Warehouse 13 (Facility)

Warehouse 13
The Warehouse
General information
Type	Secret Storage Facility
Location	Built into mountainside in canyon in South Dakota Badlands; 7 miles from Univille, South Dakota
Inhabitants	Artie Nielson
Personnel	List of Warehouse Personnel Artie Nielson Pete Lattimer Myka Bering Irene Frederic Claudia Donovan Steve Jinks
Designed by	Thomas Edison Nikola Tesla M. C. Escher

Warehouse 13 is a massive, top-secret storage facility in South Dakota that houses supernatural artifacts, mysterious relics, and supernatural souvenirs collected by the U.S. Government. Warehouse 13 is the 13th iteration of the Warehouse, with other iterations having existed throughout history. The current Warehouse is also known as K39ZZZ on the North American Grid, but is affectionately dubbed "America's Attic" by the Warehouse boss, Arthur Nielsen. However, due to this being the nickname for the Smithsonian, Agent Claudia Donovan has suggested that it needs a new name. Agent Peter Lattimer has suggested the nickname, "The World's Junk Drawer", with Claudia herself offering both the "Library of Crazy", and her favorite, "Artifact Roadshow" and Artie calling it "America's Attic". Warehouse 13 is commonly (at least in Univille) believed to be an IRS warehouse facility that stores everyone's tax returns. This was revealed to Pete, Myka and Claudia in season 2 episode 3, "Beyond Our Control".

History

Throughout history, the Warehouse has not had a permanent location. It moves at the whim of the Regents, through the use of Hiram Abiff's Tools, to the geographical location of whichever empire or power seems to be leading the world at that time. Because the United States has been the power center of the world for the last hundred years, the Warehouse has been located in North America. At various times in the past, the Warehouse has been located in England, Russia, Asia, Mesopotamia, Egypt, and Rome. One example of the Warehouse in the past would be the ancient Library of Alexandria. Artie believes that Warehouse 13 was built in 1898 and that it first warehouse burned down due to a lack of knowledge on how to "store stuff." While it may be true that an artifact or more may have caused the destruction of the first Warehouse 13, the 13th iteration of the Warehouse first appeared on American soil in 1914.

The fire that destroyed the original Warehouse 13 also killed the Caretaker. The previous Caretaker's sister, Irene Frederic, took her place from then on.

Although little is known about previous warehouses, Mrs. Frederic implies that all of the previous Warehouses were burned to ashes. This is revealed to be untrue when Warehouse 2 reactivates. Warehouse 2 was actually buried, literally, by its agents to prevent Julius Caesar from obtaining its artifacts when he invaded Egypt. The current choice of location for the Warehouse may have been at least in part an attempt to contain an artifact rather than an effort to maintain the anonymity of its location.

The Current Warehouse

Warehouse 13 circa 1961

The current version of the Warehouse, Warehouse 13, is located just outside Univille, South Dakota. Originally it was more steam-punk based.

Warehouse Features

The Warehouse is lit by a massive series of electrical "Shelby" light bulbs invented by Adolph Chaillet at the beginning of the 20th century.

The Warehouse's walls are lined with a special mineral called Painite. It reacts violently with a certain compound injected into banished Warehouse Agents to prevent them from coming back to the Warehouse by turning their blood acidic, eating through their veins. Before James McPherson was exiled, he was injected with the serum. ("Time Will Tell")

The Warehouse sports a zip-line system, which allows Warehouse agents quick access within the main storage area. Attached to this is a specialized sprinkler system. Artifacts in the Warehouse generate a certain amount of electricity and from time to time that electricity discharges itself inside the Warehouse. These discharges, while mostly harmless, can be seen shooting through the Warehouse in random locations. In order to help combat these roaming balls of electricity Warehouse agents sometime employ the help of Vyasa's Jade Elephant which has the power to absorb the rogue balls of electricity and safely transfer them to portable battery packs. When entering the artifact storage section of the Warehouse it is important not to lose control of your emotions as some artifacts in the Warehouse are extremely sensitive to high emotional energy. The sprinkler system can be directed to the coordinates of the negative energy and flood the area with neutralizer.

The Warehouse has a multi-tiered security system protecting it from outside attack and inside disturbance. Entrance to the warehouse is partially controlled by retinal scanners keyed to warehouse personnel. It also contains a computer-controlled alarm system. Although incredibly sophisticated, young genius Claudia Donovan circumvented this alarm system in order to kidnap Artie Nielsen and force him to help her bring her brother, Joshua Donovan, back from a temporal loop that trapped him while he was attempting to use Rheticus' Compass. The security system can also be used by gatherers from inside in case of emergency within. Artie's Computer System likely controls a great portion of the security system in the warehouse. The alarm system includes voice notification of security problems; the voice notifications have the voice of Mrs. Frederic.

Mrs. Frederic also requested that Eureka's Douglas Fargo, head of Global Dynamics, go to the Warehouse and update the computer systems. During this time he accidentally activated the security A.I. HUGO-1

The Warehouse is also protected by the Regents. The Remati Shackle, currently worn by Jane Lattimer, was created by Genghis Khan as a last line of defense. When the Warehouse is threatened, the Shackle creates a large impenetrable force-field around the Warehouse until the danger passes.

There's also a back door into the Warehouse. About a mile south of the Warehouse is a rock wall with a special symbol on it. This was the original entrance for Warehouse 9 in Constantinople and it also inspired the story of Alibaba and the 40 Thieves ("behind this door lies boundless treasure"). The only way to open the door is to say "open sesame" in Arabic ("iftah ya simsim"). If you do get the door open you'll walk down a hall way and reach a room with 3 doors, only one of which will take you to the Warehouse The others will take you to your doom.

Warehouse Personnel

For a simple, alphabetic list of personnel, see Warehouse Personnel.

At present, the enigmatic Mrs. Frederic oversees all operations involving the Warehouse. Artie Nielsen serves as Warehouse supervisor and senior Warehouse agent, with Claudia Donovan beginning her tenure as his de facto apprentice before coming into her own as an agent, and accepting the role as the next Caretaker after Mrs. Frederic. Agents Pete Lattimer, Myka Bering, and the lately-introduced Steve Jinks chase down reports of supernatural and paranormal activities in search of new objects to cache at the Warehouse and help control the Warehouse itself. Leena, while the proprietor of the bed and breakfast that carried her name, frequently worked in the Warehouse in a passive agent role, though her ability to read the auras of objects, places, and people lent itself to work in the field alongside the other agents. She was also responsible for helping place the artifacts such that their energy wouldn't cause any disturbances amongst each other. Also, midway during the third season, the Warehouse 'adopted' a dog, Trailer. Due to a connection made by Mr. Mental and Coco's fezzes, Trailer has a certain psychic bond with Artie. After Leena's tragic death at the hands of Ferdinand Magellan's Astrolabe, Abigail Cho, the Keeper for Warehouse 13, was approached by the Regents and was placed at the Warehouse as the new and operator of the B&B, as well as a therapist for the agents in the aftermath of the Astrolabe's work.

Falken-Scott Protocol

An emergency defense system programmed into the Warehouse 13 computer that changes the room temperature of the Warehouse to subzero in order to preserve the artifacts and destroy all intruders. It was activated in "13.1" by Hugo 1 after Fargo attempted to reboot the Warehouse 13 computer. After Hugo 1 analyzed the current state of the Warehouse he determined that the biggest threat the Warehouse was the agents who work there and attempted to freeze them all to death by use of Falken-Scott Protocol. However, Hugo 1 was deactivated and the Falken-Scott Protocol was aborted by Artie before anyone was hurt.

This protocol may be a reference to the Antarctic Terra Nova Expedition made by Robert Falcon Scott in 1910-13. Scott was attempting to reach the South Pole before Roald Amundsen. However, Amundsen arrived first, and Scott's party of five (Scott and four others) perished due to starvation, exhaustion, and extreme cold.

Warehouse Layout

The Warehouse, a massive metal and stone structure, provides storage for both artifacts and items of significance to Warehouse operations. It includes a variety of rooms, most of which exist underground, and each with different purposes.

Special Sections

See: Warehouse 13 (Facility)/Special Sections

Artie's Office

The first area reached after the Umbilicus to the Warehouse is Artie's office. This room houses the Warehouse's office as well as the main power and the central alarm system used in cases of emergencies. Along the wall to the right and rear of the desk are two massive filing cabinets. The first wall of drawers resembles an old library card catalog. The second has yet to be identified.

The main office contains an extensive card catalog pertaining to a wide range of subjects, including people and events that may be possible origins for artifacts, and what objects may have originated from them, such as the USS Eldridge's "Philadelphia Experiment" or the armor of the 300 Spartans from the Battle of Thermopylae.

In one corner, a small kitchenette sits in an alcove and includes a refrigerator and coffee maker. Directly next to the kitchenette is a metal, circular staircase leading to an upper level.

The upper level serves as Artie's living quarters and includes several full book cases with display screens, a bed with two nightstands, a hammock, and a couch. This living space likely exists out of necessity, as being the Warehouse's supervisor requires Artie to be available to solve any issues that arise at all times.

Manual Room

A room on the ground floor of the Warehouse that houses the entire Warehouse Manual. Given the Warehouse's extensive and detailed history, the manual comprises of presumably hundreds of volumes, enough to completely fill several bookcases.

Restricted Files Room

Mrs. Frederic inside the Restricted Files Room

A secret room located in Artie's Office that contains files that are only supposed to be read by either Mrs. Frederic or The Regents. Artie only recently discovered this room exists because this room appears to be just an ordinary supply closet, but when a special device that the Regents and Mrs. Frederic have is placed over the door knob it reveals the Restricted Files Room. In the episode "All the Time in the World", Mrs. Frederic checked the restricted files for the reason Warehouse 9 bronzed Paracelsus because Artie couldn't find the reason in the regular Warehouse files. However, for some reason even the Restricted Files didn't have any record of the reason.

Warehouse Filing Room

On the right side of Artie's office is located a room full of various kinds of documents and files, among other things. When it was first seen, Artie described it as housing files on every Warehouse agent of the past 200 years or so. It has since been expanded to house various other things like scrolls and illustrations (such as one depicting Joshua's Trumpet), among many other documents. Agents have used this room to research documents and files taken from other locations (such as the Ancient Archives) on multiple occasions.

Artifact Storage

For a list of specific artifacts stored in the Warehouse, see the main article, List of Artifacts and Gadgets.

A coordinate grid mapping system locates each artifact stored in the Warehouse, though no clear indication is given of the reason for the organization of the grid itself. The grid system may be indicated by large, yellow circles on the floor of the main storage area that contain letters and numbers in them. The coordinate mapping system doesn't seem to be related to the actual organization of the artifacts, however. Artifacts appear to be placed in the Warehouse based on overall balance of energies and locations added to the Warehouse computer system after placement, rather than a grid location found first and the item placed there second.

Every aisle is given a name and at the beginning and end of each there should be a sign indicating what aisle that is. An aisle's name will sometimes have something to do with what artifacts are kept in it, such as the Aisle of Noel, the Aisle of the Widow's Son, the Musical Aisle, the Great Depression Aisle, and the Schoningen Armory. However, most sections seem to be named after towns, cities, and other such locations, like Allentown-22C, Cape Kakiviak 04, and Valecito 0974-216.

Despite careful placement, artifacts in the Warehouse frequently appear to move on their own (in theory towards anyone who is metaphysically predisposed). Regular screenings every decade ensure items remain where they are recorded to have been located last. Although Warehouse personnel can walk or ride through the Warehouse to retrieve or store artifacts, in emergencies they can strap into a harness and use a zip-line system to travel to specific Warehouse coordinates quickly.

Due to the large number of artifacts, and the psychic turbulence each artifact generates, the aisles of the Warehouse occasionally generate 'static', which Artie assures is harmless. Despite this claim, he warns the agents to 'duck and cover' as soon at it appears. The static manifests careening orbs of ball-lightning that carom off the shelves and support columns of the Warehouse, seemingly without direction or purpose.

When in the Artifact storage area it is important not to touch anything and not to go in the storage area with high emotions. The artifacts can pick up on a person's negative energy and accidentally activate.

Artifacts tend to be stored in a multitude of ways, the reason of which is uncertain. Most artifacts are seemingly shelved together at random, with objects typically not relating to each other at first glance; they are, in fact, stored based on their aural and emotional context and how well artifacts respond to location, other artifacts, and how well they balance out with the auras of other artifacts (examples include how Leena states the opposing energies of Bobby Jones' Golf Clubs and Buddy Rich's Drums would "cancel each other out"; when shelving the Honjo Masamune, Leena places the sword at a seemingly random location, stating "this feels right"; in Personal Effects, Leena emphasizes that the Headphones should not be stored next to the Senufo Kpelie Mask; the Norge Porthole was initially shelved with a Potted Vine, the RC Racing Car, and Leonardo da Vinci's Gargoyle).

However, artifacts are also shelved in a more immediately coherent fashion on occasion. The Aisle of Noel includes artifacts specifically related to Christmas and other Winter holidays; in Love Sick, there is a collection of brush artifacts in a section seemingly relating to art or animation (even if the brushes are not for such purpose), such as Walt Disney's Paintbrush, Marilyn Monroe's Hairbrush, and Airbrushes from Disney Studios; in There's Always a Downside, Artie shelves Bobby Fischer's Bag of Marbles with a collection of other chess-related artifacts such as several boards.

Storage Sections

See: Warehouse 13 (Facility)/Storage Sections

Ferret Kennel

When the Wish Granting Kettle was first brought to the Warehouse, this artifact was implied to have been overly abused by the agents there, causing numerous ferrets to run rampant in the Warehouse. It can be assumed this kennel was made to house these ferrets, to stop them from being a nuisance in the Warehouse. It is possible that Pete the Ferret was sent there, seeing as he seemingly disappeared from the show.

Expansion Joints

“

Claudia: (Sarcastically) Great! That explains everything except for the part where you said THE WAREHOUSE AUTOMATICALLY EXPANDS!? Artie: That's right, surprise!

”

Huge joints built into the Warehouse that automatically expand and increase the size of the Warehouse in order to make room for more artifacts. The joints were originally designed by Albert Einstein and their mechanics are based on his theory of relativity. The joints absorb energy from artifacts in the Warehouse and convert that energy into matter, which is used as building material for further Warehouse expansion. Because the joints are powered by artifacts they're self-sustaining; when the joints absorb energy from artifacts they use that energy to make more room for more artifacts which in turn provide even more energy for the joints. In the episode "Instinct" the Gold Spike from the Trans-Continental Railroad became stuck in the joints and because of that the joints weren't converting energy into matter like they were suppose to, but they were still absorbing artifact energy which meant that eventually the joints would become overloaded and explode taking the whole Warehouse with them. However, due to the quick thinking of Claudia Donovan and her Goo-zooka the spike was neutralized and the joints returned to their normal function.

Secret Entrance to the Warehouse

The Secret Entrance opening.

This secret entrance to the Warehouse is a large stone cliff in Constantinople. Part of the cliff features a small ledge. The ledge is the original entrance to Warehouse 9 and was the inspiration for the story of Ali Baba and the Forty Thieves. To open the wall, which splits open down the middle, you must say "Open sesame" in Arabic - "Iftah ya simsim." After the opening of the original external door, there is another security door which one would have to pass through. After that, there are three doors, but only one (on the left when the agents use this entrance in The Greatest Gift) leads to the Warehouse. It is unknown what the other two do, but it is implied to be very bad as when Claudia asked Artie what happens, he simply replied with "Don't."

According to Pete, MacPherson used it to smuggle HG Wells out of the Warehouse.

This secret entrance appeared in The Greatest Gift when Pete, Myka, Artie, and Claudia were trying to get into the Warehouse to get the artifact Philip Van Doren Stern's Upholstery Brush which affected Pete. They were able to get in thanks to Myka's skill in speaking Arabic, Claudia's skill in computers, Pete's vibes, and the fact that Artie knew it existed and where it was in the first place.

Unloading Dock

Whenever many artifacts are received simultaneously, such as when Warehouse 2 was uncovered, they are temporarily stored in the unloading dock until they can all be shelved.

Alternate Version of Warehouse 13

In "Endless Terror", Paracelsus combined H.G. Wells' Time Machine, Pierre-Simon Laplace's Telescope, Theodsius of Bithynia's Sun Dial, and Karl Schwarzschild's Pocket Watch to open a portal back in time. Paracelsus went back to the day he was bronzed, June 10, 1541, and killed all the Regents of Warehouse 9. In doing so, Paracelsus dramatically changed history. After the death of the Regents of Warehouse 9, the Caretaker of Warehouse 9, Paracelsus, decided that from that point on one man should have complete authority over the Warehouse and that man should be him. As such, no Regents were ever appointed again after Warehouse 9 and Paracelsus became Caretaker for Warehouses 9 through 13. 

Alternate Warehouse 13

In this alternate version, the Warehouse is used as a high tech research facility, instead of the steam-punk aesthetic and various chambers for the experimentation of various artifacts on people. This alternate Warehouse has been the world leader in the field of human experimentation for centuries. The advanced computer system is run by the Alternate Version of Abigail Cho, which is integrated into her mind. Somehow, Paracelsus replicated artifacts to make an army of super soldiers to protect and guard

Claudia using computer

the warehouse, the two artifacts he replicated were Chester Moore Hall's Achromatic Lens and The Spine of the Saracen. Once Paracelsus was stopped and the timeline was restored, the Warehouse went back to its original state.