The X-Mansion: One Of The Top Homes For Heroes
The X-Mansion is one of the names given to the fictional location where professor Charles Xavier, founder and leader of the X-men, resides and uses as headquarters of his superhero team. The mansion plays the part of a school and training center for school-aged mutants and some adults with those same characteristics in a few instances. The building goes by many names including Xavier Institute for Higher Learning, Xavier’s School for Gifted Youngsters and recently the Jean Grey School for Higher Learning.
The mansion first appeared in the very first issue of X-Men back in 1963 and has always been instrumental to the storyline of this group of gifted mutants created by Stan Lee; comic-book writer, editor, publisher, media producer, television host, actor and former president and chairman of Marvel Comics.
In the comic books, the mansion is located at 1407 Graymalkin Lane, Salem Center (town of North Salem), located in the northeast corner of Westchester County, New York. It has belonged to Xavier’s family for generations before he inherited it.
The mansion has always been a haven for mutants, human beings who possess a genetic trait called an X-gene that allows the mutant to naturally develop superhuman powers and abilities. According to the comic book, mutants are mistrusted, hated, feared and despised collectively by humanity for no other reason than that they are different. This fictional oppressed minority works as a metaphor for real-world people and situations, so the X-Mansion works a safe area where they can come and study, be amongst their peers and not feel that rejection they are used to feeling out in the world; rejection that occurs often even within their own families.
The house is the main training site of the two first generations of teenage X-men; groups of mutants that have been made quite popular lately thanks to film adaptations of the comic books. They are:
- The original X-Men: Cyclops, Iceman, Angel, Beast, Jean Grey, Mimic, Havok, and Lorna Dane.
- The original New Mutants: Cannonball, Wolfsbane, Mirage, Karma, Sunspot, Cypher, Magma, Magik, and Warlock, as well as Shadowcat.
The X-Mansion has been destroyed in a few occasions by enemies of the X-Men but it’s usually quickly rebuild afterwards by the team themselves.
Notable features of the house include:
- The main courtyard with the Phoenix Memorial Statue, dedicated to the memory of Jean Grey.
- The Danger Room: an obstacle course specially designed to train the X-Men, filled with traps, projectile firing devices, flamethrowers, and mechanical dangers such as presses, collapsing walls and the like intended to challenge the trainee. The Danger Room gained sentience at some point during the Astonishing X-Men (one of the many comic book series featuring the X-Men), something that made for a very interesting look at the X-Mansion.
- A collapsible basketball court that hides an underground hangar where the X-Men hold their supersonic jet amongst other means of transportation.
- Cerebro, a device that the X-Men (especially, Professor Charles Xavier) use to detect humans, specifically mutants. Cerebro takes up a very large room that is used for that particular purpose.
The house has been featured in several live-action films. Different real life buildings have been used for bringing to life the amazing mansion.
In Bryan Singer’s film, X-Men (2000), the exterior of the X-Mansion was shot at the Casa Loma, Toronto, and the Parkwood Estate at Oshawa, Ontario, Canada. Casa Loma is a Gothic Revival style house and gardens in midtown Toronto. The home has been used for several films like: Strange Brew, Chicago, The Tuxedo, Scott Pilgrim vs. the World, Warehouse 13, Twitches Too, and The Pacifier. Today is a popular venue to hold wedding ceremonies and other festivities.
In the films X2: X-Men United (2003), X-Men: The Last Stand (2006), X-Men: Days of Future Past (2014), Deadpool (2016) and X-Men: Apocalypse (2016) the exterior of the X-Mansion was filmed at Hatley Castle on the grounds of Hatley Park and Royal Roads University in Victoria, Vancouver Island, British Columbia. Hatley Park was originally part of the homelands of the Coast Salish people; the Xwsepsum (Esquimalt) and Lekwungen (Songhees) nations. The property was purchased by James Dunsmuir, who commissioned renowned Canadian architect Samuel Maclure to build a 40-room mansion in the Scottish baronial style. Hatley Castle is a Classified Federal Heritage Building.
The X-Mansion was voted as one of the most amazing superhero lairs and with good reason, the place is large enough to hold a jet, as well as some of the most incredible superheroes in the world of comic books.
For more information about superhero homes, check out Donald Burns posts about the Wayne Manor and the absolutely amazing house that inspired Tony Stark’s own mansion in Iron Man.
