Dutch Gardens Haunted House

Back around 1989 I moved in with a friend who was into Halloween like I was, his name is Victor Layne. He had run a haunted house at a place called Dutch Gardens for a few years and they needed a sound system for the coming season. I happened to have a very powerful system I used to DJ with so I offered to rent the system to them and install it. After I completed the installation the owner asked me if I wanted to work there for the season, which I did for the next 7 years.

Here are some pictures, the barn was 100 years old at the time and built by the Sears family. A BP gas station sites here now which to me and everybody involved is a tragedy.

We installed sound in this building and staged people to scare customers as they left out the back of the actual haunted house which was on the right of this building.

We would get a few thousand people through here a night on most nights, we hit about 7,000 which was not easy!

On weekends I played Halloween music instead of our typical sound track or kids wouldn’t go through.

The main entrance, this wall got so much abuse from us pounding on it all night!

My Skull Room, I designed it and staged it and scared people in it!

The Mummy Room, Igor (Victor Layne) designed this and many of the rooms.

Igor greeting people at the front entrance, NOBODY was better at this! I worked the inside and perimeter and helped Vic build and manage the place.

When you exited out of the haunted barn you came down this path, you thought the scares were over? Hardly!

We buried mattresses under the path and then scared the crap out of you so you couldn’t run! It was awesome!!

I got these pictures today from Vic and hope to get more soon. We had a great time entertaining people and even scared a few TV channel film crews in there! It was one of the highest rated haunted houses in Illinois during it’s run.

Stay tuned for more as we find them!