South Ashfield Heights

"This is our apartment building, but... now it looks like some kind of nightmare.
 * —Eileen Galvin to Henry Townshend"

South Ashfield Heights is an apartment building located in South Ashfield and a major location in Silent Hill 4: The Room. Frank Sunderland is its superintendent. South Ashfield Heights is very close to South Ashfield Station and Hotel South Ashfield. The apartment building has a history of inexplicable events.

Design
The apartment complex is U-shaped in design and consists of 18 individual apartments. The lobby contains the only entrance and exit of the apartment building and has a long staircase that leads to the second and third floors.

History
Frank Sunderland has been the superintendent of South Ashfield Heights since it was built about 40 years before the events of the game.



6 years later, a couple living in Room 302 had a baby and abandoned him in the living room moments after he was born. It was speculated by the building superintendent, Frank Sunderland, that they may have had financial troubles or had gotten themselves into danger.

Frank found the baby and gave him to St. Jerome's Hospital, which sent him to the Wish House Orphanage. He was given a name, Walter Sullivan, and eventually came to believe that Room 302 was his mother. Walter would often visit South Ashfield Heights to find his "mother", but was never able to find her. Another resident, Richard Braintree, often noticed Walter hanging around in the apartments, and would scare him away.

Another incident involved a resident named Mike accidentally bumping into Richard's shoulder in the corridor of the apartment. Mike was dragged to Richard's apartment room, Room 207, by the collar of his shirt, where Richard "peeled" Mike's skin off by beating him up and taking his clothes off. The residents gathered around Room 207, and a naked Mike ran out the door. Right after, Richard came out, holding Mike's shirt and jeans soaked in blood. A drunk kept Mike's shirt and another resident used his jeans to wrap up the body of her dead cat. Richard noticed a little kid in the crowd, Walter Sullivan, and told him angrily to go away.

About a couple decades later, Frank witnessed a man wearing a coat hanging around Room 302, and confirmed there were signs of someone having been in there. Frank began to have dreams of the man crying and calling for his mother.

If the 21 Sacraments ending is achieved, Henry's radio turns on with a news bulletin announcing the deaths of Eileen, Henry, along with five police officers and Frank Sunderland in South Ashfield Heights. Residents of the apartment building were evacuated to St. Jerome's Hospital, complaining of severe chest pain.

1st floor
(East side)

Room 101 — A gun enthusiast who collects many types of model guns. He has an allergy to cats, and his allergy led him to shoot a woman's cat who lived next door. He was interested in Richard's Revolver.

Room 102 — A woman who "loved cats too much and missed her chance to get married". After her neighbor killed one of her cats, she mourned its death, wrapped its body in jeans and stored it in her refrigerator.

Room 103 — Unknown

Room 104 — Unknown

(West side)

Room 105 — Frank Sunderland, the superintendent of South Ashfield Heights. He mistakenly thought Mike was Rachel's boyfriend.

Room 106 — Rachel. She was stalked by Mike, and was in love with a painter in 202.

Room 107 — A man who listens to great music, but lived under Richard Braintree. If the player looks out Room 302's window, and looks under Richard Braintree's window, the man under his room having a epileptic attack is him.

2nd floor
(East side)

Room 201 — Unknown

Room 202 — A painter who painted many of the residents in his apartment building. He was in love with Rachel.

Room 203 — A noisy alcoholic who was always drinking and fighting.

Room 204 — A woman who was always eating something. She was a great cook.

(West side)

Room 205 — A video gamer who recorded a cassette tape of Mike getting his skin peeled off by Richard Braintree. There are dumbbells in his room and a bike outside his door.

Room 206 — A family with many children who live next to Richard Braintree.

Room 207 — Richard Braintree. He lives directly across from Henry. Richard brought Mike into his apartment room, removed his clothes and beat him.

3rd floor
Room 301 — Mike. He loved pornography and had many porno magazines. He was perverted and stalked Rachel, leaving many love letters in her mail box.

Room 302 — Henry Townshend. Room 302 is Walter Sullivan's birthplace. It was previously Joseph Schreiber's room, until he mysteriously disappeared. This is the room Walter believes is his "mother".

Room 303 — Eileen Galvin.

Room 304 — A nice, sweet old couple. They own two dalmatian statues, a recurring item in the series.

Creator commentary
"The game is set in the U.S., but our goal in designing the room was to give it a sense of reality - like you were really living there during the time you were playing the game. I think that even in everyday life, there are many things you encounter throughout the day that can give you a sense of fear, but in the Silent Hill series, it’s a matter of how much of a sense of everyday life and reality we can make the player really feel."

- Masashi Tsuboyama

Trivia

 * When Walter is seen in the third floor hallway of the building, there are no any traces of blood on his clothes or face. However, when Walter sits on the stairs, he looks the same as he will look in the hospital world after operating on a patient. Through the peephole, Henry can see a clean version of Walter.


 * Ceilings in Walter's Otherworlds rooms and in Henry's room have different heights.


 * A slightly modified model of the bars fence from Wood Side Apartments from Silent Hill 2 reappears in nurse Rachel's room 106.


 * The doll of the baby appears in the child's bed next to the teddy bear in room 206 on the second visit of the apartments.




 * In Anne's Story, Anne Marie Cunningham and Mark Cunningham are seen in a house or apartment that looks very similar to Room 302, possibly implying that they moved into Room 302 after Henry, or lived in South Ashfield Heights at the least. This would give an in-universe basis and reason for Room 302 manifesting itself in Downpour.
 * When looking outside Room 302's window, two buildings to the left of the Bar Southfield sign that are visible during the day mysteriously vanish during the night. This could be due to developers forgetting to add in the textures.

Core
South Ashfield Heights