Why the Victorian mansion is a horror icon

The Gilded Age left a legacy of decay on the American landscape.

Haunted houses are often depicted with similar features: decaying woodwork, steep angles, and Gothic-looking towers and turrets. The model for this trope is the Victorian mansion, once a symbol of affluence and taste during the Gilded Age - a period of American history marked by political corruption and severe income inequality.

After World War I, these houses were seen as extravagant and antiquated, and were abandoned. Their sinister relationship to the troubling end of the Victorian Era in America eventually led to their depiction as haunted and ghostly in both fine art and pop culture, and is now an unspoken symbol of dread.

[jonesnj]

*We should preserve these buildings, we'll never build anything up to par again*

[mossara]

I lived in a Victorian house with my family (specifically my grandparents, they raised my dad and his 6 siblings there because it was so big) for a good chunk of my childhood. It wasn’t nearly as large, but it did have all of the ornate details and windows. We were never allowed in the parlor, and my grandfather was constantly painting and repainting the outside. The inside was... musty. It was old and they were old so nothing was ever really changed. I tend to look at them as comforting and homey, but for a good while I did think it was haunted. Always felt like someone was watching me go up the first floor stairs.

[devox]

Ok, dude. Great video, but DONT need the jump scares!

[rat]

But can we all agree that these houses are a work of art.

There should be a revival of this style (mostly because there were very hazardous things in these houses, but with the knowledge we have nowadays, we can make beautiful and safe houses)

[Chris_Wald]

4:50 So I sometimes watch Vox informational videos to help put me to sleep; thanks for that ending...

[dgcclan]

Those are not "the Victorian", those are second empire Victorian. There are several different styles of Victorian, gothic, queen Anne, colonial revival (quite austere), and the transitional styles into the edwardian period.
They didn't fall out of fashion because of a backlash against the rich. That would imply the upper class were replaced by a new upper class, They weren't. Once the ornamentation of the Victorians
became so ubiquitous that even the poor were adding gingerbread brickabrack to the gables and doorways, the rich saw their own stuff as declassé and responded with cleaner styles, styk, mission, craftsman, then eventually deco.

[taniadutta]

Don’t. EVER. Do. That. Jump. Scare. AGAIN

[michaelwhittaker]

The premise of the video is a little too simplistic. Don’t forget that the horror genre in reading came of age in the 19th century as did spiritualism.
The Winchester Mansion is a great example of spiritualism and architecture colliding.
Also to note is; in a land without castles an imposing mansion is the next best thing.

[Aaa-hosq]

I think these victorian mansions are creepy because of the feeling of being closed off and the fact that those mansions have so much space inside that they hide- like something must be in there; the mansions disguise that by showing off a beautiful exterior, but it tries too hard and comes off as "grotesque", suggesting something about it is a little off. Like an alien or a robot trying really hard to pretend to be human.

They are also kind of similar to houses we already know, they aren't from too long ago. So they aren't as removed from the present as something like a castle. But they are still from long enough ago that they are unfamiliar and even foreign, despite having existed in areas we still live.

And of course they are big and intimidating.

[ICNC]

Another interesting fact is that in the depression era, when these homes were abandoned, folks told stories and spread rumors, to keep kids from going in.

[vanessasunsetvalley]

These houses are more beautiful than modern ones

[weaselingrentler]

I actually like and want to live in a old victorian house.

[ThisisBarris]

This is why I don't believe in ghosts - they are all old and Victorian.


Why isn't there any ghosts of 12 years old pre-teens that died in the 2000s in a Canadian Tuxedo listening to Britney Spears?

[Ace-]

And an old Victorian still remains my dream home. Someday I can afford one, and she will be beautiful. Someday...

[nephildevil]

"Morbidly antisocial and mysteriously wealthy" --- I like the sound of that 💀🎩🧐😜

[voscra]

Jumpscare at the end, please be prepapred if you're watching this at 3AM like me.

[tstercula]

This doesn't really address the associations that Victorian culture had with death before it became passé. I certainly like the Marxist take, but those people were obsessed with death. It was ingrained in the culture. It makes sense why death would be associated with their houses.

[Stevenson]

Yes... But what about Poe‘s „Fall of the house of Usher“ and Collins‘ „Woman in White“? Both established the Voctorian House as places of gothic horror before Addams did.

[sparklingdaisy]

I want a house like this. Whenever I pictured my dream house it was always a Victorian style house.

[HarryInEdi]

4:50 Come on, man.... This is a vox video, and it should lull me into enlightened bliss.