Last night (Tuesday, October 13), The Haunt opened for a special one-night in celebration of the late Merlyn Linn. Anyone following this site should recognize Merlyn Linn as the man behind Linn’s Haunted House, and The Haunt is the haunted house themed speakeasy/bar operated by the folks behind The Slaughterhouse Haunted Attraction.
- Linn’s Haunted House – https://www.linnshauntedhouse.com
- The Slaughterhouse – https://slaughterhousedm.com
I would like to thank Ian von Slaughter (yes, legal name, I’ve seen his I.D.) of The Haunt for organizing this celebration of Merlyn, as well as “Lefty” and the staff that came in to operate the bar on a night they would normally be closed.
Getting there is half the fun
Our night began with finding parking. The address for the building The Haunt is located in is 500 Locust St., but the entrance to the bar is off of 5th Ave around the corner. That road is blocked for construction leaving only a few street parking spots on that side.
That white “skull” sign on the building in that photo marks the entrance of The Haunt.
The Haunt in October was new to us
When The Haunt first opened, it was closed during the season the haunted house operated. This is because the bar area itself is one of the rooms in the haunted house that visitors pass through. At some point, they began opening The Haunt on select nights during October.
For this October, they were serving their “classics” menu. As always, the place was decorated for the season.
Friends and family
The event was held from 7pm to 11pm. A large group of the Linn family joined us. Most of them were easy to spot because they wore Merlyn’s haunted house T-shirts. (If you don’t have one, they created a new version this year in Merlyn’s honor, available for order from their website — if they are still accepting orders, that is.)
Also present was Nathaniel James, former general manager of Sleepy Hollow Sports Park. It was during Nathaniel’s era out there that those haunted houses gained theme park style queues (zig zag lines and/or going through themed areas), pre-show videos, and higher tech special effects like synchronized lighting and audio (that was the area I helped with most). It was great catching up, even under a sad occasion.
There were also some familiar names I see in comments on the Linn’s Facebook page, such as Dr. Ken Andersen and Dane Andersen. I’ve met them at Linn’s many times over the years. There were many others there, too, but I am generally a wallflower at social gatherings so I didn’t speak to many folks…
Ian sets the mood
On the stage, The Haunt’s projections screen was running video loops of my old DMHauntedHouses interviews from Linn’s Supermarket. Neat. Here is the playlist if you want to check them out:
Ian started the evening off with a quick speech about the impact Merlyn had on the haunted house industry in the area. Linn’s Haunted House was an influence and inspiration for so many others to get into this business.
After this, we mostly mingled, chatted, and enjoyed the wonderfully fun beverages The Haunt offers – some that did unique things. My favorite of the night was the Dracula which had some kind of dry ice thing in the bottom of the glass which would bob up and down, pulsing as if it was a heartbeat. That was super cool.
Here’s a video (heartbeat sound effect added, of course):
A toast to Merlyn!
After some merriment, a round of drinks was passed out (port wine, I believe) then Puppet von Slaughter joined Ian on stage to give a Halloween toast for Merlyn.
An extra drink was poured for Merlyn, and placed near the organ.
And a story about Merlyn
Merlyn’s grandson-in-law (if I recall the connection properly), Bryan Baker, took the stage to shared a fun story about an encounter with Merlyn involving a bottle of whiskey he brought to a party.
And the rest?
We were only able to stay until about 8 p.m., so I will have to wait to hear what else happened as the night went on. As I hear more, I will try to update this post.
