Haunted Mansion (location)

## The Haunted Mansion

**The Haunted Mansion** also sometimes referred to as **Gracey Manor** is the titular setting for the Haunted Mansion in Disneyland. It is connected to the lore of Tower of Terror via the Hightower family and spin-off materials.

## Description

The Haunted Mansion is an antebellum manor sometimes given the address of **1313 Esplanade Street** and which overlooks the Mississippi River in New Orleans, Louisiana. The manor is located on Esplanade street in New Orleans Square and is adjacent to a massive cemetery. The mansion has three main floors and a cupola along with being believed to be located overtop of catacombs. The manor is infamously haunted and home to 999 spirits from across the globe along with several from its own history. The mansion is also a portal to and/or place of convergence with, "The Spirit World", a supernatural plain for spirits resulting in the manor seemingly defying the laws of physics and nature.

### Features

#### Exterior

* **Cemetery**: This was a large forested cemetery located behind the Haunted Mansion. The graveyard was also home to various residents who moved to the mansion post-mortem. Old artwork by Collin Campbell identified this location as the, "Whispering Glade Cemetery".
* **Crypts**: These were a series of oven-crypts located in the mansion's front for residents with different pun names. Behind the crypts was a secret entrance to the Haunted Mansion which connected to the Portrait Corridor.
* **Family Plot**: The family plot was a small burial ground located in the mansion's front, nearby the gardens and above the crypts. The plot was reserved for the mansion's previous owners, the Gracey family.
* **Gardens**: The gardens were an area decorated with flowers and statues nearby an alternative gate by the mansion's north gate.
* **Mausoleum**: The mausoleum was a large and flooded tomb in the cemetery which connected the graveyard to New Orleans Square.
* **Pet Cemetery**: The Pet Cemetery was a burial ground for animals located near the front of the mansion.

#### Interior

##### 1st Floor

* **Foyer**: The foyer is the room at the mansion's front-entrance and appeared similar to a funeral parlour.
* **Grand Hall**: The Grand Hall was a lavish ballroom with a doorway leading outside the house, a dancing area, a large fireplace, dining-room table, chandelier and pipe-organ. Surrounding the hall were balconies and connections to different chambers in the mansion.
* **Portrait Corridor**: The Portrait Corridor was a hallway decorated with marble-busts and portraits along with several windows overlooking the outside.
* **Portrait Gallery**: The Portrait Gallery is an octagonal room with four portraits depicting the manor's late guests.
* **Secret Entrance**: The secret entrance connected to the portrait corridor via the crypts outside.
* **Stairway**:
* **Veranda**: The veranda surrounds the haunted mansion.

##### 2nd floor

* **Alcove library**: This was a library accessed by the second level of the Grand Hall.
* **Conservatory**: The conservatory is a second-floor greenhouse which housed many plants along with a sealed coffin containing a trapped undead corpse.
* **Corridor of Doors**: The Corridor of Doors is a winding series of passages filled with doors that house different spirits and photographs of the dead. The wallpaper of this feature appeared like eyes and demonic faces, watching those within.
* **Endless Hallway**: The Endless Hallway is a seemingly infinite corridor near the stairway from the first-floor. It was decorated red and has a landing with a haunted suit-of-armour and arm-chair resembling a human face.
* **Grand Hall Balcony**:
* **Séance Chamber**: The Séance Chamber was used by the resident clairvoyant Madame Leota to conduct séances and summon spirits.

##### 3rd floor

The third floor is reserved for the mansion's attic.

* **Balcony**: This was a small and decrepit balcony overlooking the graveyard.
* **Cupola**: The cupola was located above the attic and contained the hanging, skeletal corpse of the mansion's late-host.
* **Hatbox Ghost's Room**:
* **Storage Room**: The storage room took up the majority of the mansion's attic. This area held souvenirs and evidence from the life-of-crime of former mansion owner and serial-killer Constance Hatchaway.

## History

### Background

#### Origins

The Haunted Mansion was an antebellum manor built in New Orleans, presumably around the late 18th-early 19th century. According to some unconfirmed stories, the mansion was built by a sea-captain and his wife. The oldest known owners of the estate were aristocratic the Gracey family, namely a gentleman known as, "Master Gracey". Via unknown circumstances, the entire Gracey family died and was buried in the family-plot of the Haunted Mansion.

Between this time and 1877, the mansion held a variety of different figures whom would die and become ghosts within its halls. One was a deformed man of unknown identity, sometimes referred to as, "The Hatchet Man". This man had some notable rank in the estate as when he commit suicide by hanging in the cupola, his spirit became the manor's, "Ghost Host". Another prominent figure was, "Madame Leota", a Romani clairvoyant who operated out of a vardo in New Orleans. For a time, she was the mansion's resident spiritualist before dying of unknown circumstances. Alongside Leota was her presumed relative (and often asserted daughter), "Little Leota" who upon death became the estate's, "Ghostess".

#### The Black Widow Bride

By 1877, the mansion was acquired by a globetrotting aristocrat named George Hightower. George moved into the mansion with his bride Constance Hatchaway from California, unknowing that she was a serial-killer. In 1877, Constance murdered George with an axe-blow to the head before severing his head and keeping it in a hatbox in the attic. Constance would have inherited George's wealth along with the mansion which she used the attic of to stash away evidence and souvenirs from her past murders.

At some point, an unidentified affiliate of Constance also was beheaded with his head placed in a hatbox. This entity became the mysterious, "Hatbox Ghost" and is shrouded in mystery. Constance lived happily off of her blood money for decades until dying in 1927. Constance's ghost subsequently haunted the manor's attic, appearing as a beautiful woman with a hatchet where she would sadistically prowl in search of new victims.

#### The Haunted Mansion

The mansion would establish itself as a form of retirement home for spirits from across the world, most notably assembled by the, "Ghost Relations Department". Three notably agents/affiliates of this group were the, "Hitchhiking Ghosts" Ezra, Gus and Phineas who followed mortals to have them fill the mansion's quota. Prior to 1936, the mansion established a connection with the magical realm of, "Halloween Town" where its skeletal ruler Jack Skellington would travel to the manor and assist in yuletide celebrations.

Around 1936, the mansion came under ownership of the Johnson Family. By September 22 of that year, the family was subsequently chased out of the estate by the mansion's ghosts and Jack Skellington during the holidays. By around 1969, the mansion had a meek caretaker named Silas Crump while also conducting tours of their estate for mortals. These tours often involved the ghostly residents scaring and trying to kill mortals for their own agendas. An active spirit by this time was a supernatural raven with glowing red eyes who had a birdhouse on the property and which was nicknamed, "Lucifer".

## Tower of Terror connections

### Attractions

#### Tower of Terror

The Haunted Mansion's former owner was California aristocrat George Hightower who was murdered by his bride Constance Hatchaway in 1877. George's surname, nationality and statues infer him to be a relative of the evil Harrison Hightower III, owner of the Hotel Hightower.

### Printed materials

#### Disney Kingdoms: The Haunted Mansion

In this non-canonical comic, the Hollywood Tower Hotel is pictured and identified as one of many haunted locations connected to the, "Endless Staircase" of the Haunted Mansion.

### Promotional materials

A  2004 advertisement for *Disneyland* and *Disney California Adventure* showed the Hitchhiking Ghosts leaving the Haunted Mansion and gleefully riding on an elevator in the Hollywood Tower Hotel to the annoyance of a grim bellhop.

### Other connections

#### Camp Discovery

*First International News* had a 1936 story on the Johnson family chased out of the mansion by its ghosts and Jack Skellington.

#### Guardians of the Galaxy - Mission: BREAKOUT!

On his desk in the pre-show video, the Collector has a maquette of the Haunted Mansion's Hellhound on his desk.

#### Jungle Cruise

In the Jungle Navigation Company's Amazon River Base is a vial labelled, "*Prof. Plump's Miracle Tonic for Everlasting Life*", seemingly referencing the Hitchhiking Ghost Phineas who is often identified as a snake-oil salesman named Prof. Phineas Plump. The Goliath spiders in Shir Lee's Temple also used to appear in the Haunted Mansion and a member of the lost safari shared his face mould with the mansion's caretaker, resulting in skippers sometimes identifying them as distant cousins.

##### Skipper Canteen

Two books in the library allude to the Haunted Mansion. These books are *Ghosts of New Orleans* by Scholtz while the other is, *Tales of the Supernatural* by Gracey with the latter of the two referencing Master Gracey and the Gracey family.

## Gallery

A photo of the Hollywood Tower Hotel in Disney Kingdoms: Haunted Mansion
## References

1. ↑ http://doombuggies.com/history7.html