Uncle Louie’s haunted mansion

For over 40 years, my interests have included cemeteries, and building miniatures so just for fun I have built called Uncle Louie’s haunted mansion.

So, for the first time I have combined two of my work, cemetery research and building miniatures. Building a miniature haunted mansion complete with a cemetery alongside . It was built to one half scale dollhouse size and is about 40 inches tall. I have been building miniatures since 1990 and this project is the largest taking a full year to build. A miniature project should tell a story, a reason for being.

 So here is uncle Louie’s haunted mansion – the back story. Please enjoy!

Uncle Louie, retired from vaudeville, bought this old dilapidated, place, sight unseen, at auction for $3000. He was the only bidder. As the story goes, the rundown mansion was built in 1874 by a fellow named Mort, an undertaker who died in the master bedroom after a mysterious mattress fire. The place came complete with dead people in a graveyard.

Louie and his lovely third wife Mollie dreamed of turning it into a bed-and-breakfast to make ends meet. Sadly because of his depleted fortune, they could not fix or maintain it. The place has turned into a creepy nightmare. The inside of the house is condemned, dangerous and somewhat terrifying, twelve dark and dreary rooms beginning with the front parlor and an overstuffed sofa covered in a white sheet. Grandfather’s ashes are in a rusty urn on the mantle. Moldings and cornices are rotting and hideous wallpaper is peeling. An oval mirror reflects images of the dead. A clawfoot table with a vase of wilted flowers in the dining room. . Some chairs miss a leg. There is a brass spittoon in the corner. Even without electricity, the chandelier blinks on and off. The leaky plumbing in the kitchen is awful. The dishes haven’t been done in years There are water stains where there are no pipes. No one has ever ventured into the pantry.

The staircase is layered in dust, loose boards that creak for no reason. In the night, you might hear sounds of disembodied footsteps. Locked doors refuse to stay shut. Rusty doorknobs turn with no one on the other side. In the master bedroom, Uncle Louie’s four poster bed sags in the middle. The mattress is lumpy and the bedbugs left years ago. There is the blowing curtains and peeling paint. The bathroom hasn’t been used in years. The bathtub is disgusting. The attic hasbroken toys and a baby buggy covered in cobwebs. The Haunted Hilton is plagued with sudden temperature changes and foul odors of indeterminate origin. There is a scent of tobacco, but no one ever smoked. The roof leaks  the furnace has not worked in years,  steam radiators throughout the house whistle for no reason.

 Spirits linger about the house including his faithful wife Mollie, a former vaudeville dancer, who died eating poisoned mushrooms (much like his first two wives). Her funeral was in the front parlor but nobody came. She is along with Mort, the original owner.. Mollie’s ghost is often seen on the front porch during the blustery nights.

You will not find uncle Louie in any one of Chicago’s cemeteries. Uncle Louie is just a skeleton and has appeared in several of my other miniature projects. The last was, where he died sitting in the mansion’s library surrounded by 642 books. So Uncle Louie is still dead. (or is he?) his spirit lives on.

Stay tuned!

Feel free to contact me, bartonius84 at hotmail.com.

I would love to hear your comments and questions.