The Annie Mansion at Monmouth University

“Is this a train station? Are we going on a train?”
“No, dear, this is Mr. Warbucks’ house.”

Annie and Grace Farrell — Annie, 1982

I didn’t have a Barbie Dream House as a kid. Instead, I had The Annie Mansion: a doll-size version of Daddy Warbucks’ mansion from the 1982 movie Annie.

To say that Annie was my first pop culture obsession could possibly be an understatement. I loved that movie as deeply as I loved Hamilton many decades later, and it’s true that you never forget your first love. Especially when you’ve watched it approximately 32 million times.

And it’s not often that you get to walk onto the set of your favorite movie, much less 20 years after the fact. But that’s what happened when I was first dating my now-husband, Dan, back in 2001.

He lived near the actual Annie mansion — AKA The Great Hall at Shadow Lawn at Monmouth University in West Long Branch, NJ — and sealed my heart by taking me to see it.

The mansion is as much a character in Annie as any of the people who inhabit it. Much of the movie action takes place within its walls, as opposed to the Hudson Street orphanage where Miss Hannigan rules with a gin-soaked fist. (The orphanage was a set on the Warner Bros. lot in Los Angeles, and you can still see the modified exterior on a studio tour!)

Since my point-and-shoot photos from our first visit have been lost to the ages, it was high time to return to the Annie mansion and document it properly.

Let’s take a trip to Long Branch and concurrently to “New York” circa 1933 through the eyes of Annie. (All screenshots taken from my computer; all photos are mine.)

The Annie Mansion: 1980 vs 2024

First, if you need a refresher, take a few minutes to watch the musical sequence “I Think I’m Gonna Like it Here” from the movie.

We initially encounter the mansion as Annie and Miss Grace Farrell arrive via the porte cochere, where the Duesenberg is parked, and walk into the Great Hall.

The initial camera pan from the floor of the Great Hall up to the stained glass ceiling still gives me the shivers, and it’s the exact same feeling I get when I walk into the actual hall with its famous grand staircase.

As the staff greet Annie and tell her what an amazing time she’s going to have in the mansion (thanks to capitalism), we travel through many of the rooms of the house.

Look closely in the dining room, AKA the Versailles Room, and you can see the kitchen in the background. The door to that space is still there, though hidden in the paneling. Is there still a kitchen behind it as well?

The pipe organ is on the Hall overlooking the main staircase, though I didn’t attempt to press any keys. The pipes are still intact behind gilded grates, which smell musty if you stick your nose into the grillwork.

The bathroom where Drake gives Sandy his bubble bath is the ladies’ lounge on the second floor, and it is a doozy. The square metal plate on the floor to the right of the tub is actually a working scale — you can see the dial on the mirror above it, though that was covered with faux marble for the movie.

Later, when Grace convinces Oliver to adopt Annie, the two are enjoying an al fresco breakfast in the Erlanger Gardens, with a view of the Roman-inspired fountains and peristyle. (Or is it a colonnade? Architecture friends?)

When Grace gets the OK and sings “We Got Annie,” she dances through a sunroom with a checkered floor that leads to the main hall space.

One of my favorite rooms only appears in the movie for a minute, when Punjab is levitating flowers for Annie’s amusement. Yes, this Orientalism/exoticism is so cringe and I can’t believe Geoffrey Holder was so underused. Anyway, here’s the Pompeii Room with its incredible mosaic fountain.

After Annie returns from her White House visit, the autocopter lands near one of the exterior fountains. As you can see, the old landscaping has given way to something very different.

For the finale, we see the opposite side of that fountain, with the facade all decked out in lights for Annie’s big Fourth of July adoption party.

The mystery of the Annie mansion pool — solved!

I originally feared that the lavish marble pool with its mirrored ceiling was no longer extant. It would have been on the lower level near the auditorium, and I was 99 percent sure the auditorium was not a revamp of the pool area. A post on Shadow Lawn from The Gilded Butler says:

On the lowest level of the home, there is a large waiting hall that opens in to the Parson’s large theatre with stage. Down the hall, the Parson’s had a two-lane bowling alley and a pool with marble walls and gold-mirrored ceiling.

HEROIC UPDATE as of June 3, 2024: I received an email from a reader named Lindsay, who informs me that the pool and bowling alley are still intact! They wrote:

“The (drained) pool and bowling alley are still there, but both currently covered with flooring to allow for use as office spaces, so you can’t view it. [ . . . . ]  I believe the pool area is to the right as you come down the basement stairs (currently a finance-area office) and I believe the bowling alley would be to the left (admission processing office).”

Even better, Lindsay confirmed that the mirrored pool ceiling remains in the office space, so now I have to finagle my way into there and check it out some way, somehow, someday. Bet your bottom dollar.

A few other places I couldn’t find or couldn’t shoot:

The entrance via the portico and the library where “Ralph and Shirley Mudge” meet Annie are now part of the university admissions offices, so I couldn’t waltz in and take photos either. But if I need to take a prospective student tour to do so, I will.

The bedrooms of Annie and Grace Farrell, as well as Warbucks’ office, are likely on the second floor and occupied by university offices. I peeked in a few doorways and saw that the wall decoration in most rooms is still intact, so this could be determined with more sleuthing.

The White House scene was also filmed here, and per the book Annie on Camera, “the mansion’s grounds were planted with a thousand rose bushes to double for the Rose Garden.” Clearly those aren’t around, and the interior scene was likely filmed in a now-office space.

Open call: If anyone from Monmouth University is reading this and wants to give me a tour of some of these spaces, or to talk more about the history of the building and its Annie connection, I’m ready when you are!