Collinwood Mansion is a fictional house featured in the Gothic horror soap opera Dark Shadows (1966-1971). Built in 1795 by Joshua Collins, Collinwood has been home to the Collins family and other, sometimes unwelcome supernatural visitors since its inception. The house is located near the town of Collinsport, Maine atop Widow's Hill, overlooking the Atlantic Ocean. Almost every resident of the town is too scared to even drive by the house due to rumors and superstitious legends.
The house has more than 40 rooms, most of which are closed off due to lack of inhabitants and financial reasons, and more than a few strange secret passageways, including a stairway through time, and one room that appears to be a play room to some, and nothing more than a linen closet to others. Most of the household activity is centered around the drawing room and Foyer, and sometimes the kitchen, dining room, and study.
Collinwood has, throughout its history, seemed to upset and anger its inhabitants and anyone else who is unfortunate enough to step over the threshold and through the enormous oak front doors. It has been the scene of much death, random violence, and other such misfortune. Most local people find it easier to just avoid it and the Collins Family all together.
One of the plots of the series is when Dr. Julia Hoffman and Barnabas Collins travel through the previously mentioned staircase in time to escape from 1970 and wind up in 1995. They find the house dirty, desolate, and otherwise dilapidated. The front doors are almost inaccessible through the overgrown shrubs. The drawing room ceiling has mostly caved in, and most of the house is charred. They return to 1970 to try and prevent the house's fate.
The rooms at Collinwood, include:
