Fall and Halloween season has arrived and that means it’s once again time for a spooktacular experience at SoIN’s oldest and scariest haunted house.
New Albany’s historic and legendary Culbertson Mansion is transforming its Carriage House in the backyard into a “fang-tastic” experience known as “Literally, A Haunted House.” Get ready for an evening packed with thrills and chills.
To get you in the spirit ahead of your visit, here’s a round-up of 10 interesting and spooky things to know. In the meantime, we “witch” you a Happy Halloween season!
- This year’s theme – “Vintage Horrors” -- takes visitors back in time Victorian style and is sure to give you the heebie-jeebies. Past themes include 2019’s “Toxic,” 2018's “A House Possessed" and 2017's “Circus Inferno: The Show Must Go On,” which was based on the 1918 Hammond, Ind., Hagenbecker-Wallace Circus train wreck that killed 86 people and injured 127 others.
- Over the years, mansion staff and volunteers have reported strange and unusual occurrences in the Carriage House. These include: Electrical problems, mysterious figures moving from room to room, strange sounds after hours and missing items.
- Several staff members and past volunteers have refused to work in the Carriage House because of personal experiences with the “unexplained.”
- “Literally, A Haunted House” has been underway for more than three decades and is one of the longest-running haunts in the region.
- It takes more than nine months to plan and involves mansion staff and more than 80 volunteers.
- “Literally, A Haunted House” has been held in the Carriage House since 1987 and is the longest-running haunted house in Kentuckiana.
- Admission to the annual haunted house is the primary fundraiser for the Culbertson Mansion. To date, the event has contributed over a million dollars towards the mansion’s restoration.
- According to the website, the haunted house is not recommended for pregnant women, children under age 10, or people with asthma, heart conditions, or those who have had recent surgery.
- A few fast and fun facts about the mansion and Carriage House: They have been auctioned off at the turn of the century, saved from demolition in 1962-63 by Historic New Albany, and served as the offices for the American Legion Bonnie Sloan Post in New Albany (1946-1964).
- The Friends of Culbertson Mansion was formed in 1997, after a decade of being a volunteer group. Today, the non-profit organization serves to “promote and develop the Culbertson Mansion State Historic Site through financial contributions, historic preservation, and accurate restoration.”
“Literally, A Haunted House”
Opens the last weekend in September and is open every Friday and Saturday in October. Doors open at 7 p.m. Tickets are $15 per person and can be purchased at the ticket tent behind the Culbertson Mansion beginning at 7 p.m. on event nights. For more information: (812) 944-9600.
Find out more about the Culbertson Mansion State Historic Site and its Haunted House.
