Stephen King is nothing if not prolific! The illustrious author/screenwriter has been terrifying readers and viewers alike since 1965, when his first macabre tale, “I Was a Teenage Grave Robber,” was published in “Comics Review.” The King of Horror hasn’t slowed down since, releasing more than 60 books and 200 short stories throughout his fabled career, with many of his works adapted for both the big and small screens. His latest offering, “Mr. Harrigan’s Phone,” based on his 2020 novella of the same name, hit Netflix earlier this month.
Billed as a thriller complete with a suitably spooky trailer, in truth the film almost exists in two parts. The first half tells the sweet tale of the years-long friendship that develops between reclusive elderly billionaire Mr. John Harrigan (Donald Sutherland) and Craig (Jaeden Martell), the sensitive young boy he hires to read to him three times weekly. The storyline then takes a dramatic turn, leaning into horror territory, about 40 minutes in when Mr. Harrigan suddenly passes away and Craig discovers his aged confidante can communicate with him from beyond the grave via cryptic iPhone messages, which leads to the departed doing some very evil bidding on the teen’s behalf. Tonal disparity aside, the movie makes for a fun, spooky and thought-provoking watch.
Produced by Blumhouse and Ryan Murphy and adapted for the small screen by John Lee Hancock, of “The Blind Side,” “Saving Mr. Banks” and “The Little Things” fame, the flick is set in Harlow, Maine, a fictional town that Craig’s dad (Joe Tippett) comments “is so small, you could shout and 911 would show up.” Mr. Harrigan’s mansion is purported to sit at the center of the sleepy burg, a massive turreted estate boating a richly paneled library, where Craig earns $5 an hour reciting such classics as “Dombey and Son,” “Heart of Darkness” and “They Shoot Horses, Don’t They?”
In real life, the palatial structure can be found about 300 miles outside of Maine in Norwalk, Conn. And I have excellent news for horror fans because the property is open to the public! Originally built as a private residence for Wall Street titan LeGrand Lockwood, the impressive site currently operates as the Lockwood-Mathews Mansion Museum. Tucked on a grassy 21-acre plot at 295 West Avenue, the sprawling exhibition hall abuts both I-95 and Route 7 in a bustling neighborhood, but when initially constructed, it was very much a country house, far removed from the commotion of city life.
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Image Credit: Lockwood-Mathews Mansion Museum, Library and Conservatory, Sarah Grote Photography Lockwood purchased the vast acreage in 1863 and commissioned Detlef Lienau, a Fellow of the American Institute of Architects, to design the colossal 62-room Second Empire abode the following year. Per the financier’s instructions, the property was to be a “manor house unequaled in America,” as detailed in a 1974 Bridgeport Post article. As such, no expense was spared in its construction, with more than 200 artisans, including cabinet makers, stone cutters and woodworkers, brought in from Europe to engineer the opulent design, a process that took a whopping four years to complete.
The elaborate living spaces, each more striking than the next, were fashioned by the Herter Brothers interior design firm, cabinetmaker/decorator Leon Marcotte and New York designer George Platt. The luxe accommodations included a drawing room, two bowling alleys, a billiards room, a card room, a prayer room, a conservatory, a library outfitted with over 3,000 books, a servants’ floor, a children’s floor, and the pièce de résistance, a dramatic octagon-shaped rotunda formed out of black walnut and capped by two glass skylights towering 42 feet above the extravagant wood flooring below.
So intricately fashioned were the interior spaces, a 1983 Hartford Courant article reported, “There are Near Eastern rooms, Moroccan rooms, French rooms – all designed so the upholstery matches the fireplace molding that matches the inlaid wood floor.”
The pad was also quite technologically advanced for its day, boasting such then-modern amenities as indoor plumbing, central heating, gas lighting and an alarm system to ward off burglars.
The grounds, the design of which is variously attributed to landscape architect William Trubee as well as Central Park mastermind Frederick Law Olmsted, were so vast, per the Hartford Courant, a full-time staff of 80 groundskeepers was required to maintain them!
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Image Credit: Lockwood-Mathews Mansion Museum, Library and Conservatory, Sarah Grote Photography In total, the grandiose estate cost a whopping $2 million to complete, which equates to about $40 million today! Lockwood could afford it, though. As then-museum spokesperson Lynn Hamilton told the Record-Journal in 1988, at the time of the pad’s construction, Lockwood was so immeasurably wealthy that when he looked out of his bedroom window, “he owned everything he saw!” Sadly, his gilded era came to a sudden end less than a year after moving into the manse thanks to the Black Friday financial crisis. Thoroughly devastated fiscally, he was forced to mortgage the property, though he continued living on the premises until his death in 1872.
The mansion was then foreclosed upon the following year, with his widow and children forced out and their custom furnishings and fine art auctioned off to the highest bidders. In 1876, the pad was acquired by wealthy New York merchant Charles Drelincourt Mathews for $90,000, a far cry from the $2 million Lockwood paid to have it constructed less than a decade prior. Though it was apparently in need of repair, the price was an absolute bargain considering the abode was still considered one of the finest in the area. As his daughter later wrote, “Father was captivated by the house. It antedated all the largest Newport residences . . . All our friends had a great deal of curiosity to see the house, for in those days, its reputation seemed to have traveled far.”
The dwelling remained in the hands of the Mathews family through 1939, at which point it was leased to Norwalk to be utilized as a public park. The city purchased the place outright two years later. Variously used as both storage and office space, it did not take long for public officials to begin making plans to raze the historic property. Thankfully, a group of preservationists stepped in and saved it. Following an extensive renovation by the Junior League of Stamford-Norwalk, the museum formally opened to the public in 1967. It continues to undergo regular restoration projects today, resulting in a structure that appears pristinely untouched from its 1860s beginnings.
The facility is open to the public daily and offers a wide array of activities, tours and events, including the upcoming Speakeasy Gala on October 15 and the Halloween-themed Ghosts, Seances & the Great Beyond tours, which run nightly from October 21 through 30. The Lockwood-Mathews Mansion Museum has also become renowned for its annual holiday décor, whereby it is transformed into a winter wonderland complete with towering pine trees, twinkle lights, snowy accents and leafy garlands each December. And it is available for lease as a special events venue and, of course, for filming.
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Image Credit: Netflix -
Image Credit: Lockwood-Mathews Mansion Museum, Library and Conservatory, Sarah Grote Photography The regal estate appears prominently in all of its haunting glory throughout the first half of “Mr. Harrigan’s Phone.”
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Image Credit: Netflix -
Image Credit: Lockwood-Mathews Mansion Museum, Library and Conservatory, Sarah Grote Photography The manse’s interior is featured, as well, most notably the sumptuous library and adjacent conservatory, a virtual nirvana of exquisite black walnut woodwork (all hand-carved), a frescoed coffered ceiling and etched glass.
Filming at the Lockwood-Mathews Mansion Museum began late last October and lasted for five weeks, per TheHour website, with Netflix paying the facility $273,000 for the privilege of shooting on the premises. As Board of Trustees Chair Patsy Brescia told TheHour, “It’s a wonderful opportunity for the mansion to get an influx of funds into our operating account. I also believe it’s an exciting thing for the city of Norwalk and an economic engine that is going to bring some more attention to us.” Indeed, one glimpse of the estate’s sublime architecture had me immediately grabbing my phone to look up where filming had taken place! I was thrilled to discover that the museum is just as glorious in real life as it appeared onscreen.
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Image Credit: Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer “Mr. Harrigan’s Phone” is not the first production to make use of the Lockwood-Mathews Mansion Museum. In fact, the estate boasts quite a lengthy horror film resume, which is no surprise considering its gothic-esque aesthetic lends itself naturally to the genre.
Back in 1970, the dwelling popped up in a heavily distressed state as the abandoned St. Eustace Island monastery where Maggie Evans (Kathryn Leigh Scott) is rescued from Barnabus Collins (Jonathan Frid) at the end of the vampire classic “House of Dark Shadows.”
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Image Credit: Columbia Pictures Described as a “landmark building” constructed by “some railroad tycoon in 1870,” the estate portrayed the mysterious Stepford Men’s Association in 1975’s “The Stepford Wives.”
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Image Credit: Paramount Pictures As a nod to the original, it was also used for interior scenes involving the Men’s Association in Paramount Pictures’ campy 2004 “The Stepford Wives” remake, which starred Christopher Walken, Glenn Close, Nicole Kidman and Matthew Broderick in the leading roles. (Exteriors were shot at Estherwood in Dobbs Ferry, N.Y.)
Interestingly, the museum was the only location reused from the OG movie. As Paramount spokesperson Marsha Robertson told the Record-Journal mid-shoot, “The Lockwood-Mathews Mansion has a gothic, almost fortresslike quality that we think will provide a great visual contrast in the otherwise bucolic town of Stepford.” As part of the deal to film on the premises, the production company agreed to refurbish large portions of the property, including the carpeting and the rotunda, to the tune of about $200,000. Museum executive director Marjorie St. Aubyn told the Record-Journal, “We’re thrilled. With everyone cutting back, it’s terrible for a museum like us to try and raise funds for restoration.” Paramount to the rescue!
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Image Credit: Shiny Boy Music LLC The museum was also featured as the family home of Christina Cole in Cheyenne Jackson’s 2012 “Before You” music video, which took inspiration from such classic black-and-white horror-comedy series as “The Munsters” and “The Addams Family.”