Collinwood should be on MapQuest!

[Angelique Wins]

I know there's no official "Collinwood" layout, but because I'm working on my second DS    novel (  ok, Pansity, stop laughing.  My DS "NeverEnding Story."  Is that better?) I'm watching all the early episodes that I missed originally and looking for tidbits of information that might be used here or there:  little bits and pieces of family info...like the Amontillado that Jeremiah liked and the fact that the family owned a vineyard in Spain up until WWII, the old curmudgeon & confirmed bachelor Caleb Sayers Collins who owned the house that Vicki loved and didn't want anybody but a Collins to own it, and how Elizabeth offered the West Wing for Vicki and Burke to live in because it was a "completely independent unit."

I'm also interested in various "destinations" inside the house and one that I've tried to pin down is the LIBRARY.  I've decided that it's really the Collinwood Bookmobile.   I saw one episode where Elizabeth said she was going to get something from the library and she went out of the foyer to the doorway under the stairs.  Another time I saw Julia announce that she had left something in the library and was going to go get it and she headed up the stairs.  Today I just saw Dr. Woodward come into Collinwood [spoiler]all atwitter because he had figured out that Barn was a vampire.[/spoiler] (Yeah, ok, no big surprise--just practicing my "spoilerposting."  He announced to Vicki that he wanted to go to the library and use some of the family books.  Vicki told him where he could finde some special ones "in the library" that Julia had been working on.  They both mentioned several times about books in "the library" and then he headed off towards the study (which is apparently past the drawing room, and past the camera...)  Will somebody PARK the $&!#%  LIBRARY already?   LOL!!!!

Then again in that scene, I wonder if "library" was mistakenly said for "study"  because that's where he was and that's what Vicki said when she told Julia he was in there.  Ok, so the "LIBRARY" must span two floors then.  And Elizabeth was going to the downstairs part.  And Julia was headed to the upstairs part.  Maybe THAT's the ticket.  ("No ticket!"  Indiana Jones)  And then we'd have a dumbwaiter from one level to the other.  Maybe that's how Gabriel went from one floor to the next.  Of course [spoiler]WE KNOW he can walk, but nobody else did at Collinwood for YEARS and YEARS (except us, but we're special)[/spoiler]

We know there's the Tower Room and we saw a 'breakfast nook' in one of the early episodes.  Do we know how we got there?  LOL!

For my own sanity (or lack thereof ) I've worked on the architecture for "my" Collinwood, so I know where things are in my story.  In browsing through Bobubas's wonderful DS site, I saw a picture inside the 'real' Collinwood that showed the righthand corner room with the huge arched windows.  After finding out that this was originally the "Solarium," I looked for pictures of solariums that might have fit into the Collins family history and found a great one in Hawaii,  http://www.huinoeau.com/history.php  The room is in the style of the 1920s, and so in my story, I could not resist "restoring" the room to what Elizabeth remembererd from her childhood.

Any thoughts on what other rooms might have been around?  Or hiding out somewhere?    (Billiards?  Conservatory?  LIBRARY?  lol!) And how to get there?  LOL!   And any other cool bits of info?

Thanks!

P.S.  And thanks for the Mayonnaise Curses, Mrs. Johnson!!!!!! 

[Lydia]

The Tower Room is sort of a floating turret.  In 1795 (or 1796), Millicent and Nathan look at it from the drawing room window, but in 1897, Edward and Rachel have to go out onto the terrace to look at it.  One might hypothesize that a tree was planted around 1800 and grew fast enough and thick enough to block the view of the tower by 1897, but in Maine's climate I doubt it could be done.

The vineyard in Spain interests me.  I believe that Roger said it had been sold before World War II, i.e. around the time of the Spanish Civil War.  The Collinses being the fine businessmen that they were, I daresay they saw the war coming and sold it just before.  There's a good fanfic story waiting to be written about it.  BuzzH, now that you've done the American Civil War, maybe you could transfer your affections.

Today I just saw Dr. Woodward come into Collinwood [spoiler]all atwitter because he had figured out that Barn was a vampire.[/spoiler]

I love this description of Dr. Woodard.

[BuzzH]

BuzzH, now that you've done the American Civil War, maybe you could transfer your affections.

Lydia, did you buy my book?  (gee, I sound like KLS, LOL!  )

[BuzzH]

I know there's no official "Collinwood" layout

AW, I found your post very interesting!  I too have my own ideas about the layout of CW, and I've been to Seaview w/Bobubas and have been lucky enough to run around inside it, and around the grounds, several times!  There's a room there, room 211, that is my FAVORITE room!  In fact, in 1997 when I went there for the first time, Karlenfan, StarryAstrid and I joked w/Mr. & Mrs. Carey, the current owners of Seaview/The Carey Mansion, that we intended to move into that room. 

Anyway, the room is on the back of the house overlooking the back lawn and ocean/beach beyond.  It's above the solarium you speak of in fact.  The coolest thing about this room is it opens up onto a balcony of sorts that connects w/another room we couldn't get into.  But to help you get your bearings dear cousins, think of the standard opening, establishing shot of CW at the beginning of virtually every episode.  Start at the tower and move to your right.  This room is on the 2nd floor on the very CORNER of the house.  The balcony is to the right of this corner.  In my Bramwell/Catherine novel, this was their room.     In fact, I named my publication 'company' after this room, hence Room 211 Press! 

I agree CW and indeed, Collinsport, should be on MapQuest.  We know from early pre-Barnbas eps that it's close enough to Bangor to be reasonably gotten to and from in a day.  Elizabeth tells David one day about how Issac Collins came to the spot where he founded Colllinsport and that they were near Frenchman Bay.  So we can get an idea of where the fictional town is.     In fact, I think it's in Hanover County in Maine, or maybe it was Hancock, been a while since I looked at a map of Maine. 

[Angelique Wins]

There's a room there, room 211, that is my FAVORITE room!  In fact, in 1997 when I went there for the first time, Karlenfan, StarryAstrid and I joked w/Mr. & Mrs. Carey, the current owners of Seaview/The Carey Mansion, that we intended to move into that room.

Anyway, the room is on the back of the house overlooking the back lawn and ocean/beach beyond.  It's above the solarium you speak of in fact.  The coolest thing about this room is it opens up onto a balcony of sorts that connects w/another room we couldn't get into.  But to help you get your bearings dear cousins, think of the standard opening, establishing shot of CW at the beginning of virtually every episode.  Start at the tower and move to your right.  This room is on the 2nd floor on the very CORNER of the house.  The balcony is to the right of this corner.  In my Bramwell/Catherine novel, this was their room.     In fact, I named my publication 'company' after this room, hence Room 211 Press! 
 
I agree CW and indeed, Collinsport, should be on MapQuest.  We know from early pre-Barnbas eps that it's close enough to Bangor to be reasonably gotten to and from in a day.  Elizabeth tells David one day about how Issac Collins came to the spot where he founded Colllinsport and that they were near Frenchman Bay.  So we can get an idea of where the fictional town is.     In fact, I think it's in Hanover County in Maine, or maybe it was Hancock, been a while since I looked at a map of Maine. 

Cool post, BuzzH!  Thanks!!!  And that's so cool about room 211!  I actually had envisioned that the room above the solarium was part of a suite and one particular character (no spoilers here, lol!) is going to move into that suite.  I also read about the Carey Mansion that it has several attics that span each wing and the main house, so I used one of them in my story and built a dormer window that you can look out of and see the grounds, the ocean, cool view.  Of course, the view has got to be great from most every direction, but this was one of those scenes that just wrote itself.  Elizabeth tells a visitor of the best place to watch the sunrise and they go there.  (And see, if you look at the pic of Collinwood that we're used to, you can imagine the dormer window hidden behind one of the chimneys.  Elizabeth even explains where it is for the visitor's benefit.     I decided I liked the fountain on the wall in the solarium in Hawaii, so I put one in MY Collinwood.

As for location, I know they mention Rockport and Logansport, but I read something one of the writers said once, or maybe it was Dan Curtis.  Don't remember.  Anyway, they said that the model for Collinsport was Bar Harbor.  And if you look at Bar Harbor, it's very cool.  It's on Mount Desert Island which is mostly Acadia National Park.  And there's FRENCHMAN'S BAY right next door!!  Anyway, that's where I put "my" Collinsport.  Then you can look at the map and talk about other places nearby.  I found out that Bar Harbor was a stop on the Underground Railroad, and used that too.

It's so fun the way you can take in all this info, and 'POOF"  out comes a story!  To quote Harry (Potter, not Johnson), "It's like MAGIC!"

Judy

[BuzzH]

As for location, I know they mention Rockport and Logansport, but I read something one of the writers said once, or maybe it was Dan Curtis.  Don't remember.  Anyway, they said that the model for Collinsport was Bar Harbor. 

I heard that too, can't remember where, maybe Scrapbook Memories?

I found out that Bar Harbor was a stop on the Underground Railroad

Cool beans!  In my novel I have Bramwell and Catherine as big-time abolitionists who help runaway slaves by hiding them on the UR at CW. 

[dsgal1979]

I found this thread fascinating and just wanted to weigh in on it too.  My favorite part about Collinwood's location is the shrinking amount of distance throught time between the Old House and Collinwood.  In pre-Barnabas, it's a good 20 minute walk between the two.  Later, Julia can run between the two houses and it only takes about 5 minutes.  Off the top of my head, I can't think of other references but I know there are multiple different amounts of time that it takes between the two.  I realize this is a convention of story-telling but it's amusing to me nonetheless.  There are also multiple references on the amount of time it takes between Collinwood and Collinsport.

 

[BuzzH]

I found this thread fascinating and just wanted to weigh in on it too.  My favorite part about Collinwood's location is the shrinking amount of distance throught time between the Old House and Collinwood.  In pre-Barnabas, it's a good 20 minute walk between the two.  Later, Julia can run between the two houses and it only takes about 5 minutes. 

Same goes for the distance between Collinsport and Wyndecliffe.  When [spoiler]Sebastian is driving Maggie there at the end of KLS's run w/the show[/spoiler] they've been driving an hour and a 1/2 and are nearly there, according to Sebastian.  Yet [spoiler]Sarah and Maggie walked from Wyndecliffe to Collinsport, so obviously they moved it further out later in the series![/spoiler]   

In fact, someone asked KLS about this at a Fest once and she laughed and said, "Um, I think you'd better go to the writer's panel tomorrow and ask them." 

[Mark Rainey]

Tangentially related, perhaps -- a good many years back, in the mid-90s, I used to design scenery for my Microsoft Flight Simulator (I think it was version 4.0). It was an intricate, time-consuming process, but you could actually reproduce real-life settings on a map, or create your own, in 3-D, and then fly over and to them. I did tons of real cities and towns, done to perfect scale, based on maps and photographs. You could also set up navigational beacons (which I did for the whole United States, using actual locations and frequencies), as well as program air traffic control to direct flights from location to location. I created about 50 locations, including Chicago; Atlanta; Washington, DC; Baltmore; Pittsburgh; Philadelphia; Raleigh-Durham; Greensboro; Savannah; Greenville-Spartanburg; Martinsville, VA; Arkham, MA; and yes... Collinsport. I built up a pretty nice Collinwood using the block shapes available in the scenery designer program, and put in all the familiar Collinsport landmarks, including the Old House, the Blue Whale, the Collinsport Inn, the Evans Cottage, Rose Cottage, Windcliffe, the police station, the hospital, Eagle Hill Cemetery (pretty much a big green and brown polygon), various village buildings, and a radio station with a tower (which I called WCPT). I made the local runway just a short one (3000 ft), paved, and set it about 5 miles out of town. The location was a bit north of Bar Harbor, in Hancock County.

I crashed a Cessna 152 on Widow's Hill one time. Was flying too low while trying to see in the windows at Collinwood.

[Josette]

I found this thread fascinating and just wanted to weigh in on it too.  My favorite part about Collinwood's location is the shrinking amount of distance throught time between the Old House and Collinwood.  In pre-Barnabas, it's a good 20 minute walk between the two.  Later, Julia can run between the two houses and it only takes about 5 minutes.

And don't forget when

[spoiler]Julia was hypnotizing Vicki and taking her to see Barnabas in the coffin, hoping to subconsciously turn her against him.  One time, Carolyn went in to make tea or coffee.  Julia hypnotizes Vicki, takes her to the Old House and shows her the coffin, brings her back and out of the trance--all before Carolyn comes back in the room!![/spoiler]

[BuzzH]

Tangentially related, perhaps -- a good many years back, in the mid-90s, I used to design scenery for my Microsoft Flight Simulator (I think it was version 4.0). It was an intricate, time-consuming process, but you could actually reproduce real-life settings on a map, or create your own, in 3-D, and then fly over and to them. I did tons of real cities and towns, done to perfect scale, based on maps and photographs. You could also set up navigational beacons (which I did for the whole United States, using actual locations and frequencies), as well as program air traffic control to direct flights from location to location. I created about 50 locations, including Chicago; Atlanta; Washington, DC; Baltmore; Pittsburgh; Philadelphia; Raleigh-Durham; Greensboro; Savannah; Greenville-Spartanburg; Martinsville, VA; Arkham, MA; and yes... Collinsport. I built up a pretty nice Collinwood using the block shapes available in the scenery designer program, and put in all the familiar Collinsport landmarks, including the Old House, the Blue Whale, the Collinsport Inn, the Evans Cottage, Rose Cottage, Windcliffe, the police station, the hospital, Eagle Hill Cemetery (pretty much a big green and brown polygon), various village buildings, and a radio station with a tower (which I called WCPT). I made the local runway just a short one (3000 ft), paved, and set it about 5 miles out of town. The location was a bit north of Bar Harbor, in Hancock County.  I crashed a Cessna 152 on Widow's Hill one time. Was flying too low while trying to see in the windows at Collinwood.

Wow Mark, that sounds REALLY cool! 

[ProfStokes]

Eagle Hill Cemetery also seems to move around quite a bit.  In the pre-Barnabas episodes, Vicki and Frank have to drive several miles to the old (abandoned?) cemetery on the outskirts of town, yet in one episode Sarah Collins runs out of Collinwood and is instantly among the tombstones so that it appears Eagle Hill is in the backyard!  While I'm sure that this was a case of poor editing, in later episodes it did seem that the characters had no problems running back and forth between the great estate and the cemetery/mausoleum in little time.

ProfStokes

[BuzzH]

In the pre-Barnabas episodes, Vicki and Frank have to drive several miles to the old (abandoned?) cemetery on the outskirts of town

After Barnabas arrives too I think someone mentions that Eagle Hill is the OLD cemetary, suggesting that no one is buried there anymore yet [spoiler]Dr. Woodard, Tom Jennings and Sam Evans all end up at Eagle Hill![/spoiler]

[Pansity]

Facinating thread AW!  And its so nice to see so many responses to it  Especially good to see that so many people are interested in trying to make their fanfic as true to fact as they can within the contradictions of the show.

Wonderful about you getting to see so much of the Carey mansion's interior Buzz.  It was a shame that there was no tour there offered at the last Fest. I know AW was salivating at the thought .  And, Mark Rainey, as to the Flight Simulator model, I would love to have seen that. (Hmm wonder if I could monkey with my old copy of Railroad Tycoon and make it do that?  )

The Magical moving cemetary is really frustrating when trying to write fanfiction`-- sometimes it appears that it is on the Collinwood property (the later shows), but as pointed out its a far drive in the early days.  In a way it SHOULD be if you think about it, what with even smaller landowners having private family cemetaries if they had enough land to spare for one.  Its not like Eagle Hill is a churchyard after all.  Then again, in typing that I just realized that in Barnabas' period the graveyard SHOULD have been in a churchyard -- all the Colonial era graveyards in this area are.  And something nudging at the back of my brain tells me that I saw SOME show on History Channel that credited cemetaries as we know them to somewhere in Victorian era.  Anyone else remember anything about this??

Please excuse the vagueness on that -- I'm still not quite back to normal after my third surgical procedure since June.  Which, by the way, is also the reason I have been MIA on these boards for so long.  The topics I tend to post on are also NOT the sort of things you want to read and post about when you're pretty much running as "lights are on but nobody's home."

[Pansity]

I've been watching the early eps lately, and after seeing the study set a few times something hit me.  I think I know why the study suddenly disappeared, never to be seen again.  I was looking at the angle, and the doorway, window, bookcase and the orientation of the fireplace and I realized -- the study was redressed and became QUENTIN'S ROOM.  And since THAT tended to show up forever once they first showed it, that would explain why the study never appeared again.

Did anyone else notice this, or know some reason I might be barking up the wrong tree?  Inquiring minds would like to know.....