948
    @Ronbo1948 3 роки тому +1

    I toured this "Home of the Future" back in the 1980s - it was okay - but nothing to write home about...the movie playing inside was the original Stars Wars flick of 1977.

  • @kaosj666
    @kaosj666 3 роки тому +2

    This is a really cool look into Xanadu! It was Adam The Woo's UA-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