I'm wondering about the portion of the house (in this photo) to the extreme right. From the virtual tour that was posted awhile back I was under the impression that this part of the house is closed off. How did your friend manage to get into it?
That portion of the house is presently used as a recreational room for the students that are housed there. In recent years it has been occupied by; pin ball machines, a pool table, fooseball, and several vending machines.
The parts of the house that are closed off to the students are Cecelia Hall & the wing the Carey's maintain as a private residence when they are there. Fans would best recognize Cecelia Hall has being the part of the house located behind the famous front doors of Collinwood. (we were allowed access to Cecelia Hall on our visits. It is used primarily by the music department, and they host concerts there from time to time) In the photo I posted, Cecelia Hall is the extreme lower level of the house that is lit in the photo. The wing the Carey's use when they are staying there is the unlit second floor section in the upper left of the house above Cecelia Hall.
Also, you said you had "permission from the owners" - do you mean the Carey family itself, or the Salve Regina college, who leases the building?
It's my dream to visit there someday. (sigh.)
I received permission from the owners.... the Carey's. Along with some fellow DS friends, I had befriended the Carey's during a 1993 visit to the house. Afterwards, I kept in contact with them and in 1995 arranged to bring a group of friends up after the NY festival. Mr. and Mrs. Carey couldn't have been more gracious, and Mrs. Carey offered to give my group a walking tour of the house, explaining its legacy along the way. I brought groups up again in 1996, 1997, 1998, and 1999, but have not been up there since.
The Carey's have been so kind in allowing our visits over the years. Salva Regina's security force patrols the grounds regularly,and Mrs. Carey has always made sure they were alerted to when my friends and I were going to be there,and that we were to have free run of the house & grounds. We have had pizza parties in the house, watched Dark Shadows videos in a darkened room, posed for photos looking out the tower windows, flown kites on the grounds, and I have even played tennis on the tennis courts at Seaview.:-)
But the most fun has been walking around and exploring the inside of the house. It has so many levels with a bevy of "nooks and crannies". Watching the recent episodes with David and Amy exploring the westwing reminded me of my friends and I exploring the house on our visits up there. As a matter of fact, on one of our explorations we came across a maid who warned us of a room that a female student had supposedly committed suicide in several years ago, and that from time to time she would hear noises come from this now closed off room. Sp00ky huh? ;-)
Bob
