Secret Hiding Places

Amazing details.

Today I toured Glynallyn, the Mansion in May designer showhouse presented as a fundraiser by the Women's Association of Morristown Medical Center. It's a huge deal--I overheard one of the women say today that the cafe alone has now topped $200,000 this month!!!

The place is a castle. It was built over four years [1913 to 1917] and placed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1987. My editor gave me a $30 entrance ticket--and there I was, gazing at splendor with many other ladies, a great majority sporting Tory Burch sandals, bright pedicures and cute shift dresses. Everything was perfect, from the huge glass bowl crammed with fat pink and white peonies to the bed linens and bathrooms, the fresh paint colors and fabrics. The closets, the guest wing, the casement and stained-glass windows. Then tonight, Fig and I went to see "Dark Shadows." I can't help but notice the similarities between the two--especially because when I told Sis about some hiding places in the mansion, she said, "Oh, if you like secret hiding places, then you'll like that movie."

Twin stashes:

• Glynallyn's dining room has a silver safe hidden behind a panel in the wall. So cool. And in "Dark Shadows," Barnabas turns a disk on the floor to reveal a treasure trove below--jewelry and other valuables.
• If you look up in the Great Hall at the mansion, there's a little alcove in the corner--a space, it's said, where a musician could play. A narrow, curving staircase leads the way. Also: grotto-like spaces in the walls for statues. Of course, the DS set has lots of portraits and statues--and of course, they come alive.
• One of the docents at Glynallyn told us that the big decorative finials on the stair posts of the wooden banisters are removable so that furniture could be moved up and down the stairs. In the movie, the sweeping wood banister has intricate carved details that come to life in the big good vs. evil conflict at the end.
• A dungeon! Yes, Glynallyn has a full-size dungeon, with a stage, where plays were performed, and ample areas for wine to be stored and poured. So it was a dungeon for fun, I gather. The castle also has creative [such as pirate-themed] play spaces for kids under the eaves and a masked-Batman closet upstairs. [That one is hard to explain--it was a decorating idea.] "Dark Shadows" doesn't flaunt a dungeon, but it may as well, with that ancient creaky iron gate, creepy gothic look, the hiding places where Barnabas the vampire sleeps and the doctor's mysterious lab.

Tomorrow is the last day to tour the mansion. And it is for sale, too. Asking price: $5.7 million, which really doesn't seem like a lot for what you get.

TCOY

1. Boot camp in the park. Hot, hot, hot but good for my heart.
2. Good tooth care.
3. Walked away from the chips and dip H. bought tonight--after having modest amount.