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Willowford Estate; Gotham Landmark
Topic Started: Jan 27 2018, 06:16 PM (25 Views)
Trouble
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In 1910, Orville Cobblepot returned from business in Lousiana with a new wife. Annabelle (nee Lavette) Cobblepot was a beautiful but sickly woman. Before the Civil War, the Levettes had been one of Louisiana’s most prominent aristocratic families, but the war had a devastating effect on both their wealth and social standing. By the 20th century, they were a destitute and failing bloodline, living in a crumbling plantation, too proud or too afraid to find a future in the modern world. The socialites of Gotham were in equal parts surprised and amused to see the portly and boorish Cobblepot return with a dainty southern belle on his arm. Many saw it as a clumsy attempt by Cobblepot to buy his way into credibility in Gotham’s notoriously elite old money social circles. But what few friends Cobblepot had in these circles claimed that his love for Annabelle was deep and abiding.

Unfortunately, the wet and dreary temperament of Gotham City did little to help Annabelle’s already fragile composure. She grew weaker and more sullen, and even the most passive of social outings wore on her greatly. So it was that Cobblepot began construction on Willowford Manor. Rumors rose once more in high society as to the intent of Cobblepot’s new project. Was it another awkward ploy at buying the approval of his betters, or was it a tragic gesture to his one great love? What no one doubted were the ambitions of his venture.

He took every imaginable pain to replicate the life his young wife had once known. Flora was uprooted from Louisiana, and fauna was transferred in the greatest terraforming project Gotham City has ever seen. The intent was to recreate the bayou in Annabelle’s new home. One of the south’s most esteemed architects was put on retainer to draft blueprints and oversee construction of the massive, sprawling plantation house. Annabelle would pass five years later, before she could see her dream home complete. But Cobblepot continued with an almost supernatural drive. Plans were drafted, torn up, redrafted. Entire wings of the sprawling house were torn down or repurposed, new rooms and features built beside and atop of one another with little apparent rhyme or reason to anyone but Cobblepot. By the time of Orville’s death in 1939, the estate was home to two tennis courts, three gazebos, a marble games parlor with attached bowling alley, not one but three ballrooms, and a full film theater (He had immediately insisted upon having it built, upon reading a New Yorker article in which Howard Hughes spoke of his own). It was also practically unlivable. Secret passageways criss-crossed the manor, doorways led seemingly to nowhere, and the layout of the home made no sense for the practical logistics of how people live. The unfinished project was a remarkably transparent vision into the psyche of a man consumed by solitude and insecurity.

When Orville died, he left no legacy but debts. Ownership of Willowford Estate passed to the Gotham Heritage Society, but the exorbitant costs of maintaining the property along with budget cuts in the late 80s resulted in the land being sold off to a private trust. Five years ago, it passed to private owners. Today, it’s the residence of one Talia Bahteri and official embassy for the Bialyan trade envoy.
Edited by Trouble, Feb 13 2018, 08:26 PM.
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