Collins family mausoleum

The Collins family mausoleum was a fictional location featured in the daytime gothic soap opera Dark Shadows, which aired on ABC from 1966 to 1971. The mausoleum made frequent appearances throughout the show and more than a few subplots revolved around this pivotal setting.

The Collins Family mausoleum rests in Eagle Hill Cemetery, a short drive from the family's estate at Collinwood. To the public at large, the mausoleum consists of one chamber containing three coffins sitting upon the floor. Inside the coffins are the remains of Joshua Collins, Naomi Collins, and Sarah Collins.

Although small in comparison to a traditional mausoleum, it was one of the oldest structures in the cemetery, dating all of the way back to the American Revolution. The central chamber of the mausoleum contained three coffins, laid side by side to one another, with a placard on the wall behind them, identifying the remains. They contained the bodies of Joshua Collins, his wife Naomi Collins and their youngest child Sarah, who died when she was still a little girl. What few people knew however was that the mausoleum contained a secret room behind the anterior wall. The door was activated by pulling upon a ring housed within the mouth of a sculpted lion's head above the center of the wall. Originally, this secret room was used by Joshua Collins to storage weapons during the war, but later it became the resting place of a single coffin - the one that belonged to vampire Barnabas Collins, who remained chained and imprisoned within the room from 1796 until he was freed in 1967.

A would be treasure-seeker named Willie Loomis unwittingly discovered the secret chamber at the back of the mausoleum. Mistakenly believing that the chained coffin contained valuable antique jewelry, Willie opened it, thus awakening the slumbering Barnabas Collins.

Sometime later, Barnabas murdered a con man and extortionist named Jason McGuire and buried him in his own coffin inside the secret room of the Collins family mausoleum.

The caretaker of the Eagle Hill Cemetery always suspected that an evil presence surrounded the mausoleum, but never knew just how correct he really was.

House of Dark Shadows
The Collins family mausoleum was a large burial tomb in a privately owned cemetery in Collinsport, Maine. The façade of the mausoleum boasted a large pediment engraved with the name Collins upon it, set between two carvings of the Madonna. A large iron gate opened into a small chamber containing a steep set of stone steps leading downward into a larger burial vault. Two large coffins rested deep inside the mausoleum's inner recesses. Upon one of the walls was a stone relief of a dove and another of a lion. The lion held an iron ring in its mouth, which was actually a trigger to open a door leading into a lower secret chamber. Inside this secondary vault was an ancient coffin, wrapped in chains, containing the body of the vampire, Barnabas Collins. Barnabas' body had remained sealed inside the hidden chamber since 1797.

In June of 1970, Willie Loomis, a handyman working for the Collins family, discovered a doggerel with a riddle describing the secret chamber. Believing it to be the resting place of the Collins family jewels, Willie broke into the chamber and awakened Barnabas Collins.

A short time later, Barnabas attacked and eventually murdered his cousin, Carolyn Stoddard. Her body was laid to rest at the Collins family mausoleum. Carolyn’s fiancé, Todd Blake returned to the tomb the night of her funeral and discovered that Carolyn had risen as a vampire. She attacked him, drinking his blood and leaving him stumbling about in a daze.

Riddle
The following poem is the riddle that Willie Loomis used to find the secret chamber. The novelization featured a slightly different version of the riddle. The author of the riddle remains unknown.


 * Movie version
 * The Madonnas rest high above
 * The Lion’s head watches the dove
 * And in the womb beneath the hill
 * A blazing light glows bright and still


 * Novel version
 * The three Graces spin – high above
 * The lion’s head looks down at the dove
 * And in the womb beneath the hill
 * The secret fire glows bright and still