Britannia Manor
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Britannia Manor is the residence of game designer Richard Garriott. The name comes from the castle of Lord British, ruler of Britannia, the setting of the Ultima computer role playing game series, which he created. Britannia Manor is situated atop a large hill near Austin, Texas.
[edit] History
Before 1995, Britannia Manor was famous for hosting the most elaborate haunted house in the country. Garriott spent a great deal of money biannually around Halloween to pay for makeup, tools, construction materials, special effects, and costumes for his haunted house. The actors and techs were all volunteers, many donating hundreds of hours for the honor of being a part of the show, and a free t-shirt. Only two men were paid to work on Britannia Manor, Greg Dykes and Keith Ewing, from local construction company Custom Creations. They oversaw and organized some of the set construction. Invitations to what Garriott thought of as a giant house party were given away free, with the exception of a few shows where tickets were donated to charity and sold for $100 or more. People waited for as long as a week, camped out in front of Garriott's house, to be first in line to receive the free invitations.
Britannia Manor was a full contact Halloween adventure. The events were designed like a role-playing game. Participants would go through Garriott's mountain property in adventuring parties, gathering clues to solve mysteries and quests, while facing different perils and pitfalls. The actors would touch, grab, and physically as well as verbally interact with the guests, who could not simply wander through like in most haunted houses. They would have to swing, crawl, climb, and row their way out. It was not uncommon for parties to lose members in the course of the quest.
The format of an interactive full contact haunted adventure that Richard Garriott created has continued to this day. Many of the volunteers who worked on Britannia Manor, including Keith Ewing, formerly of Custom Creations, transferred Richard's ideas and their talent and enthusiasm to support the Wild Basin Wilderness Preserve in Austin for 9 years from 1996 to 2005 by creating Wild Basin's Haunted Trails. In 2007, many of those volunteers supported Scare for a Cure, a charity haunted house in the Austin Elk's Lodge directed by Jarrett Crippen, aka The Defuser. Scare for a Cure has now incorporated as a non-profit, and will be putting on interactive haunted adventures in support of good causes for years to come.
The manor's medieval design reflects Garriott's interest in the era. The house is adorned with various medieval items such as crossbows, swords, and armour. It features traps and a network of secret passages and rooms. A secret room in the basement contains some of Garriott's most treasured artifacts, including dinosaur fossils, a coffin with a human skeleton inside it, and an authentic 16th century vampire hunting kit. The house also features other collections such as hairs from the Glacier snowman, a brick from the Great Wall of China, a Russian spacesuit, and three stained glass windows retrieved from an abandoned church.
The house also has an observatory in the main complex. Although part of the house, it is structurally independent from the rest of the house in order to damp out vibrations, as they ruin long-exposure space photos.
Britannia Manor was designed by designer/architect, Alan Barley, of Barley & Pfeiffer Architects in Austin, Texas. In 1996, Garriott hired a different architect to design another house on a nearby riverfront property. The property is situated atop a bluff overlooking the Austin, Texas skyline, the 360 Bridge, and Lake Austin. It also has a rotating observatory and will be more castle than house. Construction on this house was delayed for some time, but has resumed.
[edit] Curtain Theater
On the waterfront portion of the property, Garriott has built a scaled replica of an Elizabethan outdoor theater called the Curtain, after the original Curtain Theatre. Capable of seating well over a hundred, Garriott's Curtain theater is modeled after the style also replicated in full-scale by Sam Wanamaker's Globe Theatre replica in Southwark, on the south bank of the Thames, in an area known as Bankside.
[edit] External links
- 2005 KRLU Interview with Richard about his House (includes Video of the House)
- Complete description of Britannia Manor Haunted House in 1988
- Complete description of Britannia Manor Haunted House in 1994
- New Lord British castle under construction on Google Maps
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