According to Ruth Franklin's excellent new biography Shirley Jackson: A Rather Haunted Life, several houses may have served as the inspiration for The Haunting of Hill House, the novel Stephen King called one of the top two pieces of supernatural fiction of the 20th century (the other being The Turning of the Screw). Jackson collected postcards and photographs of spooky mansions, but Hill House is her own invention -- she drew her own interior plans for it, some of which are reproduced in the biography. And of course the Hill House in the reader's mind is almost certainly scarier than any real place. Nevertheless, I found myself yearning for a visual compendium of all the inspirations for Hill House. (Click on the links for sources.)
Hill House, "not sane," may have been inspired by:
The Chateau de Monte Cristo in Port-Marly, France
Neuschwanstein Castle in Bavaria, Germany
Grim's Dyke in London, England (now a Best Western hotel!)
Jennings Hall in Bennington, Vermont
The Everett Mansion in Bennington, Vermont
The Crocker House in San Francisco, California, designed by Samuel Bugbee, Jackson's great-great-grandfather
The Winchester House in San Jose, California
On a related note, the houses used for the two film versions of the novel are:
Ettington Park Hotel in Stratford-Upon Avon, England (The Haunting, 1963)
Harlaxton Manor in Harlaxton, England (The Haunting, 1999)
The 2002 TV miniseries Stephen King's Rose Red is a sort-of kind-of remake of and/or homage to The Haunting. King said in an interview that the Winchester House, above, was an inspiration for it. The house used for filming was:
Thornewood Castle in Lakewood, Washington
Happy Halloween!
Addendum, October 2018:
The 2018 Netflix series house exterior shots were filmed at Bisham Manor in Lagrange, Georgia.
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