Saturday, February 11, 2017

The X-Men's Mansion: Xavier Institute for Higher Learning

 

Located: 1407 Graymalkin Lane in the town of Salem Center in New York State's Westchester County

Info: The Xavier's School for Gifted Youngsters is a special institute founded and led by Professor Charles Xavier to train young mutants in controlling their powers and help foster a friendly human-mutant relationship.  It is the base of operation for both the X-Men and it's sister team, the New Mutants.

The Attic: The attic of the Xavier mansion is primarily used as a storage area. However, one large room on the level is used by the X-Men's leader, Ororo Munroe, alias Storm, as her living quarters. Storm prefers this spacious attic room to the smaller rooms occupied by her fellow X-Men. "Ororo's Roost" contains her sizable collection of plants, which receive sunlight from the large overhanging skylight [first seen in X-Men (1st series) #109]. The attic also has a large "playroom," used as a recreation area, a room for communications equipment, and the stairway up to the mansion's cupola.

Second Floor:
Apart from Storm, all of th X-Men and New Mutants have their private living quarters on the mansion's second floor. Professor Charles Xavier's living quarters are on both the first and second floor; his bedroom is on the second. During Charles Xavier's absent, his living quarters were occupied by Magneto, the former head of Xavier's school mutants. The X-Men occupy the rooms on the second floor in one wing; the New Mutants occupied the second floor in the opposite wing. The New Mutant Magik and the X-Man Shadowcat share the same room. Former staff members Thomas Corsi and Sharon Friedlander also previously lived on this floor. The most frequent occupant on the second floor's guest rooms is Xavier's colleague Dr. Moira MacTaggart. The second floor also holds laundry facilities, a workshop, and a recreation area.


First Floor:
The main entrance to Xavier's mansion is on the first floor, as well as a back enterance that the residents use for access to the swimming pool and much of the rest of the estate. There are numerous surveillance and security system on the first floor (as thereare, to a lesser extent, on the other floors and throughout the estate) to alert the residents to the presence of any visitors or intruders. The first floor contains a magnificently furnish living room and main dining room, as well as a more informal dining room, used for breakfasts and lunches, and a casual sitting room, often used by visitors to the school. Charles Xavier has private living quaters on this floor as well as the second; also, on the first floor he has his study, where the principal terminal of hisCerebro machine is located, his office, from which he conducts school business, and an enormous library, where most of the school's classes are held. All of Xavier's rooms were being used by Magneto while he was in charge. the first floor also holds the mansion's main computer and kitchen facilities.

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. The main memory components of the mansion's computer system are also located here, however, and there is an entrance to a secret passageway leading to the lower levels. 


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 Grounds: Charles Xavier's estate covers an extensive area between Graymalkin Lane and Breakstone Lake. There is an Olimpic-size swimming pool directly to the rear of the mansion. Elsewhere on the property there are stables and a boathouse. Hangars and a takeoff pad for the X-Men's "Blackbird" jet are located in an area of the estate far away from public view. These facilities may be reached from the mansion by means of high-speed magnetic rail cars the travel through an underground tunnel. 

 
Boathouse: On the edge of Breakstone Lake, a boathouse was constructed. Although the mansion and underground bunker was significantly advanced, the boathouse was simple in design. Used as the newlywed home of Cyclops and Phoenix, the boathouse only contained communication technology, linking it to the mansion and bunker. It is unknown if this structure is still standing.

Cemetery: A small cemetery is located on grounds. Several former X-Men (including Jean Grey, Thunderbird, and Banshee) and former students (including Jay Guthrie, Squid-Boy, Jeffrey Garrett, and Wallflower).


Courtyard: Located within the courtyard are the baseball court and memorial statue dedicated to the memory of Jean Grey. Previously a swimming pool and a Phoenix-shaped memorial statue were located in the courtyard.


Danger Cave: Located in the caverns beneath the ground, the Danger Cave was designed by Prodigy. Utilizing hard-light hologram technology similar to the Danger Room, the Danger Cave served as a place for the New X-Men to train for combat.[43]

Hangar Bay: The Hangar Bay is an underground area for the storage of the X-Men's aircraft such as the Blackbird, Stratojet and X-Copter. Devil's Rock was originally used as the exit and entry point for the X-Men's aircraft, but since the Mansion's reconstruction, it has been relocated beneath the basketball court. Upon departure and landing, a klaxon will sound warning for anyone nearby to vacate the area. Students are advised to move immediately, once the klaxon sounds.


Morlock Tunnels: The grounds have access to the Morlock Tunnels, which are a series of abandoned military tunnels and sewer lines connecting to various locales such as New York City and New Jersey.


History: In the mid to late 1700s, the land was settled by Charles Graymalkin and his wife Marcia. Little is known about the this period, although Charles did bury his son alive after beating him nearly to death, due to finding him having intimate relations with another boy from town.Sometime between the late 1700s and early 1900s, a large Neoclassic mansion was constructed on the land near Breakstone Lake just outside of Salem Center, New York. The estate was inherited by Brian Xavier and he lived there with his wife, Sharon and their son, Charles, until Brian's untimely, accidental death. Charles Xavier was born and raised in the mansion. After Brian's death, Sharon married his once colleague, Dr. Kurt Marko. Marko and his son, Cain lived at the mansion thereafter. Sharon died not long after the marriage, and the ownership of the estate passed on to Charles. After graduating Oxford University, being drafted in the Korean War, and battling the Shadow King in Cairo, Egypt, Xavier decided to devote his life to protecting humanity from evil mutants and safeguarding innocent mutants from human oppression, believing that both could peacefully coexist. Xavier worked with fellow mutation expert, Dr. Karl Lykos, as well as Dr. Moira MacTaggert, and they began discussing the idea of founding a school for mutants. Before recruiting his first students, a mysterious man calling himself "Cable" arrived at the mansion. In exchange for teaching him about the present, Cable aided Xavier in equipping the mansion with advanced technology.

Professor Xavier's first student was the 11-year-old Jean Grey, who had been traumatized when she telepathically experienced the emotions of a dying friend. Later Xavier met Fred Duncan from F.B.I., who introduced him to a young Scott Summers. Scott soon into the mansion and, over the following months, Xavier recruited other students including Bobby Drake, Warren Worthington III and Hank McCoy. Together the formed the original X-Men. More mutants moved into and out of the mansion as the X-Men family grew. The first time the mansion was destroyed, it was during a battle with the Sidri. While the mansion was being rebuilt, the X-Men briefly relocated to an island in the Bermuda Triangle once used by Magneto. When the mansion was rebuild, it with upgraded with Shi'ar technology. The X-Mansion served as the site for several special occasions, including the marriage of Cyclops and Madelyne Pryor, the birth of their son, Nathan Summers in the kitchen,and later the marriage of Cyclops and Jean Grey.

Eventually a whole new team of New Mutants was enrolled. When Xavier was near-fatally wounded and sent into space to recover with the Shi'ar, he left the care of the school to Magneto. The mansion was later destroyed again, this time by Mr. Sinister. With the mansion left in ruins, the X-Men relocated to Cooterman's Creek in Australia, X-Factor remained in the X-Factor Complex in New York City, and the New Mutants briefly resided on X-Factor's ship before moving into the subterranean levels under the ruins of the mansion under the leadership of Cable.

Only after Professor X's return from space, and the reuniting of the X-Men was the mansion rebuilt. To upgrade the mansion's technology, Professor X asked Forge. The upgrades included fitting the Danger Room with hard-light holographic technology, constructing a hangar for a new Blackbird, update Cerebro's software. A war room was also added to the subterranean levels. While installing the upgrades, the Danger Room spoke to Professor X and asked, “Where am I?”. Realizing that the Danger Room had mutated and become sentient, but still needing to train his X-Men, Professor Xavier made the choice to ignore and hide the lifeform. After being attacked by Sentinels, the villain White Queen was left in a coma and cared for in the medical bay.

When Emma Frost finally awoke from her coma, she and Banshee decided to convert her Massachusetts Academy into a new "School for Gifted Youngsters" and train Generation X. Professor X agreed to pass on the title while his ancestral home was renamed the Xavier Institute for Higher Learning. While the Massachusetts Academy operated as a training facility for younger mutants, the Institute acted as the headquarters of the X-Men.

During Operation: Zero Tolerance, Bastion forced Jubilee to reveal the Mansion's defenses, then stripped down the mansion, having nearly everything inside removed. After defeating Bastion, the X-Men moved back into the mansion and restocked it. After Scott learned that Cable was his infant son returned from the future an adult, Cyclops offered X-Force a headquarters at the mansion. After finding him hiding from the genocide of his own race superiors, Professor X gave Fiz, an alien Skrull, temporary asylum at the mansion.

Under the influence of Cassandra Nova, Professor Xavier publicly outed himself as a mutant. After this revelation, the Xavier Institute once again opened its doors to students, this time with a greatly increased enrollment. To house the new students, an X-shaped dormitory was built behind the mansion. Because Cerebro gained a nanotech body and was eventually destroyed, Professor X and Beast created Cerebra to serve as their new mutant tracking, telepathic computer. The school continued to face challenges from outside, such as protesters and the fanatic cult, the U-Men, but they also faced challenges from within, such as a possessed Professor X, a student-led riot, and Xorn forming a new Brotherhood of students and destroying the mansion. Prior to its destruction, Professor X decided that at the end of the term he would step down as Headmaster and pass the reins onto Jean Grey. Unfortunately, Jean died in the confrontation with Xorn.


After the mansion was destroyed by Xorn posing as Magneto,Professor X left the school to attempt to rebuild Genosha. Cyclops and Emma Frost became co-headmasters and rebuilt the school with a new larger design, using funds from Angel. The student body of the Institute was divided into training squads and assigned an X-Man mentors. After manipulating a student into committing suicide, the sentient Danger Room obtained a body and departed the school.

In the wake of M-Day, only 27 students retained their mutant powers. Many depowered students left immediately. Emma and Cyclops later arranged to have the remaining depowered students evacuated in secret, for their own protection, but the bus they boarded was attacked and the children were murdered by the Purifiers. After similar bombings, Cyclops ordered the closure of all X-Corp offices globally. All remaining mutants seeking help or shelter were directed to the Institute, and to protect the highest concentration of the world's remaining mutant population, the government placed Sentinels around the mansion piloted by members of the Sentinel Squad O*N*E. The grounds soon became a make shift concentration camp, and the mutants residing in the camp dubbed themselves 198.
 

All the X-Men Training Squads were disbanded, and the remaining students were pitted against each other to battle for spots on the New X-Men team. However, with most of the X-Men busy on missions and the Danger Room inoperable due to it escaping,[38] Prodigy was motivated to designed the Danger Cave, in the caverns beneath the school, utilizing hard-light hologram technology similar to the Danger Room. The school continued to be attacked by the Marauders, Belasco, Purifiers, and finally by Bishop using nanobots to control the Sentinel Squad O*N*E. They destroyed the mansion. After the final battle for the Messiah Baby and the near-death of Professor Xavier, the X-Men briefly disbanded, relocated to San Francisco and the mansion ruins were left vacant.

The school and grounds lay in ruins for some time. When Cable returned from the future with Hope Summers, they traveled to site of the school, unaware that it had been destroyed. Finding only ruins, the pair was attacked by Cameron Hodge's Smiley-Face robots. Luckily the X-Men arrived to save the pair. After Wolverine left Utopia, with many of the X-Men, he returned to the ruins of the Xavier Institute to found a new school, Jean Grey School for Higher Learning, in honor of the first student of Professor Xavier.

Headed by Wolverine and Kitty Pryde, this new school shared much of the ideological structure of its predecessor and even admitted an alien Brood. The facility was designed by Beast and incorporated Shi'ar engineering and allowed for Danger Room technology to be utilized in any area of the structure. Additionally, the facility was completely self-sufficient, generating its own power and growing its own food. On the opening day, Beast accidentally left a dimension door open and the campus was infested with inter-dimensional gremlins, called Bamfs.The school grounds were inhabited by the grandchild of the original Krakoa that asked to join the X-Men after attacking them by the orders of the Hellfire Club.

Following the reveal that the Terrigen Mists spread throughout the atmosphere of the Earth were harmful to mutants, Storm had the Jean Grey School moved to the otherworldy realm of Limbo with the help of Doctor Strange and other sorcerers, in order to protect mutants from the mists, and the growing hatred they were victims of.


Alternate Realities
Home of Mimic (Earth-12): In Mimic of the Exiles' home reality, the school looks more Spanish style, though it is still located in New York State. Residents included the X-Men, (Charles Xavier, Scott Summers, Jean Grey, Hank McCoy, Bobby Drake, Calvin Rankin, Ororo Munroe, Piotr Rasputin, Kitty Pryde, Kurt Wagner, James Howlett, and an unknown mutant). After Mimic's death, Blink returned his body to the mansion for a proper burial.

Age of Apocalypse (Earth-295): In the Age of Apocalypse, after the death of Charles Xavier, the Xavier Mansion was taken by Magneto´s and used as headquarters for his X-Men. Although the building lay in ruins, it housed devices of very high technology. It was later destroyed by Apocalypse.

Mutant X (Earth-1298): On Earth-1298, the X-Mansion was never used as a school, but did serve as the base for Magneto's X-Men before it was nuked by Nick Fury and the S.H.I.E.L.D. When Havok arrived at the mansion he found it empty except for Cerebro, who was left behind by the X-Men to care for the mansion. The mansion was later vaporized in a nuclear explosion.

Ultimate Marvel (Earth-1610): In the Ultimate universe, the school originally was funded from Magneto's inheritance. After Magneto's departure and Xavier received numerous fund donations from anonymous donors. Some of these donors included the Hellfire Club, the S.H.I.E.L.D., and the Church of the Shi'ar. The school's location was concealed by a projected image of a Jehovah's Witness Kingdom Hall. The X-Mansion was purposely demolished by Iceman.


Home of Kidpool (Earth-10330): On Earth-10330, the Xavier Orphanage for Troubled Boys is a all male school with child versions of many male X-Men and is run by Professor X, Storm and Beast. Emma Frost runs a similar, all girls school (presumably in Massachusetts). Kidpool (Wade Wilson) lived at the Xavier School until Deadpool recruited him to the Deadpool Corps.


Age of X (Earth-11326): A fake safe house for mutants was built by the Human Coalition in Westchester. Once filled up with mutant refugees, it was burned, killing all of them.

Marvel Noir (Earth-90214): Xavier School for Exceptionally Wayward Youth from X Men Noir Vol 1 1 0001. On Earth-90214, Professor Charles Xavier ran a reform school called the Xavier School For Exceptionally Wayward Youth in Westchester, New York in 1937. He took in juvenile delinquents and instead of reforming them, he trained them in various criminal talents due to his belief that sociopathy was in fact the next phase in human behavioral evolution. The school was closed down after the public learned of Xavier's unorthodox teachings when Warren Worthington III was murdered by Eric Magnus' Brotherhood, while under the cover of suicide allegedly influenced by Xavier's teachings. The school's "Danger Room" (referred on the room's door as "DANGER TRAINING IN PROGRESS") is a gym which include a shooting gallery and a lock-picking exercise.


Hulk Annihilation (Earth-91172): Known as the Institute Xavier, the remaining living heroes of Earth-91172 gather here in the ruins of the former school, and decided to have Kid Omega used Cerebra to send out a distress signal into the Multiverse for the Exiles.

Mutant Destruction (Earth-94831): The Charles Xavier Institute for Gifted Students for Higher Learning was blown up by the government in an attempt to rid the world of mutants. Magneto knew about the attack prior to the explosion, but instead of preventing the attack, he used it as an excuse to rid the entire planet of humans by crashing a meteor into the Earth.

Generation X Cinematic Universe (Earth-700029): The Xavier's School operates as a small private academy in upstate New York run by Emma Frost and Sean Cassidy, but is secretly serves as a training ground for young mutants. This school has a Cerebro-based security system and a Danger Room. It also houses Emma Frost's Dream Machine, a device allowing individuals to entire the Dream Dimension. Though it bears the Xavier name, it's relation to the Xavier Family (if any) is unknown. This school is also located near Hastings, New York. The real world Hatley Castle in British Columbia served as the site for filming the school and the filming site for the Xavier Institute in the X-Men Cinematic Universe.


X-Men: Evolution (Earth-11052): Although the X-Mansion in this reality still acts as a training facility and residents for X-Men and New Mutants, it is located in Bayville instead of Salem Center. Additionally, most of the X-Men attend the nearby Bayville High School. Bayville High School is, however, located within the Westchester School District.

Super Hero Squad Show (Earth-91119): The Xavier's School for Gifted Children (also called Mutant High) is a circular structure building with a large "X" on the roof located in Super Hero City, and is run much like a traditional public high school. The school also acts as headquarters for the X-Men. Despite seemingly only having four full-time enrolled students (Cyclops, Jean Grey, Iceman, & Colossus) and one staff member (Professor X), the school has a cheer-leading squad, football team, and school dances. Their mascot is the "Muties". Wolverine & Storm both graduated from this school, and Reptil briefly attended. The school does house a Danger Room, which also acts as a detention room, cafeteria, gym, and glee club practice room.

Spider-Man and His Amazing Friends:
In "The Origin of Iceman," a flashback showed that Iceman traveled there after being invited by Professor X to join the X-Men. In "A Firestar is Born," Iceman and Firestar return to the X-Mansion for a reunion party where they meet Storm and Wolverine. Spider-Man even arrived when Juggernaut attacks the X-Mansion to target Professor X. In "The Education of a Superhero," the X-Mansion is seen when Spider-Man, Iceman, and Firestar enlist the X-Men to continue Videoman's training.

 
X-Men Cinematic Universe (Earth-10005): As depicted in the X-Men Cinematic Feature Films, the Xavier's School operates as a private academy in upstate New York, but is secretly a training ground for mutants. The mansion is the ancestral home of the Xavier Family. It began functioning as a training site during the 1960s under the directions of Charles Xavier and Erik Lehnsherr. After Erik's departures, Xavier gave up teaching following many students being drafted to the Vietnam War, eventually coming back some years later to continue to run the mansion as a school. The mansion was destroyed as En Sabah Nur invaded to kidnap Xavier and Havok's attempt at foiling him ended hitting a generator, causing a massive explosion. Peter Maximoff saved everyone but Havok, and after En Sabah Nur's defeat, Magneto and Jean Grey helped rebuild the mansion. Real World: The real world Hatley Castle in British Columbia served as the site for filming the school in most films. In X-Men: First Class the mansion was Englefield House in England, with interiors changed to match the Hatley Castle. In X-Men: Apocalypse, the interiors were a soundstage at Montreal's Cité du Cinema.

 
The
numerous times the X-Mansion has been destroyed:
On a Christmas Eve, Kitty Pryde was hunted by a N'Garai demon. She led it on a chase through the mansion, destroying much of the interior in the process in Uncanny X-Men #143.
It was demolished in a battle with the Sidri in Uncanny X-Men #154.
It was atomized by Mister Sinister in Uncanny X-Men #243.
It was heavily damaged by Onslaught in X-Men Vol 2 #54.
It was leveled by Xorn posing as Magneto in New X-Men #147.
After the the birth of the first mutant since M-Day, it was destroyed by Sentinels in Uncanny X-Men #493.


Proposed Lego X-Man Mansion  Set, but never made.

1 comment:

Kal said...

Amazing research as usual. Everything you would ever want to know and then some.