Entry tags:
Wayne Manor, redux
So I was reading a Batman fic (that I have read before, this was not my first reading) and something snagged my attention that I had just ... never noticed before.
And that is that it mentions a coat closet.
And I thought, Wayne Manor was built back in the days when people had armies of servants. Why would they have a coat closet? You would be greeted by a servant, who would take your coat and whisk it away until you were ready to leave.
I checked the plans of the Carnegie Mansion in New York (which I analyzed before), and sure enough, it does not have a coat closet. Separate Waiting Room and Receiving Room, but no coat closet.
Then I found the plans for the Biltmore Estate, which is out in the country (and so not constrained by the city around it) and of the same era and opulence, but even more ginormous than the Carnegie Mansion. It's the largest private residence ever built in North America, and it's 175k square feet--it's got a TON more guest rooms and also its own gym, swimming pool, bowling alley, etc. You know what it doesn't have? A coat closet. (And closets are marked on these plans.) The servants' areas are either downstairs or way the heck and gone on the opposite corner of the building, so the servants would have to schlepp those garments a long ways to get them out of sight. Ugh. This place is a lot less well-thought-out than the Carnegie mansion; the servant areas especially are not as well-thought-out, but also, just in general, there's a lot that I look at and go "that is so inconvenient, why would you do it that way" which is not a thought I've ever had with the Carnegie mansion.
One of the things that caught my eye about the Biltmore Estate is the Bachelor's wing. I assume that's what it's called, because it's a very self-contained part of the building with very little description, but in the ground/first floor there's a room called the "Bachelor's Wing Hall." Above that is two floors that are just filled with rooms called "Chamber"--obviously guest rooms, but smaller and without special names like the rest of the guest rooms. And, notably, it doesn't connect very well to the rest of the house. On the ground/main/first floor, you can get from there to the rest of the house without going outside. On the second floor (where the chambers start), you can get from those bedrooms to the rest of the house by either going downstairs to the main floor or walking across an outside balcony that takes you over to the master bedroom suite. And if you are given a bedroom on the third floor, you don't even have the outside balcony--you either stay in that wing, or you go down to the first/ground floor and go into the public rooms, or you go down to the second floor and take that outside balcony.
I knew that at least in English Stately Homes, they often had bachelor quarters that were purposefully separated from the main residential part of the building so that the ladies' virtue would be protected from even a hint of scandal, but that is ... very separated. (Also, married men are no less likely to be predators than unmarried men.) I find it funny that not only are the bachelors quarantined, but in order to get into the area where the ladies and couples are staying, they have to go past the host and hostess' rooms. (Or, of course, they could go downstairs, walk to the other side of the building, and go up the main stairs, which will bring them to the area where the female guests would be staying, not even on the same corridor as the master bedrooms.) The regular guest rooms are obviously much swankier than the bachelor's rooms, and they have a living hall on their own floor, whereas the bachelors have to go downstairs if they want to hang out somewhere other than their room.
Also, like the Carnegie Mansion, the Biltmore Estate has not one but two basements. So figure that into your plans of the Batcave and Wayne Manor.
(HOW has that thing not fallen into the caves beneath? Like, even if you posit (as I do) that the batcave is adjacent to Wayne Manor rather than directly below it, so the Manor's foundations are on rock ... rock next to big open caverns is a lot less stable than rock that's solid for a long ways, and that is one really big house.)
And that is that it mentions a coat closet.
And I thought, Wayne Manor was built back in the days when people had armies of servants. Why would they have a coat closet? You would be greeted by a servant, who would take your coat and whisk it away until you were ready to leave.
I checked the plans of the Carnegie Mansion in New York (which I analyzed before), and sure enough, it does not have a coat closet. Separate Waiting Room and Receiving Room, but no coat closet.
Then I found the plans for the Biltmore Estate, which is out in the country (and so not constrained by the city around it) and of the same era and opulence, but even more ginormous than the Carnegie Mansion. It's the largest private residence ever built in North America, and it's 175k square feet--it's got a TON more guest rooms and also its own gym, swimming pool, bowling alley, etc. You know what it doesn't have? A coat closet. (And closets are marked on these plans.) The servants' areas are either downstairs or way the heck and gone on the opposite corner of the building, so the servants would have to schlepp those garments a long ways to get them out of sight. Ugh. This place is a lot less well-thought-out than the Carnegie mansion; the servant areas especially are not as well-thought-out, but also, just in general, there's a lot that I look at and go "that is so inconvenient, why would you do it that way" which is not a thought I've ever had with the Carnegie mansion.
One of the things that caught my eye about the Biltmore Estate is the Bachelor's wing. I assume that's what it's called, because it's a very self-contained part of the building with very little description, but in the ground/first floor there's a room called the "Bachelor's Wing Hall." Above that is two floors that are just filled with rooms called "Chamber"--obviously guest rooms, but smaller and without special names like the rest of the guest rooms. And, notably, it doesn't connect very well to the rest of the house. On the ground/main/first floor, you can get from there to the rest of the house without going outside. On the second floor (where the chambers start), you can get from those bedrooms to the rest of the house by either going downstairs to the main floor or walking across an outside balcony that takes you over to the master bedroom suite. And if you are given a bedroom on the third floor, you don't even have the outside balcony--you either stay in that wing, or you go down to the first/ground floor and go into the public rooms, or you go down to the second floor and take that outside balcony.
I knew that at least in English Stately Homes, they often had bachelor quarters that were purposefully separated from the main residential part of the building so that the ladies' virtue would be protected from even a hint of scandal, but that is ... very separated. (Also, married men are no less likely to be predators than unmarried men.) I find it funny that not only are the bachelors quarantined, but in order to get into the area where the ladies and couples are staying, they have to go past the host and hostess' rooms. (Or, of course, they could go downstairs, walk to the other side of the building, and go up the main stairs, which will bring them to the area where the female guests would be staying, not even on the same corridor as the master bedrooms.) The regular guest rooms are obviously much swankier than the bachelor's rooms, and they have a living hall on their own floor, whereas the bachelors have to go downstairs if they want to hang out somewhere other than their room.
Also, like the Carnegie Mansion, the Biltmore Estate has not one but two basements. So figure that into your plans of the Batcave and Wayne Manor.
(HOW has that thing not fallen into the caves beneath? Like, even if you posit (as I do) that the batcave is adjacent to Wayne Manor rather than directly below it, so the Manor's foundations are on rock ... rock next to big open caverns is a lot less stable than rock that's solid for a long ways, and that is one really big house.)
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