The various HQs of the Avengers.
written by Torsten B. Abel

AVENGERS MANSION, art by Eliot R Brown. Located in Manhattan, New York City. First appeared in AVENGERS #2 (Nov 63) AVENGERS COMPOUND (West Coast Avengers), art by John Byrne/Mike Machlan. Located in Los Angeles. First appeared in AVENGERS #1 (Sep 84) AVENGERS UNDERGROUND HEADQUARTER, art by Paul Ryan/Tom Palmer. Located in Manhattan, New York City. Temporary used as HQ in AVENGERS #312 (Dec 89)

Avengers Mansion was, as already noted, first seen in The Avengers (vol. 1) #2 (November 1963). The three-story-house's original location was 890 Fifth Avenue in Manhattan, New York City, it was built by Howard Stark (I guess the "built in 1932" can no longer be regarded as official, since it would mean that Tony's father had to be more than 50 years old at the time of Tony's birth!). Tony later donated it to the Avengers. The mansion was massively reworked and moved several times, it was even moved to Hydrobase (see below) and sank together with said floating island to the ground of NYC's harbor in Avengers (vol. 1) #311 (December 1989). In Avengers (vol. 1) #375 (June 1994), a Watcher named Ute miraculously recreated it from scratch at its original location.

Hydrobase (also known as "Avengers Island"), an artificial, floating Island in the Atlantic Ocean, was first seen in Sub-Mariner #61 (May 1973). It originally belonged to Dr. Herman Frayne, also known as the villain Dr. Hydro, rumor goes the Inhuman/Deviant hybrid Maelstrom was involved in its creation. After Frayne's death, oceanographer Dr. Walter Newell (aka Stingray) took residence on the island. In The Avengers (vol. 1) #262 (December 1985), he loaned part of it to the Avengers who originally used it as an airbase for their Quinjets.

After the mansion was heavily damaged by the Masters of Evil during the "Mansion Siege" storyline, the Avengers began using Hydrobase as their new headquarters in The Avengers (vol. 1) #278 (April 1987). Later, they even brought their mansion to Hydrobase and moved the island into NYC's harbor. Hydrobase (and the mansion) finally sank to the ground of the harbor in Avengers (vol. 1) #311 (December 1989) after being attacked by Dr. Doom's robots (part of the "Acts of Vengeance" crossover).

The West Coast Avengers took residence in the Avengers Compound in West Coast Avengers (vol. 1) #1 (September 1984). Located at Palos Verdes Drive 1800 at the Pacific shore south of Los Angeles, the 15 acres estate was originally built for Moira Brandon, a silent movie star of the 20ies, and later donated to Hawkeye and his team by her (the Official Handbook of the Marvel Universe from 1985 identified her as "Sylvia Powell" and claims she had died in 1969 which is now to be considered incorrect). It was abandoned after the team disbanded in Avengers West Coast #102 (January 1994).

The "cellar" HQ was actually the underground levels of the Avengers Mansion's original location. After the mansion had sunken to the habor's ground together with Hydrobase, the Avengers started to use the underground levels as their temporary HQ in Avengers (vol. 1) #312 (December 1989) and remained there until the new HQ was finished.

The new HQ was built beginning ca. Avengers (vol. 1) #314 (February 1990) above the underground levels of the original Avengers Mansion and officially opened in Avengers (vol. 1) #332 (May 1991). It was later destroyed by Proctor (a mad Black Knight from another reality) in Avengers (vol. 1) #373 (April 1994).

(Vu: I never really had a big Avengers collection, sorry I'm a DC-guy! The only Avengers that I collected are exclusively had George Pérez or John Byrne on the title - so I am in search of scans for the other Avengers Headquarters, please feel free to email me )