Dark Shadows

When I was flipping stations the other day, (back's very much better now) I watched a few minutes of a ghost hunting thing taking place at Seaview Terrance in Newport, R.I.  I stopped to watch because they gave a brief history of the "house"...sure.... and that it was used as the Background shot of one of my favorite television shows of the late 60's and early 70s.   Dark Shadows.......

                                                                     Google photo

The actual home, Seaview Terrace, began in Dupont Circle, in Washington D.C. in 1907 by Liquor millionaire, Edson Bradley.  In the 1920s, he had it taken apart, stone by stone and moved to Newport Rhode Island.  Can you imagine?   The move began in 1923 and took 5 years to complete.  54 rooms on three floors, moved.

Mrs Bradley, a music lover is supposed to still haunt the home and continues to play her piano in the music room.  If she loved that house enough to move it, I guess she loves it enough not to leave it either.

It became a school from 1951 -61 after being bought from the City of Newport (when the family lost it over back taxes) for $8000.   40,000 square feet.  $8,000.... I think that even  in 1950 dollars that has still got to be the steal of the decade.  As with the great plantations of the south, it's not the price of the building, it's the upkeep that is so expensive.

 In the later 60s it was called Burnham by the Sea, and was a school for girls.   Can you imagine?  That was during the time Dark Shadows was huge. It would be like going to school at Hogwarts today.

They do have a website.  http://www.seaviewterrace.org/index.html

It doesn't say anything about it being open so it may be a private home again.  I did see other sites where people have gone there, so Maybe now it's closed to the public.  It is just fun seeing a little piece of our past really exists.

I'm wondering if they will use it for the new movie too.  They almost have to for us oldsters that know what the house looked like.

Johnny Depp.....Barnabus Collins
Helea Bonham Carter.... Dr. Julia Hoffman
Elizabeth Collins Stoddard...Michelle Pfeiffer 

 

You can still see some of the out takes of scenes and bloopers on Youtube.  Of course it looks pretty cheesy now, but back then, I was hooked.

With the Twilight series so big, I think this one will draw some interest just based on the vampire thing.  For me though, I'm remembering that teen that rushed home to see what was going to happen next in Collinsport.