Do you know what's scary besides spiders, ghosts, and monsters? Home renovations! It can be daunting for owners to work on their respective houses, especially during Halloween season. Luckily, one couple took advantage of how their home looked like a haunted house in 1995.
In the October 25, 1995 edition of The Romeo Observer, Kirk Haverkamp wrote about how Halloween was an expanding holiday in Romeo, especially with more and more homes being decked out to celebrate the season. He highlightened a few of them, including the one seen above. This is the John McGill residence on North Bailey Street. The house was built in 1862, but fire damaged it in 1893. In 1995, Tom and Dorothy Frain owned and lived in the home, and they had been fixing it up for the last five years.
The Frains didn't mind that their place resembled a haunted house. Haverkamp describes the home as the following: "a half-finished row of shingles and some chipped paint, combined with a scarecrow, some pumpkins and shocks of corn and a large poster of three witches create an effect that's downright scary."
Judging by the picture here, I can see how spooky it is. Tom Frain seemed to enjoy that effect adding, "That's why it looks so good for Halloween."
I hope the Frains were able to fix their house with no scary things happening to them.
Happy Halloween!
To learn more about Halloween-decorated homes in Romeo, you can contact the Romeo Community Archives at rca@romemodistrictlibrary.org or call (586) 690-4890. If you want to search for articles on that topic, you can find the Romeo newspapers like The Romeo Observer on the Suburban Library Cooperative's Local History Digital Collection website.
Images and sources courtesy of the Romeo Community Archives; Melvin E. and Joan D. Bleich Collection, The Romeo Observer, October 25, 1995, p.1-B