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The Search for the Banyan Manor (Part 1)

banyon.jpgSeattlest has often spent entire weekends staring in to space, fantasizing about what it would be like to be a live-in butler at a sorority house. Imagine our surprise when we found just such an opportunity on Craigslist, a posting since tragically deleted before Seattlest could archive the gem…but not before submitting our resume. Despite their feeble assertion to the contrary, the Banyan Manor is the manifestation of all of Seattlest’s hopes and dreams.

The application process for this job/housing position includes the filling out of a "profile", a series of roommate compatibility questions preceded by the helpful confidence-booster, "There is no right or wrong answeres." While the usefulness of that statement momentarily distracted Seattlest from an ESL-induced sense of de ja vu, no amount of broken-English affirmations could prepare us for the Manor’s "computer room."

Seattlest received a response to our inquiry from the Banyan Manor’s own "Bev," whose true role at the Manor remains a total mystery. Emails were exchanged, hopes were raised, and finally, on April 27th, the message arrives assuring Seattlest that we are a "top contender" and we may attend a special applicant screening process taking place that night, for some reason, at a Starbucks that actually exists.

Unfortunately, Seattlest had a prior commitment that evening to meet people holding our place in line for a free movie screening to which Seattlest held the requisite passes. The Banyan Manor graciously allowed us to send our supervisors from our day job as our "proxy." Seattlest provided cab fare to these supervisors, ensured that a camera would be taken for glorious money shots of competing applicants, and looked forward with Christmas Eve like glee to the following day.

(To Be Continued…)

Contact the author of this article or email tips@seattlest.com with further questions, comments or tips.
By Matt Silvie in , on May 11, 2005 11:00 AM

Comments [rss]

  • reeling to this day

    Holy Shit! I thought I was alone in knowing about this place. This guy and his wife are frickin' nuts. They pretended to be ultra religious and that we were supposed to follow all these "rules" that were only meant to trick you into believing you had broken some rule that you were going to lose your deposit over. Everyone loses their deposits. These reviews are all too nice.

  • recovered banyanite

    hey I used to live in the banyan manor. that was the craziest place ever!!! one night, i woke up to a mouse beside my bed and i screamed and no one cared. then for 4 months, Sean had put those blasted sticky mouse traps in my room. the only thing that got stuck to those damn things we're my nice stuff goddamnit! all the girls were bitches and catty as hell. one refuses to talk to me because i moved out. the kitchen was nasty. there were like 400 shelves of food as if we were preparing for armageddon. Sean would walk in on my boyfriend and I, even though the door was closed shut and we told him to hold on. he wore this black witch hat with a feather atop it, black sweatshirts, and black stretch pants. EVERY DAY. i swear it was the same black stretch pants and sweatshirt. at least we had a hugeass party there with like 250 people, which was the party of the century, and prob the best thing that manor had. now that i've been out of that shithole for 6 months, its been a constant source of entertainment and laughter to this day!!! that place would be the shit if it wasn't ran by a frickin' ass weirdo.

  • john doe

    Yes, yes... I was one of these 'houseboys' and it really sucked. The owner dude, Sean, was always telling lies and twisting the truth and trying to start drama between me and the girls of the house. He'd show up at odd hours, spend all day long at the house and break a bunch of stuff and make a mess and then get mad if I didn't clean it up! He'd show up in the middle of the night and come crashing around with his ~350 lbs. body.

    ATTENTION: Don't move in there whatever you do! The house is infested with rats and bugs and the power is liable to go out every night and it'll always be too hot or too cold. The neighborhood is ghetto creepy and some of the windows got shot out once while I was there and that's not even close to all that's happened.

  • Black Sheep

    The Banyan Manor was a hellhole! The house is/was infested with bugs, and the owners ARE CRAZY! They are lying and manipulative and they only like you if you do everything they say and agree with them, ALL THE TIME! I got out of there as soon as I could and I don't recommend it for anyone!

  • jane doe

    I lived at the Banyan house for 10 months. it was a great 10 months living w/the wonderful women that were there at the time but Please BEWARE, the owners are scary, really. The only reason I and many others, incidentally, left was b/c the owners did not uphold their promise to the 10 women who lived there. Also, we saw 3 "house boys" as the owners called them, come and go. Please, do not think of living here, it all sounds good, but in the end, the owners Bev, Sean, and Simon O'Eberhardt kept my security deposit and harrass me to this day over some "agreement" in which i never agreed to. Don't do it, it's the biggest scam ever.

  • banyan sorority girl

    I used to live in the infamous banyan manor. its quite the place.

  • Ann

    So I actually responded to the ad and checked out the place. At first I was skeptical of it all, and I actually was desperate to find someone else to go with me to check out the place. But all my friends weren't available. Anyway, I checked it out and it's actually fine. It's a big house, with room for 10 tenants to live in there. It's definitely not as fabulous as the pictures, but it is still a nice place and in a nice location. In order to protect the privacy of the girls, the website designer doesn't post pictures of them. I found out that the story that says how the manor came into being is actually true, so that's nice. Anyway I'd encourage to check it out.

  • Sarah

    Where is Part 2? I've seen that ad a gazillion times and everytime I read it I get the sense I'd be signing up to live in a brothel or strange Stepford-esque cult.



    I'm dying to know what happened.

  • That msn.com site makes interesting reading, You just can't get good help these days!

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