Wildhaven Manor
Wildhaven Manor, in the northern part of Herron Heights, is a sprawling plantation-style campus featuring a number of outbuildings and animal enclosures in addition to sunny fishponds and secluded glades. Its founder and most of its previous owners have been Druids, Rangers, or Animal exploiters of one sort or another, depending on whether they approached the parcel as a chance to protect or to monetize exotic animals.
A 6-acre rectangle crisscrossed by artificial streambeds and cleverly-angled flowerbeds creating the illusion of even greater space, the parcel is one of the largest and most expensive in the district and is under the sponsorship of the Sisters of Regrettable Fortune, who have maintained some portion of control of the property for five generations of ownership. The newest occupants were gifted the property in return for services rendered. It had been most recently used by a Druidic Optimate and his family, who had decided to build out and occupy a more secluded space for their animals and pets further inland, outside of Orendarium itself, taking nearly all their animals with them.
Purpose / Function
A private residence and animal menagerie emphasizing lazy fishpond moats and landscaped ravine barriers rather than cages, thoguh most of the enclosures are currently unoccupied. A pair of Smilodon tigers, two Golden Eagles and an aviary of tropical songbirds is all that was left behind; the
current owners may populate the holding areas how ever they wish.
current owners may populate the holding areas how ever they wish.
Architecture
The style of the main building is a plantation home as might be found on the Optimate and Exultant estates outside of the city proper, though on a smaller scale with only 6 acres to work with. The main building is a nearly square building of stone brick reinforced with steel and painted creamy white to help reflect the sun, supporting large plate glass windows mainly on the eastern and northern sides for morning light with minimal heat. It has a decidedly squared and blocky, nearly flat-roofed appearance distinguished by two squared towers of wood and glass rising from the inner portions of the East-West axis, constructed to improve the natural energy flow according to some Druidic numerological function now lost to time. These towers contain aviaries, one with a mated pair of Golden Eagles (the western tower) which permits their flight and free range, and one enclosed (the eastern tower) with a variety of docile tropical songbirds. It is assumed that most of the Golden Eagles in and around the city and its surrounding forests were hatched at Wildhaven or are related to the pair, and that the pair itself may have changed over the years.
The interior of the main house is mostly neutral tones and polished wood floors, awaiting the designing touches of its new occupants. It consists of two main floors as well as a third floor hall connecting the two towers, with roof-angled attic storage to either side. The towers themselves are accessed by angled ladders for feeding, cleaning, maintenance and other care of the birds. As was the architectural fashion 80+ years ago, the lower floor ceilings are noticably higher than the upper floor, 10' and 7.5' respectively, though the steel bracing used in the original build could easily have supported more floors. The inclusion of steel in the construction of a Druid's mansion may seem ironic and perhaps counter-intuitive, but the reinforcement was necessary as the original design had an entire enclosed, garden-covered upper surface populated with large herbivores - elephants, giraffes and the like - rather than simply the two towers. Just a few years after the building had been finished, those animals and the garden were removed due to the egregious difficulty of properly feeding and caring for huge animals on top of a giant flat roof. The story goes that the husband didn't want to make the change, but had no choice when his wife discovered that giraffe shit mixed with rainwater had begun to leak into one of the upper floor bedrooms, the final straw for her.
The outbuildings found on the grounds follow a more rustic style, bare log builds or wood shakes overgrown with moss and shelf fungi in the places where shade prevails, with pitched slate roofs in most cases though a less study but charming playhouse with a straw roof is nestled in the section of back acreage called the 'fairy garden', built by the previous owner for the use of his two daughters and their playmates. Far more sturdy than any of these, the sturdy guardhouse at the front entrance is fitted granite stone, guarding and overlooking a long oval gravel drive split by a mixed bed of white rose, viburnum and white lilac bushes.
The interior of the main house is mostly neutral tones and polished wood floors, awaiting the designing touches of its new occupants. It consists of two main floors as well as a third floor hall connecting the two towers, with roof-angled attic storage to either side. The towers themselves are accessed by angled ladders for feeding, cleaning, maintenance and other care of the birds. As was the architectural fashion 80+ years ago, the lower floor ceilings are noticably higher than the upper floor, 10' and 7.5' respectively, though the steel bracing used in the original build could easily have supported more floors. The inclusion of steel in the construction of a Druid's mansion may seem ironic and perhaps counter-intuitive, but the reinforcement was necessary as the original design had an entire enclosed, garden-covered upper surface populated with large herbivores - elephants, giraffes and the like - rather than simply the two towers. Just a few years after the building had been finished, those animals and the garden were removed due to the egregious difficulty of properly feeding and caring for huge animals on top of a giant flat roof. The story goes that the husband didn't want to make the change, but had no choice when his wife discovered that giraffe shit mixed with rainwater had begun to leak into one of the upper floor bedrooms, the final straw for her.
The outbuildings found on the grounds follow a more rustic style, bare log builds or wood shakes overgrown with moss and shelf fungi in the places where shade prevails, with pitched slate roofs in most cases though a less study but charming playhouse with a straw roof is nestled in the section of back acreage called the 'fairy garden', built by the previous owner for the use of his two daughters and their playmates. Far more sturdy than any of these, the sturdy guardhouse at the front entrance is fitted granite stone, guarding and overlooking a long oval gravel drive split by a mixed bed of white rose, viburnum and white lilac bushes.
Defenses
The guard tower at the main gate is the primary point of defense. The side of the property facing the street has an 8' high brick wall, with metal gates on either side of the oval drive where it meets the road. The guardhouse features an open-floored second level for archers with a stairway to an angled portion giving a greater range of fire to the sides and below. The stone roof features a mounted ballista armed with 6 bolts the size of fenceposts. It can hold 12 guardsmen comfortably on its 4 levels, with a room in the rear of the tower with bunks for 8 allowing guards to work in shifts. Generally 2 work at ground level, with 1 lookout on the roof and one guard patrolling the grounds at all hours of day and night.
Tourism
Form time to time the property has operated as a public zoo rather than merely a private menagerie, selling tickets from the guard tower and offering food stalls and souveniers in the wide driveway, and though frowned on by some of their more stuffy Optimate neighbors, others hope that perhaps the new owners will once again open some part of their home up as an attraction for those who can afford their ticket price.
Main building map: Main floor, second floor in layers:
Alternative Names
Wildhaven, Wildhaven Park, Wildhaven Plantation
Type
Mansion / Villa
Parent Location
Ruling/Owning Rank
Owning Organization
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