Description of Place: The Collins Mansion (aka Collinswood or Collingswood) is an 1830 vintage Gothic-revival piece of architecture with elaborate turrets built from limestone quarried near Ossining. It's a fifty room structure with a four story tower and an elaborate interior with crenellated walls filled with antiques and period furniture. The dining room is actually an enlarged music room. The property also includes two cottages, a horse stable and a derelict green house. 

Ghostly Manifestations: "What is it about theses Collinses?" Claire Jenkins wrote in her 1972 novel, Night Of Dark Shadows. "The family lives in a haunted house seemingly born from the imagination of Edgar Allen Poe, their genealogy is festooned with legends and reported stories of ghosts, vampires, witches, curses and the dead rising from the grave, and when another family property pops up, it too is reported to have ghosts. Either God has a sense of humor, or fate has a sinister plan for this family."

One would say Claire Jenkins has a gift for the understatement, but she also makes a point that defies a rational answer. The Collins family are one of the most powerful New England families of the Northeast; family members have been cordially connected with the Rockefellers and the Kennedys, and while whispers of paranormal activity are common, the family has never been shy about its ghost stories. Author William Collins is a horror writer in addition to a paranormal researcher, David Collins is the founder of a paranormal group and J.R. Loomis, the son of Carolyn Collins Stoddard Loomis, openly jokes about his family being creepy on the comedy stand-up circuit.

But one doesn't have to wait for an invitation to Collinwood to experience this supernatural legacy. In the region upstate from New York City where Washington Irving first wrote about the legends of Sleepy Hollow, the New York branch of the family spread its supernatural legacy even further. Guests to the former New York Collins residence have seen or experienced footsteps, phantom laughter, objects moving, strange sounds and apparitions ranging from a small child to a lady in white.

"Welcome to the Collins Mansion." Alex Jenkins oversees management of the house. "It's not the end of the world, but you can see it from here." Over the years, Alex has been connected to most of the activity here. He has seen a lady in white haunting the property several times at night and even once during the day at a distance near the green house among other apparitions.

After Alex and Claire became part of the committee to supervise management of the house for social events, they began hearing screaming arguments and footsteps going up and down the stairs. They could never quite understand what was being said, but the voices always vanished when they tried to investigate. As they got to know the history of the house to understand its history, they found Eugene Stiles, a relative of Carlotta Drake, who once worked for the mansion. Stiles’ cousin, Gerard, was once the caretaker who died on the property in an accident. He remarked he had seen the ghost of Charles Collins several times and even a small girl rushing into and vanishing into the bedrooms.

“I had told them what I’d seen there, and they said they’ve sensed something themselves. “ Stiles comments. “They have never saw Charles for themselves, but they had experienced a few things. I have only seen him near the stairs to the tower, but I’ve heard his voice laughing downstairs on several occasions.”

In addition to Charles and the small girl, Eugene was helping Alex search for the journal of Charles Collins from his belongings when the figure of a woman briefly materialized on the balcony. At first, Alex thought it was Claire, but he quickly changed his mind: “It was a figure of a small woman standing there. It didn’t stay long for me to examine it very good. It was gone just like that. It was scary, and it frightened the daylights out of me. I just never wanted to go on that balcony again, but after seeing it, Gene stood there for a few minutes and finally identified her as his Aunt Carlotta.”

Alex and Claire soon invited Dr. James Harvey, a noted parapsychologist, to visit the creepy edifice. Harvey and his associate, Dr. Kathryn Lee Storm, conducted a series of tests for paranormal activity. As Storm adds: “Our physical instruments were not able to detect anything unusual, but in this particular case, the sheer volume of the reports adds to the credibility of the case. One of our witnesses in this case, a particularly credible witness, in fact, a professional person of some stature, reported seeing in the driveway, in front of the castle, a woman in white who dissipated right in front of his eyes. I think the big news here is that humans can act as sensors and we find that we cannot dismiss this evidence as caused by coincidence.”

The figure of the Lady in White has been reported on the property for several years, so much so that she has been an omen of death to all who saw her. Charles Collins reportedly saw her before his death. Gerard described seeing her the week before he tumbled off a bridge near the property in 1972 and broke his neck. She was seen in the house the week before the daughter of Peter Castle died of influenza (tuberculosis). However, since the 1870s, she's been seen drifting and wandering around the woods and outlaying structures on the property. Alex has no idea as to the identity of this woman.

"I've seen her at least three times, or at least something that looks like her on the estate." He responds. "I think she was the sister-in-law of Charles Collins with whom he'd had an affair, but we've lost her identity in the family records. Problem with that is, she's been seen as early as 1818 which suggests she's a much older spirit. Legend claims witches were hung on the property here in the 17th Century. In 1972, workmen claimed they saw the specter of a woman's body hanging from a tree on the property."

"Up to 1981, things in the house were scary, but no one ever felt in danger here. However, after the Collins family took out everything of personal family value, there was an obvious opportunity to completely redecorate the structure. Fortunately, the Westchester Historical Museum had numerous pieces of historical furniture from the Manhattan Museum of History taking up space in their storage room and we were allowed to pick whatever we wanted to fill the house. We got tables and chairs, art reproductions, restored mirrors in old wooden frames, antique beds, iron candle holders and enough tapestries to cover the entire estate. After we moved things in, things in the house changed and the activity seemed to get darker."

In May 1981, the local Chamber of Commerce rented the house to use for a community fund-raiser. Several of the local elite gathered to raise and donate money for a local charity and "to have cahones scared out of them." During the gathering, everyone present heard the bloodcurdling screams of someone from somewhere in the house. The sounds seemed to come from upstairs, and a thorough search rushed the upstairs, but except for a few people, no one knew why the screams had occurred.

Since then, a suit of armor in the downstairs parlor has been heard to rattle and shake whenever anyone passes by it. One wonders if the sounds are caused by the floorboards under it resonating through it, but a tenant reading in the study has heard moaning from the room as well and been unable to explain it. The armor is one of the pieces from the county museum.

Alex and Eugene have heard the sounds of bagpipe music from the tower, as have other guests, sometimes accompanied by the sounds of an argument. By now, it was obvious the casual style of the hauntings had become more atmospheric. While the sounds in the house always had a sense of unpredictability, they now were accompanied by feelings of dread and being watched. One housekeeper was hired and quit the same day because of sounds in the house following her through the upstairs. Even Claire began to comment that the air up there felt heavy and overwhelming.

In 1983, Alex and Claire had their cottage tented and treated for termites. They were allowed to stay the weekend in the mansion; by now, they felt they were quite used to everything that the Collins Mansion had thrown at them so far, but actually staying in the house overnight was a much different experience than they expected. After the creaking of floorboards, the distant sound of a door opening and closing and a possible voice upstairs, they were very able to get comfortable and retire for the night pretending to be masters of the house. By midnight, however, Claire feverishly and terrified woke Alex to something coming up the stairs.

"It sounded like the sound of a horse being led up the stairs." Alex recalls the terrifying sounds. "Claire and I woke as the sounds echoed through the whole house. The stomping up the stairs, the scuffling of horse shoes, the loud baying of a large horse being pulled against its will up to outside our room and the incoherent sound of a voice yelling at it. We've never encountered anything like that before, and I don't think anyone else ever has here. Claire and I just huddled in fear from the noises until they finally died away, and even then we were so rattled we couldn't peek out because we still felt something was right outside the door waiting on his to come out of the room."

"The most interesting story to have happened so far occurred about a year ago." He continues. "A reporter from the newspaper had wrote a story about the location and had it bumped from the newspaper by the editor who was quite vehement that there was no such thing as ghosts. Eugene met him in a casual setting at a local restaurant, and the friendly bickering about the subject became something of an over-publicized dare. The editor proclaimed he would stay a night in the Collins Mansion and come out with nothing but a good night's rest. I was actually there that night as a witness along with Eugene and a few other men I didn't know. After a vigorous shake down of the room for props and alleged devices, this seemingly educated man retired for the night and settled in. Downstairs, Eugene, James Stern, a publisher, John Karlen, a security guard, Nate Barrett, a historical archivist and I had drinks and wiled away the night playing cards. There were a few creaks and groans as usual, an odd yawning noise from the kitchen and a few shadows we couldn't explain. It was the usual tame stuff that had been going on for years, but after midnight, we all decided to break up the party of cigars and drinks.

"Just after midnight, we heard our educated man screaming his head off, and we rushed to meet him coming down the stairs in his night clothes. He said a woman in white had appeared to him at bedside with two burning blue eyes and had started choking him in bed. Struggling against her, he managed to break free and run from the room. There was no one else in the house, and no one else was found, but in the morning, he had large red bruises on his neck of these small lady-like hands. I think it's the first occasion I've heard of the Lady In White actually in the house and attacking anyone."

Most people to have visited the house say the Lady In White has appeared most often over the years. Charles was heard laughing as recently as 1983 from the hall outside the pantry, and the little girl has been seen fleetingly running from bedroom to bedroom. A workman painting the dining room asked a woman he met if she could bring him a drink, and after he failed to return, he went to inquire about her. His description of her resembled Carlotta. Workmen patching the roof said they saw the Lady In White five times over the course of a week walking around the house. Alex's wife, Claire, has also as felt her as well.

"One Halloween..." Claire responds. "I was helping the local Literary Association put together a Halloween Festival for the local kids. We decorated the dining room, created all these games and were setting out food and refreshments and I was running all over the place getting things ready. Anyway, I was coming through the hallway from the kitchen by myself, and I felt this powerful presence around me. All the hairs on my body went up. It quite literally felt like I had walked into a freezer, but at the same time, I felt dizzy and confused where I was. I've never had a feeling like that before or since, but once I came out of it, I found myself up in the tower room which had once been used as an artist's loft. I don't recall going up there, I have no memory of heading up there and I don't know what made me go up there, but it scared the hell out of me. I mean, if this presence is powerful enough to make me go up there, what else can it do?" 

History: Built and designed in 1838 by Seymour Thomasoff, a Manhattan architect, for owners who never lived here, the estate was surrendered conditionally to Quentin and Daphne Collins, relatives of the modern Collins family of Eastern Maine. Their only heir was Charles Collins, a philanderer who seduced his brother's wife and and murdered his brother. Failing to meet the conditions of the property agreement, Charles lost the estate and it was acquired legally by his cousin, Edward Collins, who used it as a summer home. Edward arranged for a law firm to oversee the upkeep and maintenance of the property during which the cottages on the property were often rented to tenants. In 1972, however, the law firm closed its doors, and Elizabeth Collins-Stoddard, a descendant of Edward, acquired custody. Her cousin, Quentin, a descendant of Edward's brother, Quentin, the great-grand nephew of the first Quentin, used the mansion as a honeymoon retreat with his wife, Maggie Collins, that same year, but there was no interest to keep the property. It passed out of the family in 1975 who donated it to the county. Today, the mansion belongs to the Westchester Riding Association with rooms often loaned or rented to guests. 

Writers Alex and Claire Jenkins, natives of Collinsport, Maine, and friends of Quentin and Maggie, loosely based their novel, "Night of Dark Shadows," on the location and its 1840s history. The story was later the basis of a movie by director Dan Curtis. 

Identity of Ghosts: Over the years, individuals have tried to name the ghosts as best as they could. Since his death in 1843, Charles Collins has definitely been identified as one of the ghosts; his apparition was first seen on August 13, 1943 by a servant less than a week after his funeral. However, he is no where as sinister as the Lady in White which the Jenkins named "Angelique" in their novel, after Angelique Collins, the wife of Barnabas Collins in Maine. Seen often and frequently, she is reported to be the most active apparition on the grounds and in the main house. Former housekeeper Carlotta Drake, who worked here from 1953 to her death in 1972, has also been described going about her duties. The young girl is believed to be Sarah Castle, the daughter of Peter Castle, a friend of Charles Collins, who lived here in the 1840s and died of tuberculosis.

"A lot of the activity can be traced to the museum pieces in the house." Psychic Dawn Rochner reveals. "There's a Fifteenth Century suit of armor, a 17th Century Century oak table from Britain, a huge bed from a castle in Scotland and pieces from a Spanish collection taken from a fortress in the Florida Keys and they all have spirits connected to them. Once rendered dormant in the museum storeroom, Collinwood has stirred them all into activity again, and now, you've got these foreign spirits fighting for dominance over the local spirits. I can feel a lot of antagonism here between these different energies, and unless something is done, it's going to get worse." 

Source/Comments: Night at Dark Shadows (1972) - Activity loosely based on Beatty Mansion in Basking Ridge, New Jersey, the Whaley House in San Diego, California, Skene Manor in Whitehall, New York, Squire's Castle in Cleveland, Ohio and Wrexham Hall in Chesterfield, Virginia.