Collinwood Mansion - Collinwood Estate

Collinwood Estate

Collinwood mansion is the largest and most prominent building on a vast estate that shares the same name as the house. Although the Collinwood mansion was built in 1795, the Collins family has lived on the estate grounds since Colonial times in other dwellings.

Old House — This was the first large house built by the Collins family. It was known as Collinwood before the larger house was built. Although not as big as Collinwood, it is large. When Joshua built the new house, he intended to bequeath the Old House to his son Barnabas as a wedding gift. After Barnabas' "death", the house was abandoned. It was inhabited for a time in the 1890s by a gypsy couple, Sandor and Magda Rakosi, but by 1966, it had been vacant for decades and had fallen into ruin. A large framed portrait of Josette Collins (née du Pres) hung in the parlor and in modern times, her spirit would emerge from it and dance around the porch. When Barnabas was released from his coffin in 1967, he renovated and inhabited the house (which at the time had no electricity, heat or plumbing). He kept his coffin in the basement, which also included a dungeon room that he used to imprison Maggie Evans (but turned out to have a secret escape passage to a cavern on the seashore). Julia installed a generator and conducted scientific experiments there — including her attempted cure for vampirism, and the creation of both Adam and Eve. Barnabas still inhabited the Old House in 1971, at the series' end.

Caretaker's Cottage — When first seen, it was inhabited by Matthew Morgan (the estate handyman who murdered Bill Malloy). Later inhabitants were Laura Collins (during her 1966–1967 appearances on the show) and then Chris Jennings. In the 1897 storyline, Dirk Wilkins inhabited the cottage. While there, he, Evan Handley, Quentin Collins and Jamison Collins resurrected Angelique.

Seaside shack — Only briefly seen, this is a hut located near the shore of the ocean. Laura Collins lured her son David there in order to immolate both him and her own self. (She hoped to extend her "immortal phoenix" ability to him, thereby giving him eternal life.) After the cottage burned down it was apparently not restored.

Seaview Cottage — A small unused home located on the border of the estate. Although the Collins family did not consider it their property, Victoria (when she was engaged to Burke Devlin) desired to buy and inhabit it, and discovered that it technically lay within the grounds of Collinwood estate. Curiously, though, Elizabeth was reluctant to sell it and tried to discourage Victoria from living there. The house was forgotten after Burke's death. (Victoria's desire to buy the house seems to be the beginning of a new storyline that was abruptly dropped for unknown reasons, possibly to focus more attention on the vampire storyline.)

Elizabeth Stoddard's tomb — While she was masquerading as Cassandra, Angelique placed a curse upon Elizabeth causing her to be obsessed with the notion of being buried alive. Elizabeth had a special tomb constructed with a bell so that if she should happen to be accidentally interred alive (as she was, sure enough), she would be able to summon help.

Woods — Collinwood estate has a vast wild forest growing on it. Quite naturally, it is the site of numerous encounters with the supernatural — Elizabeth was almost attacked by the werewolf Chris Jennings there, and a headless corpse attacked and killed a servant woman in 1840.

Widow's Hill — Although perhaps not officially a part of the estate, Widow's Hill is adjacent to it. This is a dramatic cliff that overlooks the ocean; it was given the name because the widows of sailors who were lost at sea would gather there to wail for their dead husbands. Their ghosts haunted the hilltop and were known as "the Wailing Women." Josette famously leaped to her death there, and Jeb Hawkes also died from a fall there (as did, supposedly, Victoria Winters, after being driven mad by the Leviathans, but this was related second-hand and not actually shown on-screen).