Four Secret Rooms/Passages in Old House

[Philippe Cordier]

Did anyone catch what "Rev." Mr. Trask said the other day when he was looking over blueprints of the Old House (boy, he sure gets the run of the house at Collinwood ...):

"There are four secret rooms or passageways in the Old House."

[He might have said "passages" not "passageways"; I didn't rewind the tape to double-check.]

Let's see, there's the secret room behind the bookcase (the secret lever to which Trask had not the slightest difficulty in locating), and the underground tunnel running between the "cellar" (what I would call a "basement," a "cellar" connoting something like a dirt-floor root cellar) and the cave opening below Widow's Hill.

Any ideas what the other two are?

[The Ghost of Sarah Collins]

Did anyone catch what "Rev." Mr. Trask said the other day when he was looking over blueprints of the Old House (boy, he sure gets the run of the house at Collinwood ...):

"There are four secret rooms or passageways in the Old House."

[He might have said "passages" not "passageways"; I didn't rewind the tape to double-check.]

Let's see, there's the secret room behind the bookcase (the secret lever to which Trask had not the slightest difficulty in locating), and the underground tunnel running between the "cellar" (what I would call a "basement," a "cellar" connoting something like a dirt-floor root cellar) and the cave opening below Widow's Hill.

Any ideas what the other two are?

There are two others on each of the upper floors leading to the basement, these are of course never seen.  

  Sarah.

[Josette]

There's one in one of the bedrooms - I think Josette's room - I don't recall if it was the original 1795 or the reprise, but at one time when the Countess was outside the room, Josette locked the door and Barnabas came to her through the secret door.

[Gerard]

On one of The Simpsons Halloween Specials, during a spoof of Coppola's Dracula (Monty Burns, of course, playing the count), Bart and Lisa search for the secret chamber holding the coffin.  The pull a lever and a panel slides open, revealing a washer and dryer, along with shelves of detergent and neatly-stacked laundry.  I can't help but picture Willie (or Magda) utilizing one of the secret rooms for that very purpose.  Well, when space is a premium, you make do with whatchya got.

Gerard

[Cassandra Blair]

Would the underground tunnel leading from the basement to the cave count as one of the four secret rooms?  I mean, it isn't really IN the Old House.

And didn't Barnabas come to Josette's room through a secret passageway at Collinwood, not the Old House?

Those Collinses were sure big on the secret rooms and passageways, weren't they?  But after Trask got his mitts on the plans, they weren't too secret anymore.

Wherever can Barney hide now?

[dom]

This is a stretch; but perhaps the cell in the basement would be considered a secret room. There is an episode where someone goes into the basement on a search for Barnabas' coffin and they look around as if the basement (containing Barn's coffin) is the only room down there (which doesn't really make sense - but let's face it, this is indicative of the show). Under these circumstances the scenario fits. The tunnel from that cell could count as a secret passageway as well. I'm assuming that, that tunnel connects with the tunnel leading to the beach (which I am also assuming is the same one we refer to as the tunnel leading to the cave). There is also an episode (or two?) where it appears as if someone walks right into the basement from the cave tunnel as if they didn't have to figure out how to open and climb through the brick wall (in the cell).

Elastic Dom

[Philippe Cordier]

This is getting more complicated than I thought.  Trask said "There are four secret rooms OR passageways in the Old House."  So I think the underground tunnel from the basement is one of those four.  I don't remember if the cell in the basement was secret or not, but I do seem to recall it vanishing at a later time.  But I think I would consider the cell and the tunnel, being connected, as one of the four secrets passages.

I'm hazy on this since I didn't see these eps on the most recent run, but when Maggie escapes from the cell in the basement of the Old House, doesn't she wander up and down some stairs and even through other rooms? Could that be what the ghost of Sarah Collins (poster, above) is referring to?

Josette, I think Cassandra B. is right and that you may be thinking of Barnabas coming to Josette through a hidden panel when she was staying in the "Big House" rather than the Old House.

Speaking of the cave, it seems rather amazing to me that Barnabas' coffin is there for anyone to see who might happen to wander in off the beach!

[jennifer]

Speaking of the cave, it seems rather amazing to me that Barnabas' coffin is there for anyone to see who might happen to wander in off the beach!

it was a good thing that barnabas was usually cured
quickly of his "affliction" because he was quite careless in his coffin arrangements! LOL

jennifer

[Connie]

The passageway in the Old House basement...
Is that the place behind the brick wall in that cell that Julia and Willie were keeping Barnabas in awhile back?  (When he was Angelique's victim)  I wonder where exactly that's supposed to be located.

Also...   SPOILER
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A bit later in 1897 there's a jail cell with bars in the basement that Trask locks Quentin up in.  (Every basement needs a jail cell IMHO)  LOL
Then, I think even later, Edward locks Barnabas up in the same cell, only THIS time it has furniture (that desk).

I'm confused -- same cell, different cell block??

-CLC  

[Josette]

You're both right - I just remembered Barnabas coming through the secret panel to Josette, but obviously they had moved to Collinwood by that point.

[Cassandra]

Vlad Wrote:

I'm hazy on this since I didn't see these eps on the most recent run, but when Maggie escapes from the cell in the basement of the Old House, doesn't she wander up and down some stairs and even through other rooms

Yes, there was a secret passage way in the cell that Barnabas was keeping Maggie prisoner. Little Sarah had appeared to her and told her of a "secret passage" that would lead her out of there. She then proceded to tell her of a rhyme about counting the bricks in the wall which would make the brick wall open up. Maggie figured it out and did escape through what seemed to be an endless corrider of passage ways and then finally came upon three doors.  One of the doors opened up (with Sarah's help Im sure) and this was how Maggie escaped to the beach outside.  Later on when Sarah's ghost appeared to Sam Evans she told him that Maggie could be found on the beach right underneath Widows Hill.

There's one in one of the bedrooms - I think Josette's room - I don't recall if it was the original 1795 or the reprise, but at one time when the Countess was outside the room, Josette locked the door and Barnabas came to her through the secret door.

Actually you may be right here as to where one of the secret passage ways may be hidden.  In 1795, on the night of Josette & Barnabas' wedding, everyone was waiting downstairs in the drawing room of the Old House for Josette to come down. However, Josette managed to somehow "sneak" out of the house to meet Jeremiah and married him instead.  Since everyone was in the drawing room she couldn't very well leave the house in the usual way or they would have seen her.  She obviously left through another exit to get out of there without being seen. Perhaps this is one of secret passage ways that Sarah had mentioned in her above post.


Cassandra[/font]