Post by Administrator on May 6, 2007 19:09:45 GMT -5
Built on a sprawling estate in the 1700’s by a Dutch ancestor of Charles Xavier’s, the mansion was originally built from stone on the edge of Breakstone Lake. Over the years, it has been destroyed on several occasions, but each time rebuilt and updated (to include advanced technology from the Shi‘ar Empire), using the format and style of the original, until recently, when the mansion was rebuilt with an entirely new design.
Originally passing to the public as the Xavier School for Gifted Youngsters, when the majority of X-Men no longer were “youngsters“ the school was renamed to Xavier Institute for Higher Learning. As home to the X-Men, the Institute is often referred to as the “X-Men mansion“ or even “X-mansion”. It is located three miles outside of Salem Center and some forty miles outside of New York City.
The Institute’s address is:
XXXXX 1407 Graymalkin Lane
XXXXX Salem Center
XXXXX Westchester County
XXXXX New York
XXXXX United States of America
Know a good Redecorator ?
As already mentioned above, the mansion was destroyed several times and rebuilt, each time even better than before. This is supposed to be a brief overview of the occasions when the mansion was almost totally leveled, or when there were rather drastic changes to it.
Back in the early days, before Xavier had even recruited his first generation of X-Men, he was introduced to the mysterious time traveler, who called himself Cable. In exchange for teaching him how to get along in present day society, Cable helped the professor to upgrade the mansion with future technology, way ahead of its time. [Cable (2nd series) #45] There were only very few villains who would attack the X-Men at their home and, other from the Juggernaut knocking a hole through one of the outer walls, there was hardly any real damage to the building.
Probably the first time that several floors and different sections of the mansion were destroyed was on a Christmas Eve, when Kitty Pryde was hunted by a N’Garai demon. Freshly joined, the inexperienced mutant teenager ran for her life and led the creature on a wild goose chase, Storm’s attic, the Danger Room and even the hanger bay all being trashed in the process. The mansion’s exterior, though, wasn’t harmed and, when Kitty’s parents arrived for a surprise visit, they wouldn’t even notice what had transpired there earlier that evening. [Uncanny X-Men #143]
The X-Men had barely finished making repairs when the house was almost entirely taken down by the alien Sidri. Only Storm and Cyclops present at the moment, they were hopelessly outnumbered and were lucky to stay alive. There was nothing they could have down to keep the house intact. [Uncanny X-Men #154]
For a brief time, the X-Men re-located their base of operations to an island in the Bermuda Triangle that Magneto had been using as his headquarters before. In the meantime, the mansion was repaired and upgraded with Shi’ar technology, a gift from princess Lilandra to her lover, Charles Xavier. [Uncanny X-Men #163-164]
The next time the mansion was leveled was when it was blown up by Mr. Sinister at the end of Inferno. With Professor Xavier far away in outer space and the X-Men letting the world believe them dead, the mansion was left as it was. The underground levels were still intact, but the security hatch leading to these areas was sealed shut so that nobody would exploit the equipment. [Uncanny X-Men #243, 254] The New Mutants were offered to live in X-Factor’s ship, which they did for a short while, though when Cable took over the group, they moved into these sub-areas underneath the ruins. [New Mutants (1st series) #90]
Only after Xavier returned to Earth, and the original five X-Men returned to the fold, was the mansion rebuilt. Forge’s mutant power to invent technology sure came in rather handy at the time. [X-Men (2nd series) #1]
The next time the mansion sustained some massive damage, Professor Xavier himself was the culprit, or actually his alter ego, Onslaught. However, despite there being gaping holes in the walls and floors all over the building, it was still inhabitable afterwards, and the repairs didn’t take as long as in those other incidents described above. [Onslaught: X-Men]
Something rather unique happened when Operation: Zero Tolerance had targeted the X-Men. With all the team either captured or busy fighting for their lives, Bastion had a special group of operatives strip the mansion bare of anything but the naked walls and floors. Their equipment, the furniture, personal belongings – all stolen. [X-Men (2nd series) #70]
Some of the X-Men being rich and others having stashed away some money, eventually the missing property was replaced. After the school went public, and over one hundred new students enrolled, a new dorm building was erected. Rather appropriately, it was in the shape of the letter X. [New X-Men #122] The dorm didn’t survive for long, though, along with the rest of the mansion it was blown up by the Magneto imposter, who had been hiding among the X-Men behind the mask of Xorn. [New X-Men #147]
Following this disaster, Professor Xavier has turned his back on Westchester, and for a brief time it was not even sure whether the school would be re-opened. Fortunately, Emma Frost convinced her lover, Scott Summers, to run the Institute together with her. Under their eyes, a new mansion was built, this time no longer matching its predecessors in shape and design. It even seems to be the case that it’s been built on a different spot of the Xavier Estate, it now standing right beside the edge of the Breakstone Lake. The new mansion is much larger than the old one to accommodate for the high number of students attending the school. [Uncanny X-Men #444, Astonishing X-Men (3rd series) #1]
The Old Mansion
First Floor: The first floor of the mansion was not unlike any other average mansion, as it consisted of the main entrance to the mansion, a large kitchen and dining room, a large library, informal sitting rooms, Charles Xavier’s personal space, as well as his office and a grand staircase that led to the second floor. However, the main Cerebro terminal was also on the first floor - something not all mansions can boast to owning.
Second Floor: The second floor is mainly comprised of living quarters for the many X-Men and later the New Mutants, who lived at Xavier’s. At times, the X-Men had one wing, while the New Mutants had another. On other occasions, it seemed liked one wing was for the men, the other for the women. Each person was allowed to decorate their living quarters to suit their taste. Best friends Kitty Pryde and Illyana Rasputin even shared quarters. Xavier also has living quarters on the second floor, directly above his ground floor space. Bathrooms were plentiful and scattered throughout both wings. Much later, though, with two teams of X-Men and X-Force temporarily residing at the mansion, things got rather crowded.
The Attic: The only member of the X-Men who did not sleep in the quarters was Storm, who instead had a much larger space in the attic, where she was able to keep an exotic array of plants and flowers. [first seen in X-Men (1st series) #109] Through a huge skylight she could enter and leave without having to pass through the entire building. The attic also held a large playroom and much storage space.
The Basement: The first sub-level of the mansion served as a regular basement - a large book storage, space to store unneeded furniture, a large laundry room, hot water cylinders, oil heater and fuel supply’s, the auxiliary generator and wine cellar. There was also a psi-shielded room, the so-called Z’Nox chamber, where Xavier spent weeks in isolation to prepare for an imminent alien invasion. [first seen in Uncanny X-Men #334] Situated in the basement, as well were the main computer memory and the Shi’ar back-up power supply.
Sub-Basement - Level One: The sub-basements of the mansion were more recent additions, not part of the original design of the mansion. The first sub-basement was decked out with various labs - chemical, physics, and electronics, as well as large medical research and operating rooms. A 25-bed recovery room, and robotics research development rounded out the first side of the sub-basement. The second side was comprised of a regular gymnasium, pool, artificial sun deck, sauna, steam room, massage room and showers. Additionally, the high-speed personnel transport rail cars were linked from this sub-basement to the hanger bay.
Sub-Basement - Level Two: The second sub-basement had a lot of Shi’ar technology added into it, and was full of various defense mechanisms to support the powerful technology. One of the main aspects of this level was the famous Danger Room. Whereas the original Danger Room was on the mansions first floor, the second, improved one was much larger and had Shi’ar technology weaved into it to create very-real situations to test the X-Men and New Mutants’ battle strategy and teamwork. The Danger Room was restricted access and clearance was needed to get into it. The rest of this level was comprised of the important Ready Room and mission planning facilities like a small library, Cerebro and crime files which were on back up computers, and emergency reserve living quarters.
The New Mansion
The new mansion is of a totally different design, it and the adjunct buildings forming the shape of an ‘X,’ now including additions such as an atrium and an observation tower. Cyclops and Emma Frost, as the headmasters of the Institute, have their own offices, as does Xavier. The Mansion retains the same classic feel that it always had in the previous design, and is still equipped with advanced Shi’ar technology. Many features, such as the Olympic sized swimming pool, stables and boathouse remain, though some new ones include the hedge maze, and the Phoenix Memorial Statue, in memoriam of Jean Grey.
As with the original mansion, the X-Men are allowed to personalize their living quarters. However, the students are required to share dorm rooms, such as Wallflower and Wind Dancer, both who have become good friends and don’t mind the situation. Sometimes, though, the students who are forced to share rooms are not as close, which often leads to conflict and misunderstandings. Dust and Surge are a good example of that.
In the new mansion, nothing is the same anymore. Everything has been updated and modernized. For example, the new and improved Danger Room has now an observation hub on top of the room, from where the entire room can be observed, as opposed to the control booth of the old room that was built into one of the side walls.
There’s also a cafeteria to feed the large student body, built under a huge glass dome. The old mansion was not suited at all to handle this many people’s different needs, but there are no such problems with the new cafeteria anymore.
The Residents
Over the years, the mansion has been home to quite many people. It is owned by Professor Charles Xavier, founder and former mentor to the X-Men, who grew up and originally lived there with his parents, Dr. Brian and Sharon Xavier, and later on with his mother’s second husband, Dr. Kurt Marko, and his stepbrother, Cain Marko. About two decades later, Charles invited his lover, Amelia Voght, whom he had met in India, to live in the mansion with him, which she did, until she ended their relationship.
Nearly every member of an official X-Men team lived in the mansion at one point or the other, the sole exceptions being Lifeguard and Slipstream, two members of the X-Treme X-Men under Storm’s leadership:
Cyclops, Iceman, Archangel, Beast, Phoenix IV (Jean Grey-Summers), Mimic, Changeling, Polaris, Havok, Nightcrawler, Wolverine, Banshee, Storm, Sunfire, Colossus, Thunderbird I (John Proudstar), Phoenix II (Jean Grey & Phoenix Force), Shadowcat, Rogue, Marvel Girl III (Rachel Summers), Magneto, Psylocke, Dazzler, Longshot, Jubilee, Forge, Gambit, Bishop, Revanche, Cannonball II, Joseph, Cecilia Reyes, Maggott, Marrow, Cable, Thunderbird III (Neal Shaara), Moonstar, Sage, Chamber, Emma Frost, Stacy X, Xorn, Northstar, Husk, Juggernaut
Same with the New Mutants, the second group that Xavier started to train in the use of their powers. Of them, only Skids and Rusty never had the chance to move into the Institute:
Karma, Wolfsbane, Moonstar, Sunspot, Cannonball II, Magma, Magik I (Illyana Rasputin), Warlock, Cypher, Boom-Boom, Rictor, Warpath, Shatterstar, Feral
Long after the team had been renamed to X-Force, they briefly returned to Xavier’s when their own headquarters were destroyed. At the time, the team’s line-up included: Meltdown, Cable, Warpath, Siryn, Shatterstar, Domino II, Caliban and Sunspot.
To deal with the rather large students body (far too many to be listed here, but we’ll provide a link, once we have worked out an overview of them), Xavier’s always had some staff and faculty living on the grounds as well. People with special functions would be Dr. Moira MacTaggert, who acted as a housekeeper for a while, school nurse Annie Ghazikhanian, along with her son Carter, physical instructor Stevie Hunter and Tom Corsi and Sharon Friedlander, a former cop and nurse, who were transformed into native Americans during an attack of the Demon Bear.
Other long-term guests include Xavier’s lover, Shi’ar princess Lilandra, and Carol Danvers, while she was trying to get over the loss of her Ms. Marvel powers. Also, when Xavier attempted to rehabilitate him, Sabretooth was held in a special cell in the mansion’s basement.
The Xavier Estate
While the mansion may be the central part of the estate, the grounds also include a boathouse and docks, Japanese gardens, a communications tower, stables and a massive underground complex, which hides from public view the X-Jet runway, hangar bays, the high-speed monorail, which carries personnel to and from the mansion and hangar area, and the special sub-basements of the mansion. An Olympic sized swimming pool is located to the rear of the mansion, along with patios and decking for outdoor entertaining and recreation. The entire mansion and all of the surrounding estate is filled with advanced security systems that detect for intruders.
The Xavier Estate covers a considerable area between Graymalkin Lane and the Breakstone Lake. The first time that there was a body of water mentioned to be on the Estate was in X-Men (1st series) #29, when the X-Men went ice-skating on a frozen “pond.” It is unknown whether this was actually the lake or not, but it was undoubtedly shown during the X-Men’s picnic in X-Men (1st series) #109. Since then, the lake has been an integral part of the Xavier Estate’s portrayal. The residents of Xavier have been shown to spend their spare time at the lake every now and then, and the new mansion seems to be built right next to the edge of the lake. Forge also once used the Lake to stash away the team’s Blackbird jet, when he provided the X-Men with a more capable jet and there wasn’t enough space in the hangar.
There’s a small boathouse by the lake’s shoreline, which was first shown in New Mutants (1st series) #13. While not much used in the early days, eventually the newlyweds Scott Summers and Jean Grey moved into the boathouse to have some privacy. Later, after they had left the team, Gambit temporarily lived in the boathouse because the X-Men had only recently learned of his involvement in the Mutant Massacre and still didn’t trust him.
Right next to the new mansion, there’s now a hedge maze. It sure must be fun for the teenage students to explore it, or to secretly meet there with someone whom they have a crush on. The hedge maze also was the setting for the latest students‘ first Field Day, a specific training where two squads have to compete against each other. [New X-Men: Academy X #3]
Somewhere in the woods, there’s a small shack that Logan built, first seen in Uncanny X-Men #365. It was there that student Angel Salvadore placed her eggs, still confused that her pregnancy cycle was more like that of a fly, rather than a human being. After the babies hatched, she and Beak moved into the shack, where they have been raising the kids together. That is, until the Beak became unhinged from time and was picked up by the reality-hopping Exiles.
Also in the woods, there’s a spot where the walls between dimensions are rather thin. Several times when the N‘Garai demons have tried to invade Earth, one of their cairn materialized there, but each time the creatures were fought back and the cairn was destroyed. [first in X-Men (1st series) #96]
The worst things that ever happen to Xavier are seeing his students dying. On the estate there is a small chapel to mourn the ones that have fallen, along with a graveyard. [first in Uncanny X-Men #304] When the new mansion was built, there was also a memorial garden added, with statues of the deceased serving as a painful reminder to future generations of X-Men that super-heroing is more than plain fun.
Pictures:
Originally passing to the public as the Xavier School for Gifted Youngsters, when the majority of X-Men no longer were “youngsters“ the school was renamed to Xavier Institute for Higher Learning. As home to the X-Men, the Institute is often referred to as the “X-Men mansion“ or even “X-mansion”. It is located three miles outside of Salem Center and some forty miles outside of New York City.
The Institute’s address is:
XXXXX 1407 Graymalkin Lane
XXXXX Salem Center
XXXXX Westchester County
XXXXX New York
XXXXX United States of America
Know a good Redecorator ?
As already mentioned above, the mansion was destroyed several times and rebuilt, each time even better than before. This is supposed to be a brief overview of the occasions when the mansion was almost totally leveled, or when there were rather drastic changes to it.
Back in the early days, before Xavier had even recruited his first generation of X-Men, he was introduced to the mysterious time traveler, who called himself Cable. In exchange for teaching him how to get along in present day society, Cable helped the professor to upgrade the mansion with future technology, way ahead of its time. [Cable (2nd series) #45] There were only very few villains who would attack the X-Men at their home and, other from the Juggernaut knocking a hole through one of the outer walls, there was hardly any real damage to the building.
Probably the first time that several floors and different sections of the mansion were destroyed was on a Christmas Eve, when Kitty Pryde was hunted by a N’Garai demon. Freshly joined, the inexperienced mutant teenager ran for her life and led the creature on a wild goose chase, Storm’s attic, the Danger Room and even the hanger bay all being trashed in the process. The mansion’s exterior, though, wasn’t harmed and, when Kitty’s parents arrived for a surprise visit, they wouldn’t even notice what had transpired there earlier that evening. [Uncanny X-Men #143]
The X-Men had barely finished making repairs when the house was almost entirely taken down by the alien Sidri. Only Storm and Cyclops present at the moment, they were hopelessly outnumbered and were lucky to stay alive. There was nothing they could have down to keep the house intact. [Uncanny X-Men #154]
For a brief time, the X-Men re-located their base of operations to an island in the Bermuda Triangle that Magneto had been using as his headquarters before. In the meantime, the mansion was repaired and upgraded with Shi’ar technology, a gift from princess Lilandra to her lover, Charles Xavier. [Uncanny X-Men #163-164]
The next time the mansion was leveled was when it was blown up by Mr. Sinister at the end of Inferno. With Professor Xavier far away in outer space and the X-Men letting the world believe them dead, the mansion was left as it was. The underground levels were still intact, but the security hatch leading to these areas was sealed shut so that nobody would exploit the equipment. [Uncanny X-Men #243, 254] The New Mutants were offered to live in X-Factor’s ship, which they did for a short while, though when Cable took over the group, they moved into these sub-areas underneath the ruins. [New Mutants (1st series) #90]
Only after Xavier returned to Earth, and the original five X-Men returned to the fold, was the mansion rebuilt. Forge’s mutant power to invent technology sure came in rather handy at the time. [X-Men (2nd series) #1]
The next time the mansion sustained some massive damage, Professor Xavier himself was the culprit, or actually his alter ego, Onslaught. However, despite there being gaping holes in the walls and floors all over the building, it was still inhabitable afterwards, and the repairs didn’t take as long as in those other incidents described above. [Onslaught: X-Men]
Something rather unique happened when Operation: Zero Tolerance had targeted the X-Men. With all the team either captured or busy fighting for their lives, Bastion had a special group of operatives strip the mansion bare of anything but the naked walls and floors. Their equipment, the furniture, personal belongings – all stolen. [X-Men (2nd series) #70]
Some of the X-Men being rich and others having stashed away some money, eventually the missing property was replaced. After the school went public, and over one hundred new students enrolled, a new dorm building was erected. Rather appropriately, it was in the shape of the letter X. [New X-Men #122] The dorm didn’t survive for long, though, along with the rest of the mansion it was blown up by the Magneto imposter, who had been hiding among the X-Men behind the mask of Xorn. [New X-Men #147]
Following this disaster, Professor Xavier has turned his back on Westchester, and for a brief time it was not even sure whether the school would be re-opened. Fortunately, Emma Frost convinced her lover, Scott Summers, to run the Institute together with her. Under their eyes, a new mansion was built, this time no longer matching its predecessors in shape and design. It even seems to be the case that it’s been built on a different spot of the Xavier Estate, it now standing right beside the edge of the Breakstone Lake. The new mansion is much larger than the old one to accommodate for the high number of students attending the school. [Uncanny X-Men #444, Astonishing X-Men (3rd series) #1]
The Old Mansion
First Floor: The first floor of the mansion was not unlike any other average mansion, as it consisted of the main entrance to the mansion, a large kitchen and dining room, a large library, informal sitting rooms, Charles Xavier’s personal space, as well as his office and a grand staircase that led to the second floor. However, the main Cerebro terminal was also on the first floor - something not all mansions can boast to owning.
Second Floor: The second floor is mainly comprised of living quarters for the many X-Men and later the New Mutants, who lived at Xavier’s. At times, the X-Men had one wing, while the New Mutants had another. On other occasions, it seemed liked one wing was for the men, the other for the women. Each person was allowed to decorate their living quarters to suit their taste. Best friends Kitty Pryde and Illyana Rasputin even shared quarters. Xavier also has living quarters on the second floor, directly above his ground floor space. Bathrooms were plentiful and scattered throughout both wings. Much later, though, with two teams of X-Men and X-Force temporarily residing at the mansion, things got rather crowded.
The Attic: The only member of the X-Men who did not sleep in the quarters was Storm, who instead had a much larger space in the attic, where she was able to keep an exotic array of plants and flowers. [first seen in X-Men (1st series) #109] Through a huge skylight she could enter and leave without having to pass through the entire building. The attic also held a large playroom and much storage space.
The Basement: The first sub-level of the mansion served as a regular basement - a large book storage, space to store unneeded furniture, a large laundry room, hot water cylinders, oil heater and fuel supply’s, the auxiliary generator and wine cellar. There was also a psi-shielded room, the so-called Z’Nox chamber, where Xavier spent weeks in isolation to prepare for an imminent alien invasion. [first seen in Uncanny X-Men #334] Situated in the basement, as well were the main computer memory and the Shi’ar back-up power supply.
Sub-Basement - Level One: The sub-basements of the mansion were more recent additions, not part of the original design of the mansion. The first sub-basement was decked out with various labs - chemical, physics, and electronics, as well as large medical research and operating rooms. A 25-bed recovery room, and robotics research development rounded out the first side of the sub-basement. The second side was comprised of a regular gymnasium, pool, artificial sun deck, sauna, steam room, massage room and showers. Additionally, the high-speed personnel transport rail cars were linked from this sub-basement to the hanger bay.
Sub-Basement - Level Two: The second sub-basement had a lot of Shi’ar technology added into it, and was full of various defense mechanisms to support the powerful technology. One of the main aspects of this level was the famous Danger Room. Whereas the original Danger Room was on the mansions first floor, the second, improved one was much larger and had Shi’ar technology weaved into it to create very-real situations to test the X-Men and New Mutants’ battle strategy and teamwork. The Danger Room was restricted access and clearance was needed to get into it. The rest of this level was comprised of the important Ready Room and mission planning facilities like a small library, Cerebro and crime files which were on back up computers, and emergency reserve living quarters.
The New Mansion
The new mansion is of a totally different design, it and the adjunct buildings forming the shape of an ‘X,’ now including additions such as an atrium and an observation tower. Cyclops and Emma Frost, as the headmasters of the Institute, have their own offices, as does Xavier. The Mansion retains the same classic feel that it always had in the previous design, and is still equipped with advanced Shi’ar technology. Many features, such as the Olympic sized swimming pool, stables and boathouse remain, though some new ones include the hedge maze, and the Phoenix Memorial Statue, in memoriam of Jean Grey.
As with the original mansion, the X-Men are allowed to personalize their living quarters. However, the students are required to share dorm rooms, such as Wallflower and Wind Dancer, both who have become good friends and don’t mind the situation. Sometimes, though, the students who are forced to share rooms are not as close, which often leads to conflict and misunderstandings. Dust and Surge are a good example of that.
In the new mansion, nothing is the same anymore. Everything has been updated and modernized. For example, the new and improved Danger Room has now an observation hub on top of the room, from where the entire room can be observed, as opposed to the control booth of the old room that was built into one of the side walls.
There’s also a cafeteria to feed the large student body, built under a huge glass dome. The old mansion was not suited at all to handle this many people’s different needs, but there are no such problems with the new cafeteria anymore.
The Residents
Over the years, the mansion has been home to quite many people. It is owned by Professor Charles Xavier, founder and former mentor to the X-Men, who grew up and originally lived there with his parents, Dr. Brian and Sharon Xavier, and later on with his mother’s second husband, Dr. Kurt Marko, and his stepbrother, Cain Marko. About two decades later, Charles invited his lover, Amelia Voght, whom he had met in India, to live in the mansion with him, which she did, until she ended their relationship.
Nearly every member of an official X-Men team lived in the mansion at one point or the other, the sole exceptions being Lifeguard and Slipstream, two members of the X-Treme X-Men under Storm’s leadership:
Cyclops, Iceman, Archangel, Beast, Phoenix IV (Jean Grey-Summers), Mimic, Changeling, Polaris, Havok, Nightcrawler, Wolverine, Banshee, Storm, Sunfire, Colossus, Thunderbird I (John Proudstar), Phoenix II (Jean Grey & Phoenix Force), Shadowcat, Rogue, Marvel Girl III (Rachel Summers), Magneto, Psylocke, Dazzler, Longshot, Jubilee, Forge, Gambit, Bishop, Revanche, Cannonball II, Joseph, Cecilia Reyes, Maggott, Marrow, Cable, Thunderbird III (Neal Shaara), Moonstar, Sage, Chamber, Emma Frost, Stacy X, Xorn, Northstar, Husk, Juggernaut
Same with the New Mutants, the second group that Xavier started to train in the use of their powers. Of them, only Skids and Rusty never had the chance to move into the Institute:
Karma, Wolfsbane, Moonstar, Sunspot, Cannonball II, Magma, Magik I (Illyana Rasputin), Warlock, Cypher, Boom-Boom, Rictor, Warpath, Shatterstar, Feral
Long after the team had been renamed to X-Force, they briefly returned to Xavier’s when their own headquarters were destroyed. At the time, the team’s line-up included: Meltdown, Cable, Warpath, Siryn, Shatterstar, Domino II, Caliban and Sunspot.
To deal with the rather large students body (far too many to be listed here, but we’ll provide a link, once we have worked out an overview of them), Xavier’s always had some staff and faculty living on the grounds as well. People with special functions would be Dr. Moira MacTaggert, who acted as a housekeeper for a while, school nurse Annie Ghazikhanian, along with her son Carter, physical instructor Stevie Hunter and Tom Corsi and Sharon Friedlander, a former cop and nurse, who were transformed into native Americans during an attack of the Demon Bear.
Other long-term guests include Xavier’s lover, Shi’ar princess Lilandra, and Carol Danvers, while she was trying to get over the loss of her Ms. Marvel powers. Also, when Xavier attempted to rehabilitate him, Sabretooth was held in a special cell in the mansion’s basement.
The Xavier Estate
While the mansion may be the central part of the estate, the grounds also include a boathouse and docks, Japanese gardens, a communications tower, stables and a massive underground complex, which hides from public view the X-Jet runway, hangar bays, the high-speed monorail, which carries personnel to and from the mansion and hangar area, and the special sub-basements of the mansion. An Olympic sized swimming pool is located to the rear of the mansion, along with patios and decking for outdoor entertaining and recreation. The entire mansion and all of the surrounding estate is filled with advanced security systems that detect for intruders.
The Xavier Estate covers a considerable area between Graymalkin Lane and the Breakstone Lake. The first time that there was a body of water mentioned to be on the Estate was in X-Men (1st series) #29, when the X-Men went ice-skating on a frozen “pond.” It is unknown whether this was actually the lake or not, but it was undoubtedly shown during the X-Men’s picnic in X-Men (1st series) #109. Since then, the lake has been an integral part of the Xavier Estate’s portrayal. The residents of Xavier have been shown to spend their spare time at the lake every now and then, and the new mansion seems to be built right next to the edge of the lake. Forge also once used the Lake to stash away the team’s Blackbird jet, when he provided the X-Men with a more capable jet and there wasn’t enough space in the hangar.
There’s a small boathouse by the lake’s shoreline, which was first shown in New Mutants (1st series) #13. While not much used in the early days, eventually the newlyweds Scott Summers and Jean Grey moved into the boathouse to have some privacy. Later, after they had left the team, Gambit temporarily lived in the boathouse because the X-Men had only recently learned of his involvement in the Mutant Massacre and still didn’t trust him.
Right next to the new mansion, there’s now a hedge maze. It sure must be fun for the teenage students to explore it, or to secretly meet there with someone whom they have a crush on. The hedge maze also was the setting for the latest students‘ first Field Day, a specific training where two squads have to compete against each other. [New X-Men: Academy X #3]
Somewhere in the woods, there’s a small shack that Logan built, first seen in Uncanny X-Men #365. It was there that student Angel Salvadore placed her eggs, still confused that her pregnancy cycle was more like that of a fly, rather than a human being. After the babies hatched, she and Beak moved into the shack, where they have been raising the kids together. That is, until the Beak became unhinged from time and was picked up by the reality-hopping Exiles.
Also in the woods, there’s a spot where the walls between dimensions are rather thin. Several times when the N‘Garai demons have tried to invade Earth, one of their cairn materialized there, but each time the creatures were fought back and the cairn was destroyed. [first in X-Men (1st series) #96]
The worst things that ever happen to Xavier are seeing his students dying. On the estate there is a small chapel to mourn the ones that have fallen, along with a graveyard. [first in Uncanny X-Men #304] When the new mansion was built, there was also a memorial garden added, with statues of the deceased serving as a painful reminder to future generations of X-Men that super-heroing is more than plain fun.
Pictures: