First Commercial Haunted House
This is the season where we love to be scared. We decorate our homes and yards in scary themes and many folks head to the local commercial Haunted House. But at one time, there wasn’t a commercial haunted house to attend.
In 1968, Sally Witt was a District President and a member of the Farmington Jaycee Auxiliary. In those days the Jaycee organization was comprised of two distinct groups, the Jaycees (men) and the Jaycee Auxiliary (women). Sally had been looking for a fundraiser and while browsing though a Jaycee magazine read about a group on the west coast that had created a haunted forest or barn and she thought, what a great idea, let’s do a haunted house!
So, Sally brought the idea to the Jaycee side of the organization and was told “Sally, that will never make money”. So she brought it to the Farmington Jaycee Auxiliary and said “we have a fundraising project”. That was the starting point. Sally found a house on Grand River Ave near Drake Rd that was going to be torn down to clear the land for an apartment development. The owner allowed the Auxiliary to use the house anyway they wanted, to include knocking down walls, etc.
A Haunted House had been found!
The Auxiliary members (and many spouses) immediately started and planning a design. They needed a looping route through the house so they punched holes through the walls to make a continuous forward path. In todays world it would never have passed as OLSHA safe, because they literally knocked holes through and didn’t patch the openings. But it worked. To make sure everyone stayed safe, the tour sizes were kept small and each had a guide.
Some of the rooms I remember… one upstairs bedroom had a massive paper maché spider in the corner. It was painted with florescent paints and a blacklight was used. Mild by todays standards but scary enough for the very first time. There was a room with an actor in the closet to “surprise grab at” the visitors, and other rooms.
My favorite and direct connection to the event was the coffin that sat in the living room – the first room visitors would encounter. Because Sally was my mother, and most likely because no one else really wanted to lay in the coffin, I was allowed the role. The instructions were simple, the guide would lead the visitors into the room and then knock on the top of the coffin. At that point I was supposed to stick my arm out of the coffin covered with a scary looking rubber glove. Sorry but even though I was only 12 years old, I knew that was boring. So…I decided to change things up, except I was in the coffin and didn’t have any way of making a suggestion, so I just did it. The hardest part was not giggling, because I was excited about my change (and I was only an excited kid). While inside the coffin I could hear the group enter the room and could hear the guide speaking. He knocked on the lid. Nothing happened and I tried really, really hard to be quiet. He knocked again, same result. At that point I could hear him say something like “oh well, Dracula must be on a coffee break”. I could hear the shuffling as the group turned to leave for the next room ... and then I stuck out the rubber hand and heard wonderful screams! One more group came through before the guides caught on and then it became routine. Lead group into the first room, knock on the coffin, say something like “he must not be home” and turn to leave for the scare to happen. It was an awesome night and I was thrilled they allowed me to be in the first coffin, because it took a 12 year old how to work the coffin scare!
The event continued each night until Halloween, folks only paying 25 cents a person and lining up to be scared, by going through the first commercial Haunted House. After everything was said and done, the Auxiliary made $4,000 – and the idea was officially designated as “Jaycee Project”. It was written up in the Jaycee annuals and adopted by other Jaycee groups all across the country. Now it’s become an annual ritual and is a billion-dollar industry. All the more amazing, because it all started out as a Jaycee Auxiliary Fundraiser, and an idea from Farmington’s Sally Witt. Submitted by Bob Witt