Are the mansion exteriors based on real houses?
Yes! The Disneyland façade is probably based on several real structures. Stanton Hall in Natchez, Mississippi, the Evergreen House in Maryland, and another Baltimore mansion, the Shipley-Lydecker House, all bear similarities to the final Mansion exterior. Imagineers (notably Ken Anderson, to whom Walt Disney assigned primary artistic responsibility for “Haunted House” concepts in 1957) actually visited Evergreen House to collect details. The other Baltimore source structure was depicted in an architectural resource collection used at WED (you can see the photo of the house at DoomBuggies.com). Interior and initial concept details for the attraction (like the endless hallway) were gleaned during at least one visit by Anderson to Sarah Winchester’s Llanada Villa in San Jose, California. The Walt Disney World and Tokyo Disneyland façades incorporate elements of several different periods. They’re partially influenced by the Harry Packer Mansion in Jim Thorpe, Pennsylvania, and by a drawing
