Avalon House
22 Price Road

The brainchild of famed local medium Charity Sullivan, Avalon House was constructed in phases over a period of thirteen years, beginning in 1891 and ending in 1904. The very erection of the manor would seem on the surface to run counter to Charity's strict instruction to leave Shrouded Hollows to the dead, but in point of fact, Avalon House was never intended for the living. The place is a vast, twisting maze, rich in symbolism and designed to serve as a miniature city, perhaps even an entire world, in which restless spirits could be housed and through which they could be contacted. The house does make some accomodations for living visitors, including the expected spirit parlors as well as a kitchen and dining hall and bedrooms in which visitors could commune with the spirits while sleeping. Beyond those chambers in the relatively small central section of the building, there are secret passages, doors and staircases to nowhere, sudden drops, windows and doors that open onto blank walls, and many other architectural features reminiscent of such better-known landmarks as the Winchester Mystery House.

Many of these features are now accessible to the general public, through daily tours conducted by the New Albion Spiritualist Association, which now owns and maintains the manor and its grounds. The spirit parlors even continue to see frequent use, mostly in the form of closed seances, and the Association allows a small, very select number of guests to sleep in the bedrooms each year. That said, however, very little of the manor is routinely seen by human eyes, and rumors persist of strange and wondrous things hidden throughout all the closed areas of the building: miniature representations of world cities, strange shining portals behind locked and bolted doors, tunnels and chambers designed to represent the organs of the human body, shadowed rooms where spirits whisper aloud and mazes of glass through which strange, shining words and images float freely. A few people have managed to break into the closed portions over the years, and not all of them have returned, as the manor is filled with dangers for the unwary. Those who have come back tell numerous, frequently conflicting stories -- and, of course, the Association refuses to confirm any details or even whether or not the alleged break-ins actually took place. Avalon House's security is extremely tight, and the Association prefers to keep its reputation even tighter.