Enchanted Castle hides underground water-maze in San Francisco
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- čas přidán 31. 12. 2023
- Within San Francisco city limits, there's a Norman-style castle with a 4-story turret that few residents have heard of. Built in 1870 by a 21-year-old English immigrant who wanted to start a brewery so he hand-carved two 200-foot caverns under the castle to tap into one of the city’s only sources of natural spring water.
Inside the caverns he dug three stone cisterns to hold the 8,000-10,000 gallons of natural spring water that flows through every day.
Burnelll operated the Albion Porter Brewery until he had to shut down for prohibition. In 1919, it was remade into the Albion Water Company, which specialized in bottled drinking water from the cisterns. The castle was under threat of demolition in 1961 since it was adjacent to a road construction plan, but its nature of producing underground spring waters saved it.
In case of a nuclear attack on the city, the castle could provide emergency water to the city. It is one of the only natural water sources that cannot be contaminated
The castle was nearly demolished in 1961 to make way for a highway, but it was saved based on the argument that the fresh water source under the building “could be the only non-contaminated source of fresh water in the event of a nuclear attack.” (San Francisco Chronicle).
In 2012, Bill Gilbert, who grew up in the neighborhood and remembers seeing the castle as a kid, bought it and installed a complex water filtration system hoping that someday he could begin bottling water here again.
www.thealbioncastle.com/
On *faircompanies: faircompanies.com/videos/ench... - Jak na to + styl
Spent my childhood running around them neighborhoods and I remember walking past this place and admiring the look. But boy I had no clue this was a hundred year old castle brewery. So cool thank you for exploring
I grew up around there, I remember that place as Black Mountain Water Company.
What a treat this was Kirsten, the owners are so gracious to share this beautiful compound.
I went to an amazing party in this place in maybe 2004-5. It was absolutely wild to be in those tunnels, and the rest of the property. I'd never been able to find any info about the place since.
I kept feeling like rooms looked familiar and I’d been to a party there.
Eyes wide shut kind of party I’m guessing
In the early 2000's I went to a brilliant party at this place. For years I couldn't remember where it was but DISTINCTLY remembered the "pool" of crystal blue water. So glad to have found this vid! Great fun at that party too. PS, I was not one of the ppl that swam in the pool, but there were definitely swimmers when I was there.
Thoughtfully built for sure. To last a long time. The current owners are trying to fully understand the complexity of the manufacturing process and pass it along the best the can. Super passionate about people are awesome. Thank you for this one. I never would have known about this place especially its water distribution network. Very Cool.
My mind is officially blown! I have lived in San Francisco for 27 years… I even used to have a studio at Hunters Point… I have for sure been by this place hundreds of times and had no idea any thing like this existed! Amazing.
Very interesting. I lived in SF for quite a few years and am fascinated with its interesting history and secrets. I'd heard rumors of this place, and undoubtedly drove by it countless times. I do know that SF is lots of tunnels and right up to the post WW2 era SF was the world center for tunnel building with the Yerba Buena tunnel and the Waldo Grade tunnel among some of the most impressive and well known, but the rest of the area is also tunneled...and of course Alcatraz, the Presidio and even the modern trasnportation system, which are not only convenient in that high aspect landscape but tunnels are surprisingly safe during earthquakes contrary to what some think. Thanks again for this great tour. Cheers.
Lived on Yerba Buena for three years around 1978, looking at the SF skyline every day. I found many tunnels under the old WW2 brig (military jail) always wondered about more undiscovered tunnels. There was generational rumors of more tunnels.
I too, am constantly amazed at the California history and San Francisco history. My family lived in San Francisco in the late 1860's up until not long after the 1906 Earthquake. In the process of searching family history I've found so many stories about hidden tunnels & secret rooms. Secret spaces of course were also part of the rebuild - being Prohibition and all. Also, the building of what we know as the Marina & Financial Districts right on top of collapsed buildings and filling the shallow waters to build out to the edge, for both deeper water ports and simply creating more land in the City. The history is so very interesting!
@@wynelleu my father, being from Mississippi left the southern Baptist church and ma and pa for the Marines Corp. Met my mother overseas but she was from Napa Valley CA. Never could get her to talk about Bohemian Grove in Salinas County. Great research/history to be found there. Many articles written in the SF Examiner.
@@wynelleuwhich history: mainstream or the real that we are left to figure out on our own? to say there were shenanigans going on by the local frat boys and clubs would be a bit of an understatement.
Very interesting property! Rather disappointed by the lack of knowledge of the owners(?). Thank you for providing some details in the description.
Kirsten, I can’t think of a better way to start day 1 of 2024 than to be educated by another great video of yours. Salute!
This is such a cool place. Had no idea it exisisted. Great history!
What a gem of a place with the hand-hewn out of rock hidden tunnels, and crystal clear water flowing. They've made a cozy living quarters there. Really enjoyed this; you find the most intriguing places!
Such a cool house. And a Cinderella to complete the look.
Another super amazing home, a piece of art, so special, incredibly unique. Thank you for showing, happy 2024!
Ooooo, I just love the mystery of hidden rooms & secret tunnels~~ so evocative!! Great find 🙂 Thanks 4 sharing!
when i saw the granite, i guessed the labor was done by the Chinese who had just finished building the Transcontinental RR thru the Sierra Nevada. experienced, and limited opportunities for work made for cheap labor.
There were dozens of steam breweries in the latter part of the 1800's that used the steam method of brewing beer because then there was no need to keep it cold. The popular Anchor Steam beer Co. started up in 1896 and is finally calling it quits and is closing its doors in July of this year.
Anchor steam is closing down?? They were the only good american beer besides Sierra Nevada pale ale you could find anywhere for years before the micro brew craze took off😤
Safe to say Kirsten is indeed more interested than the average person in cataloging castles.
Was known as the Mountain Springs Water Company.
During high school years in SF, I remember visiting this place twice. This was over 40 years ago.
Yeah I don't think they know a whole lot about the place themselves. Pretty sure they just work for the owner per father doing tours. Probably just enough to cover up the toxic history of the place.
There is absolutely no way the "history" on this place is Even remotely accurate.
What a beautiful home! If I win the lottery, this would be the type of home I’d want to live in!
This is one of the wildest and most intriguing places you've visited. Like you say, it's a hidden jem unknown to people walking by it for decades. Like something out of an Anne Rice novel. The historic photos really encapsulates its place in time.
Yes! Anne Rice would write about the French Quarter in New Orleans~~ (making the hair on the back of my neck stand up)~~ old historic vibey vibes!! lol
I've often felt as if the hidden, elusive underbelly of society exists as poeticly described in Anne Rice's work, if not more so. After some time in the military, I realized I knew nothing about the underground, it's real history, or what it consists of. Suffice to say her works of literature underscore reality, if anything.
In my early 20’s-40’s, I moved to the immediate Bay Area I guess like many never knew of this Hidden Historic Gem❤💪
When you were wondering why the house wasn't made out of wood, I was thinking about the Earthship homes in New Mexico you visited. the natural materials are a thermal mass that will help keep the home warm.
And cool:)
The french on the toilet is basically a very fancy and convoluted way to ask people to let some pure flow of water wash the bowl once you are relieved from your "burden" XD.
Amazing Thanks for sharing this awesome place. 👏🏼👏🏼👏🏼
Awesome place! That guy was obnoxious though, pulling random figures and facts out of nowhere, dude it’s okay to not know.
His height estimates of the tower went from 100-150ft to 250ft in a one story climb. He's probably off by 200ft...
@@coryjohnson3429 so painful 😅
I loved his height estimate. That was hilarious. I never would have guessed that he was going to up the numbers even further than he already had the first time he described it
Happy New Year.
Thank you to you and your entire family for the many years of creating these wonderful videos
It might be 50 feet tall at the most, it's certainly not equivalent to a 15 story building and 150 feet tall. It's only got maybe 5 stories above ground. Anyway, it's still an incredible property.
Yes definitely noticed that wild exaggeration. It's a cool place but it does call into question how much he was wrong about.
Great find and presentation. Drove past many times without knowing.
Masonry walls like brick or natural stone NEED plaster on them. You need to replace that plaster. Exposed brick is to our time what putting shag carpeting over hardwood floors was in the 1960s & 1970s. Mortar isn't water proof. You will get water intrusion into it. It is, however, partially water soluble. You have to get the water out of the mortar if you want it to last. For thousands of years, the simple way to do this was with gypsum plaster. The plaster is hydroscopic; it will pull water out of the air if it can. It will also pull water out of the masonry. As the walls heat and cool during the day, the temperature shift drives a chemical reaction where the plaster pulls water out the masonry and then releases it into the air. It's sort of like the whole house is breathing. Leaving the plaster off the masonry like that means all the mortar is just going to rot away. It's the same reason why most brick structures were traditionally coated in something like stucco or adobe on the outside. It's not just for aesthetics; it serves a structural role.
The French sign over the toilet is essentially asking, in very fancy prose, that you lower the lid after you are done pooing so as to contain the odors. It's quite funny. The joke is that it's using extremely flowery fancy language to ask for something very prosaic. I don't understand the first word of the 4th line though. It could be Brancher, which means to plug in, except that I've never seen a capital B written like that. "Brancher dans l'amphore un courrant d'onde pur" could mean, "turn on the incandescent light", except that doesn't really make sense, you wouldn't be using the toilet in the dark. That first letter looks like capital E then r but with a backward j in between, which makes no sense. Also "Erancher" isn't a word that I am aware of. I learned to write French script when I was 4, but then at 8 I went to an English school and had to unlearn it. That was 50 years ago.
cool, to know lots of stuff that's amazing and interesting
The word you are looking for is "Epancher", which here is used like "relieve". "Onde" is to be understood like a wave.
The sentence is : "Epancher dans l'amphore un courrant d'onde pur". Translation: "Pour into the amphora a stream of pure waves" (there might be a more poetic way to translate this, I don't know, i'm not native english speaker).
Bisous
@@osenseijedi In other words, flush the toilet. Thanks. ;-) (et bisous du Canada)
The irony is not only is shutting the lid a polite thing to do, but also it is healthier! Many doctors recommend closing the lid to home health care givers (I am one) in order to not spread aerosol-released virus and bacteria.
I think it’s essentially saying not to splash… to aim! 😂
How cool. I wish more of the past was preserved so well. Always a story to tell.
Fascinating property with the history and even the natural water from the mountain for the brewery. Not my style home but man super interesting. No need for air conditioners with the walls that thick.
Thank you Kirsten! I've lived here for 45 years and never knew this existed. I have to say, that was painful to watch. The commentary from the hosts left a lot to be desired. I wish we could've heard about the place from someone who actually knew what they were talking about.
I agree. But I think they were purposely skirting the history of the place that was rather 'toxic' and sticking to the beer history. I think they stay comfortably ignorant on the history by design
@@kbcustoms3571 possible! But I think you’re being generous. :)
Always wanted to see in this place, thank you for sharing.
They're such good sports to share...so much. Thank you!
Fascinating history and engineering.
Awesome! Great to hear the personal and commercial history. Happy new year! 👍😎🇨🇦
About 7 miles south, in Pacifica, is the McCloskey Castle. A Scottish Castle with it's own interesting history.
Im so grateful to the owners of property like this for sharing it so intimately. What a treat! Absolutely amazing property.
Highly radioactive area - I have always wondered about this place! Thanks so much!
This video made international news in the Daily Mail. Congrats on a great video showing us this awesome spot. Do you know if there are any maps or drawings of the cave system and the house integration? I kept losing my bearings as you walked through the deeper caves and then I was lost with the well. I heard the daughter say that some people swam in the water, without permission. Are they able, should they desire, to section off a tank into a sp type pool area? This seems like it might make for an interesting day spa experience but I am not clear in the water temp…if it is cold or a thermal spring.
WOW what an interesting find. Thanks for this post.
Wow, gorgeous! The castle is, too.
There’s a castle?
Castle with the projects residing behind it. How lovely
I think that the builders most likely used dynamite in addition to the picks and wheelbarrows. Very impressive structure they created with the rock, but the restoration in 1930 would've been extensive, (judging from the photo @21:25) that saved it for today. Wow. What a fantastic late 1800s historical building that evaded "imminent domain", so we could see the history in 2024. I really enjoyed the video. Thanks for sharing.
👏🙌🙏❤️ Christin for another AMAZING VIDEO.
HAPPY NEW YEAR TO YOU AND YOURS 🎄🎅☃️❤️🌎☮️🙏
Bill Gilbert bought the property in 2012 for $820k hoping that someday he could use the water source to start a spring water bottling company but to present date the revenues generated from the property have been from residential rental and later turned into an rental for events that Bills daughter Jennifer is the property manager.
Thanks for these details. It didn't seem like they actually lived there.
$820k seems so inexpensive compared to today!!
Would love to have a tour! Someone asked me once if I had ever visited “The Castle “….of course I had no idea this was here in the area. Absolutely stunning! Please, May I come visit sometime? Happy New Year!!!🎉
What an interesting place
Thanks for sharing this! 💯
Kirsten, there has been something inside me from a young boy that felt in awe of castles and their architecture!
Something is broken in our history for certain!
What about Russia? There is so many in tact cathedrals and castles dotted all over the land!
I'm only mentioning it because I'm as you are obsessed with castles.
I remember watching the cartoon He-man as a child and just being lost in dreamy thoughts wondering what life and civilisation was like back in those times?
I have ADD so getting lost in day dreams is common for people like me?
So I forgot about this entirely until I stared to watch things about Tartaria....... bang in an instant it triggered so much wonder from my childhood that I had not visited in 30 years?
When you realise that the modern world is actually trying to destroy anything old world....... That seeing something like this that still exists is so so rare and special!
This is so awesome how much is in tact
Thanks Kirsten, incredible historic place! Seems like a place that should be donated and opened to the public with Docents to explain accurately it’s history and tell its storied past. 🏰
A bit of criticism to offer - please tighten up the editing. Not every shot and every bit of dialogue needs to be included.
For instance, an excessive amount of time was spent at the top of the tower, with repeated questions and answers about the ropes, pulleys, grain ,etc.
We didn’t need to see both cisterns, since they look exactly alike.
The repetition continues in your description of the video. You repeated the bit about the potential 1961 demolition twice.
A fascinating place to see and learn about, made less interesting due to your editing choices, or lack thereof.
Honey is looking fire for her age
Fascinating place with a rich history. Old mates 'guesstimates' of feet had me laughing
Wow! Impressive work.
That place is so amazing! Very huge place beautiful story behind that place.
WoW!!! I hope to visit some day...my drive across America. It's awesome, really!! ❤❤❤
As a brewer surely they ground the barley and mashed upstairs then filtered and off to wood fired brew kettles. So much water to cool the batch.
After the brewery it was the Albion Water Company into the sixties. The shipyard workers housing surrounding on the hill above became housing projects in the 50s. So this is now lightly filtered runoff. They stopped bottling the water after the radioactive dump caught fire in the late 80s spreading radioactive ash all over Hunters Point hill and the flats. It’s about a kilometer away. They have built modern condos much closer to the dump if your looking to buy in San Francisco…
Wow this thing is so solid and so tall.
I keep forgetting that this is in America? It does not at all look like any American styling I've ever seen? Incredible episode Kirsten!
Wow I keep getting blown away with the historic value of this place with it being conducted by the timber from the boats! That means that the timber has already served an entire lifetime in a boat! That means that timber was harvested a very very very very long time ago 😲
The water is just amazing I love it
What a beautiful building. What is more beautiful is the lady in Blue! 🌷
So does someone still live here? What an amazing relic of SF!
absolutely incredible. so much history and preservation.
So with water shortages do the owners of this property own the water right as well? Pretty cool to have your own spring.
This is the definition of obscure and hidden. Even in the old picture you would never ever think such an awesome access to pure water would be 150ft under the ground where that building stands? It looks very inconspicuous and rather cute, but the truth is that it is elaborate and grand! So that's the hidden gem about this place and always has been.. That's why you can feel safe there because nobody would even take a second look because.......it kind of doesn't look like a castle? I know the proper castle only has remnants, but something about how innocuous it looks that's contributed to its longevity.
There were some very very intelligent people around in our past, so much so that it keeps reaffirming to me that something is lost or broken in our history? If not for that fresh water spring; everyone of us knows that thing would have been torn down! So I'm both glad and sad at that thought?
what a treasure you have , amazing , I love it
WOW, So Interesting, Thanx for the vid
Definitely not a castle. Seems like the true definition of a castle has been lost in time along with the true castles of the world.
Had one of the newer models (1986) with targa roof. Best car ever. Only thing I missed was a 5 speed gearbox instead of 4.
Always got me where I needed to go in any condition.
This is the most interesting historical and coolest house and property of all time
I am a native San Franciscan (born and raised) Sunset district 11th ave and Lincoln way. I was not aware of this place until now. The water is amazing!
Absolutely amazing. I've owned a house in San Francisco for 60 years and I had no idea anything like this existed in the City. Having said that, even though San Francisco is geographically pretty small, I've rarely gone to Hunters Point in all these years, I'd say it and the Tenderloin are considered the two worst neighborhoods in the city. The place really does seem like another world.
San Francisco is much older then HIStory says
Thanks for this. Fascinating. A 3D model of structure and water storage areas would be nice to see.
Wow, hidden gem alright and kudos to the lady navigating all the wet floors in high wedge shoes 😮🙈
That water supply is incredible.
Not sure which was more stunning, you or the castle!
Looks old world. Pre-reset.
Very interesting thanks for posting the video. M
That place looks way older than 100+ years its crazy
This is a beautiful place. But the owners don't seem to know the exact history of it .....that is very curious!!! If anything drastic happens people will be climbing your walls to get water.
Not sure they are the actual owners or employees of the owner?
Sounds like an inheritance scenario. The ephemeral owners (visitors) pass, the eternal house lives. Thanks for the fascinating tour!
Love it 😮
It's a piece art work..
So COOL!!! 💚
Incredible house! I would love to live there! The water supply itself is priceless! 1867 dynamite was invented. Before that black powder was used for blasting. I wonder if these guys had a little help using explosives initially? So fun to think about. True craftsmanship is seen throughout their structure within the original buildings and what was added in the late 1930’s. Thanks for highlighting this unique and pleasant surprise. These folks are really lucky. ❤️
Thankfully I got to explore 19 Clarendon on Twin Peaks before they tore it down. It had the rustic walls, high ceilings and Spanish style, Mediterranean type . Old SF had some fine palaces! I think maybe lots of speak-easy places during prohibition.
Amazing!
Something felt off about the vibe with the owners in this video, which led me down an internet rabbit hole in which I discovered that this castle is just down the street from the most toxic superfund site in the entire country. During the early Cold War, Navy ships and materials involved in nuclear testing in the South Pacific were brought back stateside for radioactivity research at Hunter's Point, (which is adjacent to where this castle stands) and were subsequently dumped into a landfill on the edge of shipyard at sea level. This landfill is a short walk from the castle, and many residents and workers in this neighborhood have tested positive for radioactive isotopes and heavy metals, and of course suffer from rare cancers. The abandoned Navy shipyard was officially declared a superfund site in 2016, and remediation efforts have been mired fraud and corruption, with the City of San Francisco facing state mandated pressure to develop the entire shipyard into a new neighborhood with 12,000 new homes by 2030. All this to say, I don't think that wonderful spring water is safe to drink.
At first I was concerned about this superfund site contaminating the ground water, and then I realized it is per your own words "at sea level" Last time I checked nuclear isotopes contaminating ground water does not flow uphill. This place is several hundred feet above sea level so I really do not believe it is going to contaminate that spring water feeding these cisterns. Also Kirsten already says in her notes that this water can not be contaminated, I imagine due to the geology of the surrounding area.
@allaboutboats the point about gravity being enough to contain the radiation contamination is not correct.
The stuff can literally go through the air.
There is simply no way to minimize the significance of proximity and radiation.
I imagine the hot chicks parents who bought the place in 2012 to make it a water bottling Manufacturing plant, found out that their water was not workable.
Ain't nobody gonna buy bottled water that is drawn next door to a Superfund cleanup, let alone atomic bomb radiation leftovers.
@@allaboutboatswhen was the last time you checked? Radio isotopes are anisotropic.
That is something you can personally check with a radiation detector if you are concerned.
yes....decided to review comments because I also percieved something awkward about this vid...odd
Maybe they used blasting to help tunnel, if it was hard granite.
San Francisco is a really fascinating geological region, with many rock types, I believe
Probably. This would have been dug 20 years after the gold rush and they used explosives back then. Steam drills as well. Then they hand finished with picks.
Now that's what I call a Grotto!! ~~splish splash~~
Great place. The rest of it needs to be restored as well for living or entertaining.
The SF Armory was also built over water. It runs through the basement. Not many people know about that because there is no 'running river' going through the Mission District. I was able to tour it when it was privately owned. Such neat things in SF.
The old historic photo of that building shows that that building is already ancient!
I couldn't help but chuckle a little bit every time they made the dramatic "dug it out by hand, oh!" ... well, yeah ... but I'm CERTAIN there were also explosives involved. Lol 😂 😊
Very cool to know this tidbit of sf history.
Literally surrounded by the Hunters Point housing projects!!!
Seriously. And very close to the Banya. I've parked my car just past there many times and didn't know it was there.
@@kryscat5481 I just learned about the banya while looking at google maps, though it doesn't look like much from the outside.
Yeah pretty crazy...
they`ll soon regret this video
Fascinating! I lived in the area where this property is located and never knew it existed! No mention that the property backs up to the housing projects where OJ Simpson grew up.
Interesting that those tunnels appear to be located directly under some of SF's worst housing projects. I'm not an expert on rock, but that looks like it might be the same kind of (I think serpentine) that is under Nob Hill.
Yea lots of serpentine at Waterdog Park in Belmont too
I remember Zac Bagans doing a show on this place . Its dupposed to be haunted by some kind of a guardian spirit that protects the spring waters. Interesting stuff for sure. Pretty place. 😊
What??? I had no idea too. Grew up in the Bay Area. WOW
Very cool