On Taking Up Residence in Collinsport

[Bob_the_Bartender]

Hey, gang,

No doubt, many lifelong fans of Dark Shadows have fantasized at one time or another about actually living in the mythical New England fishing village of Collinsport, Maine.  (I know I have!)  And if you've ever travelled to Maine, you know what an incredibly beautiful state Maine truly is, especially at this time of year. 

However, if by some Twilight Zone-like twist of fate or fortune, you were able to become a resident of Collinsport, where would you like to set up digs?  I suppose many Dark Shadows fans/cousins would select the great house of Collinwood as their first choice of residence.  And, many others might want to settle down in the Collins family's first home, that of the Old House.

Perhaps other fans/cousins might opt for one of the smaller residences on the Collins estate, including Matthew Morgan's old cottage, the carriage house (where the newlyweds Jeb and Carolyn Hawks lived for a brief time); then there's the House-by-the-Sea (which warlock Nicholas Blair rented from the Collins family for several months), and I believe, Seaview, where Vicky and Burke were eventually going to move into after they were married.  (Alas, we know that that never happened.)

Other possibilities include the quaint and cozy Evans cottage, which, I believe, was KLS' favorite set on the show.  You know, we never actually got to see the second floor of the Evans cottage.  (It always struck me as funny that Sam and Maggie had their bedrooms on the first floor of the cottage.  I'd have thought that their bedrooms would have been on the second floor?)

Of course, there's always the McGruder Mansion, which we got to see during Dark Shadows' final year on the air.  That place (and I mean the real one and not the replica in the playroom) always looked like a Ken & Barbie dollhouse.  And, then there were the apartment buildings in which Prof. Stokes, Joe Haskell, Tony Peterson and Jeff Clark lived in.  While Prof. Stokes and Tony Peterson's apartments didn't look bad, it looked to as if both Joe Haskell and Jeff Clark lived in flophouses.

As to my own preference, well, I think that Collinwood, as magnificent as it was, was just too darned big.  (And, I'd always be concerned that I might accidentally walk into one of Collinwood's many secret passage ways, and get hopelessly lost, when I was anxiously "searching" for a "water closet" at about four in the morning!)    And, let's not even talk about how much it must have cost to keep the lights, water, heating, etc., on in Collinwood!  

On the other hand, as cool as the Old House is, I don't think that I could ever handle the lack of electricity, hot-and-cold running water, central heating and air conditioning, but MOST of all, I don't think that I could EVER get used to "employing" the chamber pots and outdoor out house(s) which Banabas and Willie, no doubt, made frequent use of.  (I venture to say that the lack of "facilities" in the Old House had to have been the toughest thing for poor Willie to accept/adjust to after he went to "work" for Mr. B.)

Oh yeah, there is also the late, lamented Dr. Eric Lang's house, which looks incredibly like the late, unlamented Rev. Gregory Trask's boarding school of Worthington Hall.  (Dr. Lang's house also kind of reminds me of Herman Munster's homestead at 1313 Mockingbird Lane in Mockingbird Heights, USA, but I digress.)

So, I have to say that I like both the Evans cottage and the House-by-the-Sea, but I'd have to go with Nicholas Blair's former Collinsport residence.  The thought of living by the sea is very appealing to me (barring any future Hurricanes Katrina or Sandy hitting the East coast.)  And, the prospect of living in that isolated house with neither noisy nor nosy neighbors around to annoy me is EXTREMELY appealing!!!

So, which Collinsport/Collinwood house (or apartment) would you like to live in?

Bob   

       

[dom]

I'll take up permanent residence in the one place you failed to mention, Burke's old suite at the Collinsport Inn, but only because the Blue Whale has no sleeping quarters.

[MagnusTrask]

Petofi's lair, maybe.  It's about time I had a lair.

[Bob_the_Bartender]

I'll take up permanent residence in the one place you failed to mention, Burke's old suite at the Collinsport Inn, but only because the Blue Whale has no sleeping quarters.

Dom,

Yes, Burke's suite in the Collinsport Inn did look pretty good.  However, that room Chris Jennings stayed in at the Collinsport Inn seemed about as "appealing" as one of rooms of those "slightly" sleazy hotels just off 42nd Street in New York City.  (And as the late, great George Carlin once observed about 42nd Street: "They call it 42nd Street because that's about as much time as you'd want to spent there, forty seconds!")

MT,

I agree that Count Petofi's "lair" was kind of cool.  It also reminded me of Dr. Cyrus Longworth's laboratory, minus that iron spiral starcase in the good doctor's lab.

And, what about Barnabas' hideout at, I believe, Shipwreck Cove?  That place seemed to be just the least bit damp and chilly to be comfortable.

Bob

PS Do you think the house that Nicholas Blair was living in during his return to keep an eye on Jeb Hawks and to supervise the success of the Leviathan plot was located on the grounds of the Collinwood estate or was the house located somewhere else in Collinsport?  I don't think that it was ever made clear where that house was exactly situated?   

[DarkLady]

Great topic, Bob--thanks for starting this thread!

I think I'd like Seaview. I've always loved the sound of waves, and I think that once the place was cleaned up a bit, and modern appliances and electricity installed, I could be very content there.

It seemed to me that Stokes lived in a house--13 Arrowhead Road seems more private than an apartment building.

Joe's room (which bore a remarkable resemblance to Paul Stoddard's room) was, I believe, in a boardinghouse, which would have been much more respectable than a flophouse. And anyway, Elizabeth would never let the hand-picked fiancé of Carolyn Collins Stoddard live in a flophouse. But I suspect that Buffie Harrington's room was just a step above the flophouse level, poor thing.

The idea of a lair is appealing, but all that stonework would make for a lot of damp.

I think Nicholas probably arranged to resume his residence at the House by the Sea, maybe by making an offer the current tenant couldn't refuse--not a horse's head but lots of cash.

What about the studio of Charles Delaware Tate in Cornith Bend? Or the underground lair where John Yaeger hid Maggie Collins in PT?

[Uncle Roger]

My first choice would be the Evans cottage. It's cute, centrally located and apparently expands to accommodate company. If parallel time choices are allowed, then I would opt for Loomis House, all the rustic charm if the old house with electricity and indoor plumbing.

[Gerard]

If I lived in Collinsport back then, I'd like maybe a one-bedroom place, or even a studio like what Mary Richards had in Minneapolis when she lived in Phyllis' house.  It would all be affordable, which would be necessary because what type or work would be available in Collinsport?

Gerard

[MagnusTrask]

Wasn't Tate supposed to be a previous occupant of the Evans house?   I know the Tate place [spoiler]burned down,[/spoiler] but that would have been just one out of many screwings-up of history at that point.

[Bob_the_Bartender]

If parallel time choices are allowed, then I would opt for Loomis House, all the rustic charm if the old house with electricity and indoor plumbing.

Uncle Roger,

Loomis House is an excellent choice for a place of residence!  By the way, you'd have thought that Barnabas, while he was "staying" with Will and Carolyn, would have realized how much better the Old House was with all of the modern conveniences in the place.   

I mean, IF Roxanne had been able to transcend the barrier between the two time periods, I'd think that she would like to live in a house with Barnabas which featured all that 1970 had to offer in the way of state of the art technology.  (And, of course, Mr. B. should have been delighted to furnish his true ladylove with absolutely anything she desired.) 

As to the real Old House, I've always wondered how Barnabas was able to accommodate all of his relatives and friends from Collinwood, after the bad ghost of Quentin had scared them all out of the great house?  With bedrooms for Barnabas, Willie, and, certainly Josette's lavish bedroom, just how many other bedrooms were in the place?

Finding bedroom space for Mrs. Stoddard, Roger, Carolyn, David, Amy, Maggie, Mrs. Johnson and Harry must have been a daunting task for Barnabas.   And, I can just bet that someone as "amiable" and "good-natured" as Roger was, would be absolutely "thrilled" to put up with the total lack of "modern conveniences" during his prolonged stay at the Old House.

Incidentally, what if Adam happened to show up at Collinwood after several years absence and found the great house of Collinwood entirely abandoned?  As he wandered through the deserted wings of Collinwood, would he say to himself: "What the 'expletive-deleted" happened here!?!"

Bob

[DarkLady]

Magnus, I meant Tate's house in Cornith Bend, apparently far from Collinsport, where [spoiler]Julia and Chris Jennings go to see him in the hope of getting him to paint a portrait for Chris that would have the same Dorian Grey–type powers that Quentin's portrait does. At that point, Tate is an extremely old man.[/spoiler]

[Janet the Wicked]

I'll take up permanent residence in the one place you failed to mention, Burke's old suite at the Collinsport Inn, but only because the Blue Whale has no sleeping quarters.

So would I. And I'd order hamburgers and containers of coffee every day for lunch.

[Uncle Roger]

Bob, you make a very interesting point about the small mob that has joined Barnabas at the old house for an indefinite stay. Why is everyone camping out there? Especially since the Blair house has all the amenities and is presumably unoccupied?

[Josette]

The 1795 family, Millicent and Daniel and the du Pres visitors, and servants were living in the Old House, so I assume there are sufficient bedrooms for the present day family.  I just always wondered if Barnabas had restored the rest of the house, but when they moved in, I figured he must have.

[KMR]

The 1795 family, Millicent and Daniel and the du Pres visitors, and servants were living in the Old House, so I assume there are sufficient bedrooms for the present day family.

I just finished watching the 1795 storyline, and often I found myself wondering how many bedrooms the Old House had. My goodness, they certainly had a lot of people living there! I assume the servants were on the third floor. But was there enough room on the second floor for everybody else??  There needed to be rooms for:  the family (5 rooms?--Joshua/Naomi, Aunt Abigail, Jeremiah, Barnabas, Sarah); the du Pres family (3 rooms?--Andre, Natalie, Josette); the cousins from New York (2 rooms?--Millicent, Daniel). That's 10 rooms!! Even if we assume some doubling up, like Jeremiah/Barnabas, Natalie/Millicent (yeah, right), that would be 8 rooms, which I don't think would fit on the second floor, at least going by the sizes of the rooms we did see.

[MagnusTrask]

From the front, the Old House doesn't look big, minus the pillars, but I assume it stretched back very far, and that the front end was the narrow end of a long rectangle.