SEAVIEW. Victoria Winters discovered an enchanting old house at the end of the north road by the sea (292, 293). The empty house was first shown when Vicki, Burke, and Barnabas toured inside (294). As Burke Devlin and Victoria Winters were engaged to be married, Burke asked Elizabeth Collins
SEAVIEW, Caleb Collins' House by the Sea
Stoddard if he could purchase the house, which he has learned belongs to the Collins family and is called Seaview (298). Burke mentions that it is "several miles" down the beach. He pursues acquiring it as a home for Vicki and himself for their upcoming marriage (335). Elizabeth visited Seaview with Carolyn and Burke (298). It had a candle-lit chandelier in the parlor and appeared to have never been wired for electricity. Elizabeth learned that she could not sell Seaview to Burke, due to a codicil in an old Collins family will. The last member of the family to live in the house--one Caleb Collins--apparently had a morbid fear of strangers and made a provision in his will that it could not be sold outside the Collins family for 100 years. That proviso would tie the house up for another 5 years, until approximately 1972. Elizabeth was deeply sorry over the matter; Burke was angered. She intended to give Seaview to Victoria and Burke as a wedding present as soon as it became legally available.
BLAIR HOUSE. After the disappearance of Cassandra Collins (547/548), Nicholas Blair asked Roger if perhaps there was somewhere on the Collinwood estate where he could live, close enough that he could be there if
Collins house by the ocean rented to Nicholas Blair, a/k/a Blair House
Cassandra returned, but out of the main house so that his continued presence would not be painfully felt (549). Roger offered to show Nicholas several family properties for lease and together they toured a house overlooking the ocean, supposedly close enough to walk to Collinwood or the Old House quickly. Nicholas rented it on the condition that Roger include an option to purchase down the road, should Elizabeth agree to sell. Blair House (as it was called in the working scripts and the GAF View Master booklet of the time) contained a large drawing room, a cellar (sometimes called the basement), a second floor, and a third floor. A hallway outside the drawing room led to the front door. Whether or not there were any other outside doors is unknown.
Some fans confuse Blair House with Vicki's Seaview and Eric Lang's house. (See Big Finish Productions' audio drama, Dark Shadows #23: The House by the Sea.) On the original show three distinct exterior stills were used for these three properties. Seaview was a one-and-a-half story Cape Cod style house c. 1700s (see 294) . Its primitive parlor set was previously used as part of Roger's office at the cannery, and later Barnabas' bedroom in 1795 (including his fireplace at stage right). Lang's House (469, exterior first seen in 470) was a three-story Italianate mansion c. 1870 made of brick with stone quoins at corners, a mansard roof, wide brackets, hooded windows, and a large porch at one end.
Home of Dr. Eric Lang
It appeared to have a dozen rooms at least, with a raised basement. Its paneled drawing room with archway and double doors was previously the master bedroom set at the Old House in its entirety, sans furnishing, with fireplace on back wall and window to its right, but in the 1790s had not had the Victorian black marble fireplace This set, with its recognizable archway, had previously been used with some modifications as Tony Peterson's office. This set featured elaborate lighting fixtures and was photographed in many publicity stills of the time, including many of the Marilyn Ross novel reprints. The Lang set also included a large basement laboratory. Lang's house was last mentioned in episode 559, when Barrnabas sent Willie to retrieve some of Lang's things. Soon after the death of Dr. Lang, Nicholas leased the house by the ocean. Blair House (549) was a three-story wooden shingled beach house in the Dutch Colonial style, with tall gambrel roof covering most of the second and third floors. It was perched on a steep sandy hill apparently overlooking the beach, with balconies at second and third levels and a large porch across the ground floor. While the foyer door and trim differed from Lang's House, Lang's drawing room fireplace and archway with double doors were incorporated into Nicholas' drawing room (formerly the Old House master bedroom, with window to right of the fireplace), including Lang's black marble Victorian mantlepiece. However, the rest of the set was renovated. Instead of the raised paneling, this drawing room was heavily wallpapered and dressed with different chandeliers and wall sconces, and had a door left of the fireplace instead of Lang's built-in bookcase. Several fluted pilasters remained around the walls, but the corner by the foyer door was reworked at a smaller scale. When Roger first showed Nicholas the house(549) , he removed dust covers from several pieces of furniture -- none of which had been in Seaview or the Lang House. Roger stated that no renovations had been done to this house in a very long time, though it appeared in good condition, clean and without tarnish on its brass fixtures. In episode 550 Vicki tells Stokes that Cassandra's brother has "taken one of the Collins' houses, the one by the ocean. He intends to go on living here." In episode 559, Nicholas tells Maggie that he has leased "a house by the sea" belonging to the Collins family.
SUMMARY: In a coastal town, obviously many of the Collins properties could be near the sea. To bring Big Finish's House by the Sea audio drama consistent with the show, one might consider that Caleb Collins' estate contained both the original Seaview cottage as well as the newer beach house which became Blair House.
Blair House also served as a home for Angélique, Adam, and Eve in 1968. Angélique's coffin was kept in the cellar (549/572), where it was discovered by Tom Jennings (554), Angélique's first victim, who was buried under the floor after he was staked by Julia and Barnabas (630). We learn this in episode (630) when Nicholas digs him up. The cellar can be accessed from either the drawing room or the hallway.
The vampire Angélique bites Joe Haskell on the neck in the large drawing room, making Joe her second victim (560).
The Mirror is a tool of Nicholas Blair’s and makes its first appearance in the drawing room when he looks into it to see his own reflection which transforms into a vision of Victoria Winters (558, 559). The mirror was kept in the drawing room until Angélique stole it (622).
Professor Stokes states that "all the sleeping quarters are on the second floor" and that there are three bedrooms. The master bedroom at the end of the corridor belongs to Nicholas, "it is depressingly overdecorated" (605). Two other bedrooms exist. The one on the right belongs to Eve (as it smells of cologne). Adam's is on the end. Stokes mentions the third floor, but says it is only used for storage.
The House by the Sea was called Seaview, the house of Caleb Collins. Nicholas' house has also been called the House by the Ocean in the show, and house by the sea (559).
Appearances
294, 335, 549, 554, 558, 559, 560, 561, 562, 563, 572, 573, 575, 580, 600, 601, 602, 605, 607, 608, 609, 611, 620, 621, 622, 624, 628, 629, 630, 631, 632, 633/634
Blair's House
Blair's House
Lang's House
Lang's House