Saturday, September 24, 2011

Xanadu House of Kissimmee


As I took my long bike ride up and down 192 through Celebration and Kissimmee, I ride past this place twice. Nothing left but the sign as seen above (did not take that pic, this blog post came about from my own anger at not taking one). The building in the background is just a motel on a separate lot, the Xanadu is gone. I think that motel very well might be abandoned as well, if not it certainly qualifies as a good place to use drugs and/or prostitutes and a poor place to sleep.

Intregued, I researched a bit and learned more. A tourist attraction, one of three in the USA (all three gone now), it was a 'futuristic' house (by late 70s standards) that you could tour for a fee.

192 was such a stretch of abondonded buildings and crushed dreams, it was spooky at times and depressing at most others. Looks like the architect that came up with the whole deal got murdered in the 80s though I can find little information on the crime.

Most interesting to me was in the wikipedia article on the homes was this quote regarding a documentary film that touched on the Kissimmee house:
It showed the house in disrepair with doors wide open, mold growing everywhere and a homeless man living inside. The "explorers" walked through the house filming the decay firsthand as the homeless man slept in a chair on the main floor. At the end of the segment, the man wakes up and threatens the "explorers" telling them to leave "his home"!

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