8 The Independent
October 28, 2021
REINKE FROM PAGE 1
Outside the mansion, visitors will find a treasure trove of costumes and decor. Sarah Russett, who stumbled upon the store, chooses a mask for her Halloween costume. PHOTOS BY ROBERT TANN
A voodoo doctor hides in the shadows inside the haunted mansion.
The American Legion The World’s Largest War Time Veterans Service Organization Advocates for Veteran’s Benefits and Active-Duty service Members
A witch peers into her crystal ball inside Reinke Brothers’ haunted mansion.
Aid Veterans families and surviving spouses Involving educating the community in the American Legion’s four pillars of: • Americanism • Children & Youth • National Security • Veterans Affairs and Rehibition
Veterans’ become a member: Contact SVC Dean Casey at 303-914-5586 or email him at lorn.casey@va.gov
IF YOU GO The haunted mansion is open 6 to 10 p.m. Monday through Thursday, 6 p.m. to midnight Friday, 3 p.m. to midnight Saturday and 3 to 10 p.m. Sunday. Its last day of operation is Oct. 31. Tickets are $20 on Sunday through Thursday, $25 Friday and Saturday and $35 for a VIP ticket to skip the line any day. The haunted mansion also offers a non-scary lights-on tour for $10.
located just north of Main Street c in downtown Littleton, has for years been home to a haunted i mansion that attracts visitors of o all ages. s After a shutdown last year due s to COVID-19 restrictions, the d store’s haunted mansion has returned in full force to offer those o who dare a scare. But Reinke l promises it remains a familyW centered attraction. w “We don’t do any blood or guts, we don’t have any chain saws, R no scenes where it’s really gory,” c Reinke said. “My house is more like Disney, a lot of special effects,h w a lot of illusions.” l The mansion, which sprawls t roughly 10,000 square feet and is made up of 35 individual rooms, boasts over 1,000 moving w parts and sends frightened souls m through various worlds including f a sinister swamp and a disorientc ing tunnel engulfed by floating specters. t As visitors enter, they’ll encounter a host of ghoulish props. t A voodoo doctor waiting in the shadows. A wrinkled witch gaz- j ing into her crystal ball. Undead, t a life-size skeletal horses pulling a dark carriage from the under- b world. The attraction is imbued with t the brothers’ childhood love for h makeshift haunted houses, which t first began in their childhood t basement in 1968. R At the ages of 9 and 10, the brothers constructed a house of g horrors made from whatever they could get their hands on: A plaster skull from their older brother, their father’s footlocker for a coffin, blankets for the walls. “We caught a shopping cart fishing and cleaned it all up because I wanted to mechanize it,” Reinke said. “I thought it would be cool if we could roll people through and have control of them (so) we put them in the basket and had a strobe light in the front.” The brothers charged one penny for their guests. “I think we made maybe 30 cents one year,” Reinke laughed. But soon their haunted house graduated from the basement and began popping up in schools and local church events as the brothers built their Halloween empire. In 1984, the brothers set up their first purely commercial haunted house off Mineral and Broadway. In 2004, they bought their current store, located off South Prince Street, where their haunted mansion is housed. And the brothers haven’t lost their knack for resourcefulness. Weaving his way through the haunted mansion, Reinke points out a cut-up hose acting as a sewage drain and the lids of plastic storage containers painted to look like rusted doors. A small team of artists and technicians begins every March on the mansion, which usually changes about half its rooms each year. In late September, it opens to guests. Outside the mansion, the brothers’ store is a treasure trove of SEE REINKE, P9
