. . . And it exists in Rhinebeck-on-Hudson, NY:
http://www.hudsonvalleyruins.org/rinaldi/rhinecliff.htm(this is a two-page adventure--- look for the signpost link at the bottom that reads "Wyndclyffe")
Wyndclyffe is the abandoned mansion of Edith Wharton's starchy maiden aunt Elizabeth Jones.
A snippet of her childhood memory of this house (pseudonymed "Rhinecliff" and "The Willows" in some of her work) appears at another page on Tom
Rinaldi's ruins site:
http://www.hudsonvalleyruins.org/rinaldi/wharton.htmThis makes me think that whoever came up with "Windcliff" on DS MUST have heard of this place. The mansion also has a great reputation for
being "haunted." (Indeed, Wharton herself occasionally wrote ghost stories, influenced, in part, by these early experiences.) If you get up there, though, beware that this is a "No-Trespassing" zone, and it's really decrepit now, so it should only be viewed from a safe distance.
The hudsonvalleyruins.org site is also the "home" of Rob Yasinac, who has a page there on the history of the Spratt Mansion.
There is a substantial portion of the site devoted to the well-known "Bannerman's Castle", a former fanciful armory designed by the eccentric owner of the biggest military-surplus supplier of his day. (Indeed, Francis Bannerman was called the father of the Army-Navy store concept. Many of the old cannons seen in town parks and at city halls were, quite likely, purchased from Bannerman's.)
Interestingly, the entire "castle", which was located on a
hard-to-reach, difficult-to-traverse island in the Hudson (and viewable mainly by people riding the railroad which runs parallel to the island) was largely destroyed by fire in August, 1969, just 2 months before the
Spratt Mansion, which was ruled arson.
At first glance, it seems the two events might be related. However, judging by accounts of the size of the island fire, which could be seen for many miles, and the relative isolation of the island (difficult to reach
easily without a substantial boat), there is a possibility that some leftover munitions or gunpowder somehow caught, and spread apace, catching
left-behind flammable items along the way.
Bannerman's Castle, on Pollopel island, is also a No-Trespassing zone, unless one makes special arrangements with the group that is now trying
to preserve the place. Many great pictures can be seen on THEIR website:
http://www.bannermancastle.orgLooks more and more like Curtis should have set DS in a palisade-fronted Hudson River Mansion than in Maine; the program utilized enough elements from the area.
Lorraine
