Now I know the expression "Gilded Age" and when it was. I wish I knew more about architecture. In the last year or two I've looked at fronts of buildings and the details, because I wanted to use them in drawings. I guess Collinwood should have been fairly new when Quentin was born. It did look wrong in 1795 somehow. Then, in PT 1692 (?)... !! Brutus just looked ridiculous sitting there in the Drawing Room.
The Collinses had their business in Maine. No airplanes, no freeways. You don't get to be bi-coastal or to even speed down to Boston whenever you like in... whenever the Old House was originally built, or even Collinwood. They had to be there to make their money.
The size of Collinwood is a mystery... I wonder if Maine has any mansions going back that far. Come to think of it, that's the biggest damn house i've ever seen in my life, and in any era, only a handful of people live there, and they all hang out in one small room right next to the front door. They keep both wings closed and just use the middle bit.